Rabbinically Speaking

As Shavuot, the Festival of Torah approaches, memory, past and recent takes me back to three events in my rabbinate that remind me of the uniqueness of the celebration of the giving of the Torah. Let me share them with you.

1. About 15 years ago I participated in the relocation of a Torah in a small congregation in St. Augustine. It was right around the time of Shavuot. A recently formed congregation, it already had its Torah, but it wanted a special ceremony for its removal to their new permanent home. How does one do this given the distances?

We had hired a horse and buggy for Erev Shabbat. We drove to a particular place in downtown St. Augustine, and the religious school children, about 9 of them plus the president and the rabbi climbed into the horse and buggy, and proceeded through the middle of downtown St. Augustine to a designated place where we would meet the others and then have a police escorted car pool to the new location of the Temple

The one thing I remember most vividly was as we went down the sunny main street on a bright Friday night in June about 7 p.m., a startled tourist looked up and then called loudly called out to his wife from the sidewalk, “Honey, there’s a Torah going down the street.”.It was heard by hundreds of people. It reminded me of that wonderful movie when The Frisco Kid carried the Sefer Torah by horseback all the way to San Francisco.

The evening proceeded smoothly, but the highlight of the evening was my description of that incident (of course already highly embellished) Imagine, a Torah going down the street! But what a symbol this was of our people’s journey, who, throughout our existence have “carried” the Torah from place to place to start anew!

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In my present bi-weekly congregation in Winter Haven, less than a year after its founding some 25 years ago, the congregation had secured a Holocaust Torah from the Westminster Synagogue in London. It was no. 960 of over 1500 scrolls that after World War II were distributed “on permanent loan” around the world as the symbol of Jewish survival. This particular scroll was made up of the remains of scrolls from three neighboring Polish towns, scrolls that had partially survived the Holocaust and could be put together into one usable scroll. (Imagine the extra symbolism here) It immediately became our most precious possession and was used — regularly — each Shabbat when services were held.

But time took its toll on this already venerable scroll, and about a year ago we realized that we needed to replace it for regular usage. So we initiated a campaign to purchase a newer Torah for weekly usage. Rather than placing the Holocaust Torah it in a separate receptacle, we chose to place it the in the ark right next to the newer younger Torah as a symbol of continuity. In the future we will be able to use it on special occasions, even as its replacement becomes our regularly used Sefer Torah.

2. On April 16 (The Shabbat closest to Yom HaShoah) we officially “semi” retired this venerable Torah. Gratefully the beloved

senior temple statesman of our temple who was one of the founders of the temple and had been the person most responsible for our securing the Torah 25 years ago, was there to chant the aliyot. It was particularly poignant, because his dear wife, an equal partner in the project just mentioned,

had just died less than two

weeks before the dedication and this was his first trip back to the temple since her funeral. They were both Holocaust survivors (There were lots of moist eyes, mine included, during that service.

3. Not surprisingly, Paul and Ruth Weitzenkorn had also been appointed co-chairs of the Fund Raising Committee to raise the money to purchase the new Sefer Torah. Ruth lived long enough to know that their efforts were successful, and knew that the dedications were to be two-fold, one on April 16 during our congregation’s annual Yom HaShoah service, and the other, two weeks later on April 30 at the time of our Yom HaAtzamaut commemoration. . And for that occasion we have scheduled the FIRST use of the new Sefer Torah be the time of a Bat Mitzvah of one of our children. One of the kids was the first to use the new Torah. Again, I do not have to elaborate on the symbolism here. And as part of the ceremony, the entire congregation passed the new Torah from person to person.

I could say so much more, but I think you get the meaning of these stories. Three Jewish holidays close together, each with its unique historical memory and each in its own way, shouting out the same message: AM YISRAEL CHAI — OD AVINU CHAI.

Rabbinically Speaking is published as a public service by the Jewish Press in cooperation with the Tampa Rabbinical Association which assigns the column on a rotating basis.