32 | OCTOBER 14 • 2021 

MAZEL TOV!

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.
For information, contact Editorial Assistant Sy Manello 
at smanello@thejewishnews.com or (248) 351-5147 for 
information or for a mailed or emailed copy of guidelines.

Cadyn Brooke 
Geller, the 
daughter of 
Angel and 
Justin Geller, 
will become a 
bat mitzvah on Saturday, 
Oct. 16, 2021, at Temple 
Beth El in Bloomfield 
Township. Cadyn is the 
granddaughter of Merilyn 
and Nathan Sanders, 
Doreen Blackburn and 
Sam Geller. 
She is a seventh-grader 
at Derby Middle School in 
Birmingham. For her mitz-
vah project, Cadyn decided 
to make jewelry to put 
smiles on the faces of the 
kids in the hospital and is 
especially proud to be able 
to deliver these necklaces 
and bracelets to kids with 
cancer and other illnesses. 

Talia Yve 
Spielmann will 
become a bat 
mitzvah at 
Congregation 
Shaarey Zedek 
in Southfield on Saturday, 
Oct. 16, 2021. She will be 
joined in celebration by her 
proud parents, Katie and 
Benny Spielmann, and 
brother Noam. Her loving 
grandparents are Hannah 
and Gordon Moss, and 
Miriam and Shaul 
Spielmann. 
Talia is a student at Hillel 
Day School of Metropolitan 
Detroit in Farmington Hills. 
For her mitzvah project, 
she will be working to raise 
funds to help kids go to 
summer camp. 

Shapiro 70th
P

hyllis and Harvey 
Shapiro of West 
Bloomfield and 
Scottsdale, Ariz., celebrated 
their 70th wedding anniver-
sary on Aug. 29, 2021, with a 
party at Temple Israel. Wishing 
them many more happy 
years together were friends 
and family, including their 
children, Ilene and Richard 
Fischman; grandchildren, 
Ben and Jennifer Shapiro, 
Lane and Rabbi Allie Fischman, and Martee Fischman; 
great-grandsons, Jude Fischman and Henry Shapiro.

SPIRIT

Finding Oursleves
M

ost often we translate 
the phrase lech lecha 
as simply “Go forth.
” 
When we read these words, we 
focus on the most commonly 
accepted meaning of the text: 
God is commanding Abram 
to leave his native land and 
his father’s house and go to an 
unknown land that God will 
show him. 
 It is a story familiar to all. 
Unfortunately, that prior knowl-
edge inhibits further exploration.
I believe that we are robbing 
ourselves of the deeper meaning 
that perhaps speaks to us more 
clearly in our own day. Lech 
lecha when translated literally 
means “Go unto yourself.
” Lech 
is a commandment to literally 
walk or go. Lecha means to you 

or to yourself. God is command-
ing Abram to dig deep, to go on 
a journey of self-exploration, not 
just to find the land that 
God has chosen, but to 
find himself as well.
When we begin 
any kind of journey, it 
should be both physical 
and spiritual. Surely, we 
cannot travel anywhere 
without our physical 
bodies. Why should we 
even attempt to do so 
without our souls? The 
two are inextricable, and 
I believe that is what 
God is trying to prepare 
Abram for when he tells 
him, “Go unto yourself.
”
Right now, considering the 
world’s challenges, it seems we 

have all been tapped on the 
shoulder by God and given the 
same directive as Abram, “Go, 
find yourself.
” Why now?-
Because so much of what 
we like to hide behind is 
being stripped away, even 
the most well off are being 
forced to rethink the neces-
sity of life’s luxuries.
I would argue that 
though this is a scary time, 
it is one we can use to our 
own advantage. We can 
use it to extend the task of 
taking cheshbon nefesh, an 
accounting of our souls.
The challenge of lech 
lecha is the same now as it 
was for Abram: Go to yourself. 
Find out what has meaning for 
you and what does not, what 

you need and what you could 
give to help others. Abram had 
the courage to go on this jour-
ney, and so must we. Abram 
taught us about hospitality and 
sharing the best of what we 
have. That made everywhere 
that he and Sarai were a prom-
ised land.
What are the things and 
people that allow you to live in 
your own promised land, and 
what are the aspects that make 
it seem less than idyllic? We can 
all accept this challenge to “go to 
ourselves” and live up to it. We 
must. The world we live in today 
demands that we do. 

This article by Rabbi Jennifer Kaluzny 

of Temple Israel originally appeared in 

the Jewish News on Nov. 6, 2008. 

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi 
Jennifer 
Kaluzny

Parshat 

Lech-Lecha: 

Genesis 

12:1-17:27; 

Isaiah 

40:27-41:16.

