The Charlotte Jewish News - May 1999 - Page 2
In My Opinion...
By Amy Krakovitz Montoni
May 22 is National Astronomy
Day. It’s a Saturday night, so you
may be outside looking for the first
three stars anyway. Linger a while
and look. Don’t try too hard to
imagine the infmiteness of space
and the emptiness between the
stars; it might start to hurt your
head. Like thinking about God.
- My No. 2 son is most fascinated
with things astronomical. He reads
every possible book about the
heavenly bodies he can get his little
hands on. He can name the four
Galilean moons of Jupiter and tell
you how to tell the difference
between a comet’s gas tail and its
dust tail. He knows why the atmos
phere of Venus is yellow, and
where the biggest volcano in the
Solar System is. He even knows
the speed of light.
I’ve learned a lot, too, reading
along with him at bedtime. One
important thing I’ve learned is that
every thing we observe in space is
so obviously not the result of
chaos. If everything were the result
of chance and “the forces of
nature,” some amazing things
would not be true.
For instance, there is only one
heavenly body we know of that
spins on its axis at the exact same
rate of speed that it orbits its host
planet. The result of this phenome- ^
non is that the same face of this
satellite always faces the planet.
Yes, it’s our Moon. Isn’t it strange
that the only moon in the solar sys
tem that faces the same way all the
time is the only moon that has peo
ple looking at it? Doesn’t that
sound a little deliberate? Or at least
suspicious?
Another fact about our moon: it
is 250,000 miles away from us. The
sun is 400 times further away; it is
also 400 times the size of the moon.
The result is that the sun and the
moqp appear to be the same size in
our sky. Again, this is the only
instance of this kind of relationship
in the Solar System, and it is
observable only from the one plan
et that is inhabited.
I am troubled when I hear scien-
*tists say that knowledge and reli
gion are mutually exclusive. I think
the more we learn about things, the
more it confirms my belief in God.
These miracles of everyday life
could never exist in a truly “ran
dom” world, with no Master
behind the master plan. Is the intri
cate helix of DNA a mere accident?
That’s harder for me to believe than
it is for me to believe in the Eternal
One.
So on May 22, look up to the
heavens, and thank the Great
Cinematographer for a beautiful
show. ^
A Pilgrimage to the Holy Land
By U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-North Camlina
This past February, I traveled as
part of a bipartisan Congressional
delegation to the Mideast to meet
American troops serving in that
troubled part of our world and to
get a better understanding of the
security issues in the region. The
visit helped remind me what great
work is being done by our brave
men and women in uniform serv
ing to enforce the no-fly zone in
Iraq, but it also reinforced my
understanding of the Middle
East’s history and strategic impor
tance of Israel to our country.
Israel’s importance to America
was conveyed lo me in two pow
erful ways on this trip — meeting
with the country’s top officials and
traveling around the cities and
countryside of the Holy Land to
see first-hand the environment in
which Israelis live day to day.
Our delegation’s first meeting
was with Defense Minister Moshe
Arens in Tel Aviv. This discussion
was an appropriate start to our
visit to Israel, because any under
standing of the country requires an
understanding of Israel’s need for
both peace and security. He made
it clear to us that security is more
than just a word to Israelis - it is an
issue they live with every day,
where one mistake can cost lives.
But Mr. Arens also made it clear
that Israel is committed to peace
as well, and wishes to work with
the United States in the quest to
achieve both goals.
That commitment was under
scored when we had the opportu
nity to meet with Prime Minster
Benjamin Netanyahu in his
Jerusalem offices. Netanyahu
plainly stated that maintaining his
country’s long-standing relation-
Arens made it clear to us
that security is more than
just a word to Israelis —
it is an issue they live with
every day, where one
mistake can cost lives.
ship with the United States is of
utmost importance to himself and
his countrymen. But he also talked
about his quest for an acceptable,
workable, long-term peace agree
ment between the Israelis and the
Palestinians which will provide
stability in the Mideast.
