Simchat Torah holiday honors completion of a yearlong cycle of reading scrolls
Isaac Leider, of New York, wades through fetid water past his waist while trying to retreive 6 holy Torah scrolls from the Beth Israel Congregation temple in New Orleans which was still flooded with water. (Rick Loomis/The Associated Press)
PARK CITY - They may be too young to read a Torah scroll. Years away from being able to carry one. Some of the younger kids, they can't even remember what to call the thing.
But Monday evening, as Temple Har Shalom's religious school students - preschoolers to sixth-graders - paraded around their synagogue to the sounds of Israeli folk music, what they knew or didn't know hardly mattered.
"The goal is to give everyone a positive Jewish experience," Rabbi Joshua Aaronson said.
With the help of parents and teachers, Aaronson engaged dozens of kids in a Simchat Torah celebration, the Jewish holiday to honor the completion of a yearlong cycle of Torah reading. The Torah, or first five books of the Hebrew Bible, is Judaism's holiest object. And the holiday, which officially began Tuesday evening and ran through Wednesday, is considered one of the most joyous in the Jewish calendar. It is the last in a series of holidays that fill the month.
Carefully and slowly, Aaronson unrolled one of the scrolls, holding one of the two wooden staves - another adult stood fast with the other - and winding his way around the room. The children, who clamored to come close, were assigned to hold up the long stretch of parchment. "You've got a very special responsibility right now," Aaronson reminded them.
With column upon column of ancient text unfurled before them, the children looked around in wonder.
"Whoa, look at all this Hebrew stuff," muttered one boy.
"I know, this would take years to write," said another.
Not years, necessarily, but plenty of time. A Torah scroll is handwritten by a certified scribe, called a "sofer," who must adhere to strict guidelines. The words, according to traditon, were dictated to Moses by God about 3,300 years ago, soon after the Exodus from Egypt. The content contains the stories and laws central to Jewish life.
"Who knows the last word of the Torah?" called out Aaronson.
"Amen?" ventured one girl.
"No," Drora Oren, the temple administrator, smiled. "It's 'Israel.' "
Aaronson read the last verse of Deuteronomy before the adults rolled the scroll back to the beginning and invited Oren, who's from Israel, to read the top of Genesis. Afterward, the children were invited to help dress the synagogue's two scrolls, with a protective velvet covering and other ornaments, before they were replaced in the ark.
Besides the religious value, many Torah scrolls carry a deep history. One of Temple Har Shalom's scrolls was commissioned for the synagogue, but the other is a remnant from the Holocaust.
That Torah scroll came from the town of Holesov in Moravia, the historical, eastern region of the Czech Republic. It, like many other scrolls, had been collected by Nazis for use in a planned museum about the extinct Jewish people. Nineteen years after German troops surrendered in Prague, 1,564 Torah scrolls - which had been stored in a Prague synagogue-turned-warehouse - were transported by railroad to London's Westminister Synagogue.
Since that historical 1964 transport, the largest Torah scroll shipment known, most of the scrolls have been sent to communities throughout the world where they remain on permanent loan.
At Utah's largest synagogue, Congregation Kol Ami in Salt Lake City, children had their own Simchat Torah celebration Tuesday night before the adults took over. Cantor Laurence Loeb led the evening service, singing prayers in a "name that tune" fashion. Congregants laughed and raised their hands as they recognized songs which ran the gamut from "London Bridge Is Falling Down," to "Arrivederci Roma" and "A Bicycle Built for Two."
Musicians from The KlezBros, a Salt Lake City klezmer band, took stage and played as congregants stood for Israeli folkdancing, singing, clapping and the shared honor of carrying a Torah scroll.
Meanwhile, over at the Chabad Lubavitch celebration at Bais Menachem in Salt Lake's Sugar House neighborhood, men tossed back shots of vodka and whiskey and sipped on bottles of Michelob Ultra. Drinking on Simchat Torah, while nowhere commanded and not a part of most Jewish celebrations, has become tradition in some circles - a part of the festivities.
"Oh, yeah. The rabbi is lit," laughed Alysse Eisen Silk, as Rabbi Benny Zippel's voice boomed from the men's side of the room. In Orthodox Judaism, men and women are separated in synagogue sanctuaries and while dancing.
Some of the women cradled babies, socializing in corners. Israelis chatted away in Hebrew, exchanging laughs. Two older Russian women sat together, sharing observations in their native tongue.
As the singing and dancing heated up, and the night went on, most everyone stood from their seats to join in.
Among them was Silk's 5-year-old daughter, Shayna (Yiddish for "beautiful"), who - despite being up well past her bedtime - could not sit still. She jumped around to the music, clutching in her arms a stuffed-toy Torah in bright colors of red, yellow and blue.
