Moments

Kozlowski 100th
O

n April 26, 2020, Marvin Kozlowski 
celebrated his 100th birthday. 
Given the circumstances, he was 
surrounded by his family in a less conven-
tional way — via video conference. His 
wife, Edith; children, Jay (the late Linda) 
(Renee), Ruthie and Joe (Jill); grandchil-
dren, Rachel, Anna (Bryan), David, Julia, 
Max and Ben; and great-grandchild, Elliot, 
look forward to putting on a true party 
for Marvin very soon. A resident of West 
Bloomfield, Marvin has packed a ton of 
life into his 100 years. After surviving the 
Holocaust, he and Edith reconnected in the States and were married in 
1950. Together, they created a beautiful family and instilled their values 
in its members. The family looks forward to celebrating more simchahs 
together. 
Sevy-Mizrachi
D

uring these unusual times, we 
have a mitzvah to announce. 
Michael Sevy, son of Cathy and 
Robert Beau Sevy of West Bloomfield, 
and Estie Mizrachi, daughter of Caroline 
and Simon Mizrachi of Boca Raton, 
Fla., were married on March 22, 
2020. 
They were married on the terrace at 
B’
nai Torah Congregation with social 
distancing being observed. The ecstatic 
couple reside and work in Miami, Fla. 

Babyov-Safran
T

he intermediate days of 
Passover were filled with 
happiness as we celebrated 
our freedom and redemption and 
we commemorated our new lives 
post slavery. Our beautiful tradition 
teaches that one’
s “cup should 
overflow.” So it is with immense 
gratitude, excitement and pure 
happiness that we share that our cup is indeed overflowing with joy and 
extraordinary enthusiasm. Esther Babyov and Hy Safran are blessed to 
announce that they are engaged to be married.
The kallah (bride) is the daughter of Rabbi Sander and Sarah Babayov. 
The chattan (groom) is the son of Diane Steinman and Jim Safran. 
The couple intend to celebrate their marriage this summer and will 
then reside together in Greater Detroit as active members of our Jewish 
community. 

18 | APRIL 30 • 2020 

I

n this week’
s story, we discern 
two ideological positions. 
Both were antithetical to 
everything Moses stood for. 
Keep these two things in 
mind:. First, the command-
ment to wear ritual fringes on 
four-cornered garments (tzitzit), 
serves as an introduction to and 
eventual rebuttal of the 
movements that Korach, 
and Datan and Aviram 
represent.
Secondly, Moses’
 
announcement that the 
entire generation, except 
for Joshua and Caleb, was 
condemned to die in the 
desert made the Hebrews 
ripe for rebellion.
Korach uses the argu-
ment of “equality in holi-
ness” against Moses and 
Aaron: “Why must you set 
yourselves up to be on a 
higher plane than the congrega-
tion of the Lord?”
Korach rejects the unique 
status of Aaron and his sons 
as Kohanim. He would also 
deny any distinction in holiness 
between different lands, refusing 
to recognize the special sanctity 
of the Land of Israel. 
Korach rejects the priesthood 
and the idea that the entire “des-
ert-generation” must be pun-
ished for their refusal to conquer 
the Land of Israel. Korach’
s view: 
These are false claims instituted 
by Moses rather than reflections 
of the true will and word of God. 
Korach justifies the Israelites’
 
desire to remain in the desert 
precisely because of the desert’
s 
holiness. 
Moses is willing to call 
Korach’
s bluff. He instructs him 
to take 250 men the next day 
and to provide each of them 
with a firepan and incense for a 

special “priestly” offering to see 
whose offering would be accept-
able to God. The Divine decision 
was not long in coming: “
A fire 
came down from God and it 
consumed the men who were 
offering the incense,
” including 
Korach himself.
God wants us to establish a 
nation-state and to take 
responsibility to perfect an 
imperfect world, with all 
the challenges that entails. 
This is the message of the 
ritual fringes. When we 
gaze upon them, we must 
remember our true mis-
sion: to enter history, to 
risk impurity by taking up 
the challenges of the real 
world and to assume our 
responsibility to become a 
“sacred nation and king-
dom of priest-teachers” to 
the world.
Datan and Aviram had a 
different agenda. They never 
wanted to leave Egypt in the first 
place; but unlike Korach, the 
last thing they want is to remain 
behind in the desert. They 
would love to assimilate. They 
believe that this desert fiasco jus-
tifies their earlier opposition. 
They, too, are punished by 
God, who causes the earth for 
which their materialistic spirits 
yearned so mightily to swallow 
them up alive. Because of their 
passion for physical pleasures, 
they never learn to look properly 
upon the ritual fringes. They saw 
neither the royal blue of their 
majestic ancestry nor the sap-
phire blue of the Divine presence 
in the world summoning us to 
His service. 

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is chancellor of Ohr 
Torah Stone and chief rabbi of Efrat, 
Israel.

 Parshat 

Acharey Mot/ 

Kedoshim:

Leviticus 

16:1-20:27;

Amos 9:7-15.

Rabbi Shlomo 
Riskin

Spirit
torah portion

What Is Holiness?

