40 | FEBRUARY 1 • 2024 J
N

MAZEL TOV!

Traison 90th
L

arry Traison will celebrate 
his 90th birthday on Feb. 26, 
2024. He was married to the 
late, beloved Barbara for 67 years. 
Larry is the loving father of Steve 
(Janice) Traison, and the late 
Sheri Traison (Jeff) Devries; proud 
Papa to Danny (Courtney Asker) 
Devries, David (Nina) Devries, 
Elizabeth (Ari Witkin) Traison, 
Rachel Devries, Rebecca Traison 
and Randi (Michael Steinberg) 
Traison; adoring Big Papa to 
Hadar, Shayne, Raviv, Benjamin and Sivan. Larry still goes 
to work daily at Walker Printery, which turns 100 this year.

Kline-Kaplow
L

ois and Robert Kaplow of 
Farmington Hills are delight-
ed to announce the marriage 
of their daughter Dr. Julie Kaplow 
to Dr. Mark Kline, son of Elsie 
Kline and the late William Kline. 
Julie is executive director of the 
Trauma and Grief Centers at the 
Hackett Center for Mental Health 
in Houston and the Children’s 
Hospital New Orleans, and 
Professor of Psychiatry at Tulane 
University School of Medicine. 
Mark is senior vice president, chief medical officer and 
physician-in-chief at Children’s Hospital New Orleans 
and professor of pediatrics at Tulane University School of 
Medicine and Louisiana State University.
A celebration of their marriage will take place in May in 
Houston.

Hunter Joseph Borenstein, son of Pamela 
Carberry, and William and Shawn Borenstein, will 
lead the congregation in prayer as a bar mitzvah 
at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield on Saturday, 
Feb. 3, 2024. He will be joined in celebration by 
his brothers Zach, Chandler, Andre, and his sis-
ters, Karissa and Kaylin. Hunter is the loving grandchild of 
Mildred and the late John Carberry Sr., and Stella Ann and 
Sam Borenstein. 
He is a student at South Hills Middle School in Bloomfield 
Hills. Hunter’s most meaningful mitzvah project was raising 
money for the Arthritis Foundation in honor of his mother 
and Granny Carberry.

SPIRIT

Strength in Unity 
T

he Torah portion this 
week is the most sig-
nificant portion of the 
year as it contains the episode of 
Hashem speaking to the Jewish 
people and transmitting the Ten 
Commandments. According 
to the Oral tradition, the 
entire nation of Israel 
underwent a collective 
conversion at Mount Sinai 
and formally became 
Jewish.
The Talmud relates that 
before Hashem offered 
the Torah to the Jewish 
people, He offered it to the 
other nations of the world. 
Every one of them had 
some reservation about 
some aspect of Torah: One 
nation balked at the idea 
of banishing murder (“we are 
warriors”), another at the rules 
of sexual morality, another at 
honesty in business and so on. 
But our ancestors who stood at 
Mount Sinai declared that they 
accepted Torah unconditionally. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Antisemitism throughout the 
world has reached epic propor-
tions. Interestingly, the Talmud 
states that the word “Sinai” is 
related to the Hebrew word sin’ah 
which means hatred. Our sages 
explain that antisemitism was 
sparked when we became a cho-
sen nation at Mount Sinai, due 
to our willingness to accept His 
authority unconditionally. 
We were charged to be “a light 
unto the nations” and the con-
science of the world — some-
thing that much of the world 
dislikes … So antisemitism is 
not really related to Jews being 
rich or poor, communists or 
fascists, rulers or parasites — the 
ultimate cause of antisemitism is 
what the Jewish people represent 
in the world.
To receive the Torah at Mount 

Sinai, the Jewish nation had to 
first reach an unprecedented 
state of unity. Rashi makes the 
point that at Sinai the nation of 
Israel was like “one person with 
one heart.
”
When the Jewish nation left 
Egypt, they were frag-
mented; but they managed 
to resolve their differences 
by the time that Torah was 
given. It’s noteworthy the 
final major event preceded 
the giving of Torah was 
the battle against Amalek, 
an evil nation that 
attacked without prov-
ocation and was guilty 
of atrocities against our 
people. Amalek’s vicious 
behavior finally brought 
Jews to the realization that 
they needed each other for sur-
vival. Even more, they were able 
to sense they all truly came from 
the same Divine source and they 
then bonded as one.
History repeats itself. Despite 
the divisions that exist among 
us, Hamas, the Amalek of our 
time, has woken the Jewish 
people to the realization that we 
are one and there is far more 
that unites us than the superfi-
cial differences that divide us. 
It is heartwarming to see how 
Jews from the four corners of 
the world are unified in helping 
Israel, both materially and spiri-
tually, to overcome the enemy it 
now faces.
Our ancestors were able to 
defeat Amalek soundly; so, too, 
may we merit that the brave sol-
diers of the IDF, supported and 
protected with all our prayers, 
good deeds and resounding 
unity, deliver a decisive defeat to 
Hamas. 

Rabbi Elimelech Silberberg is a rabbi 

at Tugman Bais Chabad Torah Center in 

West Bloomfield.

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi 
Elimelech 
Silberberg

Parshat Yitro: 

Exodus 

18:1-20:23; 

Isaiah 6:1-7, 

67-5-6.