APRIL 22 • 2021 | 27

Amelia Jane Lippitt 
will chant from the 
Torah on the occa-
sion of her bat 
mitzvah at Temple 
Israel in West 
Bloomfield on Saturday, April 
24, 2021. She will be joined in 
celebration by her proud par-
ents, Denise and Ron Lippitt, 
and siblings Maureen and 
Caroline. She is the loving 
grandchild of Elaine and David 
Lippitt, Marjie and Steve Ziff, 
Linda and Ken Rudisel, and the 
late Don Messing. 
Amelia attends Clifford 
H. Smart Middle School in 
Commerce Township. As part 
of her mitzvah project, she 
found joy in participating in a 
letter-writing campaign for res-
idents of assisted living via the 
United Way of Michigan.

Emma Claire 
Schwartz, daughter 
of Naomi and 
Nicholas Schwartz, 
will chant from the 
Torah as she 
becomes a bat mitzvah at 
Temple Israel in West 
Bloomfield on Saturday, April 
24, 2021. She will be joined in 
celebration by her siblings Levi 
and Avi and her proud grand-
parents Sandy and Paul 
Schwartz, and Mary and Robert 
Garver. 
She is a student at West 
Bloomfield Middle School in 
West Bloomfield. For her mitz-
vah project, Emma partnered 
with the United Way and raised 
donations to purchase essential 
baby supplies for local needy 
families. She was able to provide 
two months of baby supplies to 
30 area families.

 

Benjamin Elliott 
Sherman, son of 
Lisa and Mark 
Sherman, will 
chant from the 
Torah on the occa-
sion of his bar mitzvah on 
Friday, April 23, 2021, at Temple 
Israel in West Bloomfield. He is 
the loving grandchild of Carol 
and Gary Kushner, the late 
Sandy Brenner, the late Denny 
Brenner and the late Murray 
Sherman.
Benjamin is a student at West 
Hills Middle School. He orga-
nized a raffle to raise funds for 
an animal rescue organization 
as part of his mitzvah project. 

Skylar Alexandra 
Thurswell, daugh-
ter of Jennifer and 
Larry Thurswell, 
will lead the con-
gregation in prayer 
as she becomes a bat mitzvah at 
Temple Israel in West 
Bloomfield on Saturday, April 
24, 2021. Joining in her celebra-
tion will be her brother Luke 
and proud grandparents Lynn 
and Harvey Rubin, and Gerald 
Thurswell. She is also the 
granddaughter of the late 
Galina and Alexander Pavlov. 
 Skylar is a student at Derby 
Middle School in Birmingham. 
As part of her most meaningful 
mitzvah project, she creat-
ed a Facebook event to raise 
funds for the Reuben Phoenix 
Schostak Congenital Heart 
Center Research Fund.

SPIRIT

A Time to Mourn 
and Find Strength
W

e stand today at a 
liminal moment, 
a moment that is 
neither here nor there. 
Every day, somewhere 
between 3-4 million 
people are getting vac-
cinated in the United 
States, and we are 
moving closer to the 
day when we can begin 
a “post-pandemic life” 
(whatever that may 
be for each of us). At 
the same time, we are 
still in the thick of a 
pandemic that has 
destroyed so much and 
taken so many lives. 
In this week’s parshah, we 
receive what is one of the key 
pieces that makes up the DNA 
of the Jewish soul. Parshat 
Kedoshim begins with the 
words: “Speak to the whole 
Israelite community and say 
to them: ‘You shall be holy, 
for I, the Lord your God, am 
holy.
’” Holiness can have many 
manifestations, but they all 
share in that they are ways that 
we, through our actions, reveal 
God’s light in the world. 
So, how do we, in this time 
of liminality, continue to find 
holiness and God’s light? Do 
we mourn and focus on all 
that we have lost, bringing 
comfort to one another, or do 
we charge forward looking at 
how we can rise stronger and 
more brilliant than we were 
before? 
Part of the answer is found 
in a new understanding of the 
Torah portion we read two 
weeks ago, where Aaron’s two 
sons are killed. When Aaron is 

confronted with the death of 
his sons the Torah is very terse 
in describing his response: 
vayidom Aharon. Most 
translations render these 
two words as “
Aaron 
was silent.
” He was silent 
because he needed to 
bury his own feelings 
in order to fulfil his job 
of leading the people 
in prayer. In this heart- 
wrenching episode, 
Aaron is silent. 
Yet, as R. Shai Held 
teaches, the root of vay-
idom is d-m-m, which 
can mean to be still/
silent and can also mean 
to mourn, moan or wail. Is it 
possible that Aaron reacted as 
we might expect any parent 
whose children die? He cries 
out in utter agony.
In this moment of liminal-
ity, we must find a way to live 
with both meanings of vay-
idom. We all must acknowl-
edge what has been taken 
from us, mentally, physically 
and spiritually. We must be 
able to see and empathize with 
the pain that each of us feels at 
different times.
At the same time, we must 
drive forward, recognizing the 
task which we have been given 
as we recite in the second 
paragraph of the aleinu l’taken 
ha-olam b’malchut Shaddai 
— to repair and build a better 
world filled with God’s light 
and a holiness that we can all 
share into the future. 

Rabbi Shalom Kantor is the rabbi of 

Congregation B’nai Moshe in West 

Bloomfield.

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi 
Shalom 
Kantor

Parshat 

Achrey Mot/

Kedoshim: 

Leviticus 16:1-

20:27; Amos 

9:7-15.

