SEPTEMBER 16 • 2021 | 31

MAZEL TOV!

Maxx Wyatt 
Lyngaas, son of 
Sarah and Brian 
Lyngaas, will be 
called to the 
Torah as a bar 
mitzvah on Saturday, Sept. 
18, 2021, at Temple Beth El 
in Bloomfield Township. He 
will be joined in celebration 
by his brother Drew and 
proud grandparents Andrea 
and Richard Ketchel, and 
Mary-Ellen and Karl Lyngaas. 
Maxx is an eighth grader 
at Derby Middle School in 
Birmingham. For his mitz-
vah project, he prepared 
kits for science program-
ming through the SPARKS 
Foundation. 

Jaymie Rose 
Miller will lead 
the congregation 
in prayer on the 
occasion of her 
bat mitzvah at 
Temple Israel in West 
Bloomfield on Saturday, 
Sept. 18, 2021. She will be 
joined in celebration by her 
proud parents, Emilia and 
Jeffrey Miller, and sister Arin. 
Jaymie is the loving grand-
child of Alla and Alex Segal, 
and Marlene and Alex Miller. 
She is the great-grandchild 
of the late Shirley and Saul 
Lederer, the late Maryana 
and Yevgeny Amelkin, the 
late Rachel and Max Miller 
and the late Hava and Lazar 
Segal.
Jaymie is a student at 
West Hills Middle School in 
Bloomfield Hills. Among her 

many mitzvah projects, she 
found it most meaningful to 
volunteer with and donate 
tzedakah to the Adaptive 
Sports and Fitness program 
at University of Michigan.

Bradley Philip 
Zuckerman, son 
of Stephanie 
Zeskind and 
Adam 
Zuckerman, will 
lead the congregation in 
prayer as he becomes a bar 

mitzvah on Saturday, Sept. 
18, 2021, at Temple Israel in 
West Bloomfield. He will be 
joined in celebration by his 
brothers Ari and Ethan and 
proud grandparents Sandy 
and Jay Zeskind, and Beverly 
and Steve Zuckerman. 
Bradley is a student at 
Bloomfield Hills Middle 
School. For his most 
meaningful mitzvah proj-
ect, he read books to 
children in Israel through 
Partnership2Gether.

HOW TO SUBMIT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mazel Tov! announcements are welcomed for members of the 
Jewish community. Anniversaries, engagements and weddings 
with a photo (preferably color) can appear at a cost of $18 each. 
Births are $10. There is no charge for bar/bat mitzvahs or for 
special birthdays starting at the 90th.
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or for a mailed or emailed copy of guidelines.

D

r. David 
Luchins, a 
professor at 
Philadelphia’s Touro 
College and frequent 
lecturer at Aish 
HaTorah, recalled the 
following story.
On the morning 
after Yom Kippur on 
September 1993, U.S. 
Sen. Daniel Moynihan 
and the professor 
had a private meeting 
with Israeli Foreign 
Minister Shimon 
Peres. At the end, Moynihan 
thanked Peres for his “strong 
support for the Aish HaTorah 
Jerusalem Fellowships.”
Peres grew animated. 
“Senator, let me tell you why 

I support the Jerusalem 
Fellowships and yeshivot. 
More than 60 years ago, 
when I was 8 years old, 
I was already an ardent 
Labor Zionist. I had a 
religious uncle who was 
upset by my lack of faith 
and dragged me to the 
village of Radin to meet 
the venerable Yisroel 
Meir Kagan, also known 
as the Chofetz Chaim.
“The old rabbi and 
I had quite a talk. He 
quoted Maimonides and 
I responded with Marx; he 
quoted Talmud and I quoted 
[Zionist leader Menachem] 
Ushishkin.
“Then he began to cry and 
put his hands on my head 

and blessed me saying, ‘The 
Almighty gave me a long life, 
He should give you the same. 
You should go as you wish 
to Israel and become a great 
leader of the Jewish people; 
but remember, my child, that 
you can’t have a Jewish state 
without the Almighty and the 
Almighty’s Torah.”
At this point, Peres grew 
quite emotional. “Senator,” he 
declared, “yesterday was Yom 
Kippur. I do not fast all day. I 
do not spend the day in syna-
gogue. But every Yom Kippur 
night I think of that old rabbi 
and realize how true his words 
were.” Peres knew that Israel 
and the Jewish people under-
stood that Torah is relevant to 
all Jews and is crucial to their 
future.
Throughout Jewish histo-
ry, ideologies have arisen to 
replace Torah. Today, it is tik-
kun olam, repairing the world,
I believe that tikkun olam 

has become the new “ism” to 
replace the essence of what it 
means to be Jewish. We are, 
however, ignoring its true 
meaning. The complete phrase 
in the Aleinu prayer is repair 
the world “with the glory of 
God.” The greatest Jewish con-
tribution to the world is the 
idea of one God, the creator 
and sustainer of the world, 
who loves you.
Peres knew that nothing can 
replace Torah and mitzvot; 
they are the only guarantors 
of a family’s Jewish continuity. 
Let’s make tikkun olam about 
God.
As Lori Palatnik, founding 
director of Jewish Women’s 
Renaissance Project, says, “It’s 
time for the Jewish people to 
once again be the God people. 
This is tikkun olam.” 

This article by Rabbi Simcha Tolwin 

originally appeared in the Jewish News 

on Oct. 13, 2016.

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi 
Simcha 
Tolwin

Parshat 

Haazinu: 

Deuteronomy 

32:1-52; 

II Samuel 

22:1-51.

What Needs Fixing? 

SPIRIT