She danced and danced some more, following the crowd as it moved out into the main foyer and later outdoors. And even if little Shayna didn't fully understand why she was doing what she was doing, the girl was enjoying her Judaism - celebrating what the Torah has given to her people, and what it will someday mean to her.
PARK CITY - They may be too young to read a Torah scroll. Years away from being able to carry one. Some of the younger kids, they can't even remember what to call the thing.
But Monday evening, as Temple Har Shalom's religious school students - preschoolers to sixth-graders - paraded around their synagogue to the sounds of Israeli folk music, what they knew or didn't know hardly mattered.
"The goal is to give everyone a positive Jewish experience," Rabbi Joshua Aaronson said.
With the help of parents and teachers, Aaronson engaged dozens of kids in a Simchat Torah celebration, the Jewish holiday to honor the completion of a yearlong cycle of Torah reading. The Torah, or first five books of the Hebrew Bible, is Judaism's holiest object. And the holiday, which officially began Tuesday evening and ran through Wednesday, is considered one of the most joyous in the Jewish calendar. It is the last in a series of holidays that fill the month.
Carefully and slowly, Aaronson unrolled one of the scrolls, holding one of the two wooden staves - another adult stood fast with the other - and winding his way around the room. The children, who clamored to come close, were assigned to hold up the long stretch of parchment. "You've got a very special responsibility right now," Aaronson reminded them.
With column upon column of ancient text unfurled before them, the children looked around in wonder.
"Whoa, look at all this Hebrew stuff," muttered one boy.
"I know, this would take years to write," said another.
Not years, necessarily, but plenty of time. A Torah scroll is handwritten by a certified scribe, called a "sofer," who must adhere to strict guidelines. The words, according to traditon, were dictated to Moses by God about 3,300 years ago, soon after the Exodus from Egypt. The content contains the stories and laws central to Jewish life.
"Who knows the last word of the Torah?" called out Aaronson.
"Amen?" ventured one girl.
"No," Drora Oren, the temple administrator, smiled. "It's 'Israel.' "
Aaronson read the last verse of Deuteronomy before the adults rolled the scroll back to the beginning and invited Oren, who's from Israel, to read the top of Genesis. Afterward, the children were invited to help dress the synagogue's two scrolls, with a protective velvet covering and other ornaments, before they were replaced in the ark.
Besides the religious value, many Torah scrolls carry a deep history. One of Temple Har Shalom's scrolls was commissioned for the synagogue, but the other is a remnant from the Holocaust.
That Torah scroll came from the town of Holesov in Moravia, the historical, eastern region of the Czech Republic. It, like many other scrolls, had been collected by Nazis for use in a planned museum about the extinct Jewish people. Nineteen years after German troops surrendered in Prague, 1,564 Torah scrolls - which had been stored in a Prague synagogue-turned-warehouse - were transported by railroad to London's Westminister Synagogue.
Since that historical 1964 transport, the largest Torah scroll shipment known, most of the scrolls have been sent to communities throughout the world where they remain on permanent loan.
At Utah's largest synagogue, Congregation Kol Ami in Salt Lake City, children had their own Simchat Torah celebration Tuesday night before the adults took over. Cantor Laurence Loeb led the evening service, singing prayers in a "name that tune" fashion. Congregants laughed and raised their hands as they recognized songs which ran the gamut from "London Bridge Is Falling Down," to "Arrivederci Roma" and "A Bicycle Built for Two."
Musicians from The KlezBros, a Salt Lake City klezmer band, took stage and played as congregants stood for Israeli folkdancing, singing, clapping and the shared honor of carrying a Torah scroll.
Meanwhile, over at the Chabad Lubavitch celebration at Bais Menachem in Salt Lake's Sugar House neighborhood, men tossed back shots of vodka and whiskey and sipped on bottles of Michelob Ultra. Drinking on Simchat Torah, while nowhere commanded and not a part of most Jewish celebrations, has become tradition in some circles - a part of the festivities.
"Oh, yeah. The rabbi is lit," laughed Alysse Eisen Silk, as Rabbi Benny Zippel's voice boomed from the men's side of the room. In Orthodox Judaism, men and women are separated in synagogue sanctuaries and while dancing.
Some of the women cradled babies, socializing in corners. Israelis chatted away in Hebrew, exchanging laughs. Two older Russian women sat together, sharing observations in their native tongue.
As the singing and dancing heated up, and the night went on, most everyone stood from their seats to join in.
Among them was Silk's 5-year-old daughter, Shayna (Yiddish for "beautiful"), who - despite being up well past her bedtime - could not sit still. She jumped around to the music, clutching in her arms a stuffed-toy Torah in bright colors of red, yellow and blue.
She danced and danced some more, following the crowd as it moved out into the main foyer and later outdoors. And even if little Shayna didn't fully understand why she was doing what she was doing, the girl was enjoying her Judaism - celebrating what the Torah has given to her people, and what it will someday mean to her.
posted by Lubavitch @ 11:40 PM
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