These conversations made it
clear to me that Israel’s leadership
is focused, they understand their
history, and they understand how
important America is to Israel and
how important Israel is to America
I was also pleased that we were
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Counting on Freedom
able to discuss the Israeli-
American relationship in other
areas, including the crucial flow of
trade between our two countries.
Most significant to me was the
conversation I had with Israeli
leaders about the emerging rela
tionship between the high tech
businesses of our state, including
the Research Triangle area, and
Israel’s emerging technology
community. This sort of interna
tional trade relationship in the key
industry of the 21st century infor
mation technology is crucial to the
long-term success of both North
Carolina and Israel.
As a farmer and representative
of much of the state’s rural areas, I
was also heartened to see that the
Israelis understand the crucial role
biotechnology plays in the success
of agriculture. Seeing how Israeli
fanners literally make the desert
bloom through some of the
world’s most sophisticated irriga
tion methods was tnily inspiring. I
hope we can continue to learn
from each other and exchange
information through such forums
as the North Carolina-Israel
Partnership about how biomedi
cine and biotechnology have the
potential to change our lives in a
positive way.
North Carolina is facing
tremendous growth and all the
challenges and opportunities asso
ciated with that, and I was inspired
by how Israel is coping with their
own enormous growth. The pil
grimage of thousands of Jews
from former Soviet bloc countries
to the spiritual homeland has been
one of our world’s biggest popula
tion shifts in the last ten years.
(Continued on page 12)
As I sit to write this, I am count
ing the hours to the beginning of
the holiday of Pesach. I am also
counting the number of chores
remaining, the items that still need
to be cleaned and those that have to
be replaced in order to meet the
Kashnit standards of this demand
ing holiday. It is interesting that the
matzoh of Passover represents both
the bread of slavery, as well as the
bread of freedom. It represents
slavery and affiiction because it is
what our ancestors ate in Egypt. It
also represents freedom because
we, the freest Jewish community in
the history of our people’s galut,
dispersion, choose to eat it.
During the Seder we remove
from our cup of wine some of the
joy it brings as we recount each and
every one of the ten plagues which
God brought against Egypt. We
count the cups of wine we drink at
the Seder. We speak of the number
of children, of the rabbis in B’nai
Brach, and of the miracles that God
performed bringing our people out
of the land of Egypt. Then from the
second night of Pesach we begin to
count once again the 49 days which
lead us in our journey from Pesach
to Shavuot.
Numbers are very important in
our tradition. They have great
meaning and teach us important
lessons. So why do we count 49
days until the 50th day, the holiday
of Shavuot? 1 believe we count to
remind us of who we are. Our
ancestors left Egyptian slavery at
Pesach and began to wander in the
wilderness. The whole time they
murmured against God, com
plained to Moses, and rebelled
against all that was good and prop
er in their new relationship with
God. Our ancestors may have
thought that freedom was total and
unbridled. Instead, new obligations
and commitments were developing
as a new society developed.
Slowly our ancestors learned the
realities of life. Freedom means
responsibility. A free person must
defend their freedom by maintain
ing the rules which help us survive
as a society, at times even by
putting our lives at risk. Our ances
tors wandered from Egypt to Mt.
Sinai where they received the Ten
Commandments and formed a new
Covenant with God. That Covenant
helped our ancestors understand
the true meaning of freedom and
bring quality to their lives.
We, especially those of us who
live in Ahierica, are constantly
wandering on that road from Egypt
to Sinai. Each day of our lives we
make decisions about what we are
going to do, how we are going to
behave and where we are going to
be. However, in this land of free
dom, we must remember the lesson
our ancestors learned. Freedom is
not total! Freedom requires us to
accept responsibilities and obliga
tions. It is our responsibility and
obligation to maintain the laws, the
customs and the rituals that have
become our heritage as Jews. We
can choose to accept or reject this
precious heritage because we are
free people. As we count from
Passover to Shavuot, may each of
us make the decision that we count
as a member of the Jewish people.
May each of us be able to find the
beauty and the blessings in living a
committed Jewish life, bringing the
beauty of Shabbat, the holidays and
Torah into each and every day. O
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