Unrolling the Torah

October 12, 2009 - 3:46 PM by

Torah UnscrollingI’m still flying high from Simchat Torah. The festival, which took place this past Shabbat in Israel and yesterday outside of the country, celebrates the conclusion of the annual public reading from the Torah.

In most traditional synagogues, the Torah is removed from the ark, there is lots of dancing, and everyone gets called up for an “aliyah” where they say a blessing on the Torah (this was classically just for men but in many Orthodox congregations today, women get their chance too).

This year, we decided to try something a little different: Simchat Torah at Nava Tehila, Jerusalem’s only Jewish Renewal synagogue.

About 200 congregants met outdoors at the Jerusalem Nature Museum under a canopy that shaded us from the mid-morning heat. The service started with 45 minutes of singing, accompanied by guitar and drums (this was definitely not an Orthodox gathering), and original music composed specifically for the holiday.

After singing, we received our aliyot in groups – all those over 60, 40-50 year olds, 30somethings, kids and so on.

But the highlight of the day was a literal unrolling of the Torah. As in the picture above (not taken on Shabbat), congregants arranged themselves in a circle with each person gripping a page as the entirety of the scroll was unfurled.

Seeing a Torah from beginning to end is quite a sight. Patterns begin to emerge; you see the start and ends of each of the five books of Moses, the Ten Commandments particularly stand out. Many people crawled under the parchment and walked around the pages, marveling like they would at a work of art hanging in a museum.

What happened next was even more wondrous. Several leaders of the community approached each person and asked him or her to point to a passage in the section below – without looking. The leader then read the section and gave it a humanistic interpretation.

I pointed to the section in the book of Genesis where Abraham and Sarah go down to Egypt and Pharaoh admires Sarah’s beauty. The meaning for me: that I should focus this year on the most beautiful woman in my life (the leader motioned to my wife standing next to me).

Our eleven-year-old son pointed to a section on kingship and was blessed with the challenge to act like a king this year – taking on responsibility to do good in the world.

The service ended with more singing, Yizkor and the prayer for rain (something this country is in dire need of).

Nava Tehila meets monthly on Friday nights in Jerusalem. More info here.

Tags: • Category: Holidays, Israeliness, Religion 

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One Comment on Unrolling the Torah

  1. Unrolling the Torah | JewPI on Mon, Oct 26th 2009 7:27 PM

    2. [...] Israel and yesterday outside of the country, celebrates the conclusion of the annual public reading Read More » Share and Enjoy:Tags: conclusion, Israel, public reading, shabbat, Simchat Torah Categories: [...]

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