Torah Travel

I’m thinking that awe comes in many forms .  Being a very visual person, I am easily moved by awesome sites.  (However, that is not to say that listening to ‘Story Core’ on Friday mornings on NPR does not often move me to tears!! )

Living in a small Jewish community, it is sometimes those smaller (sometimes sensory) experiences and rituals that can be profoundly moving.   And so it was this past Simchat Torah (celebration and joy of the Torah) when we gathered, younger and older, in anticipation (written on everyone’s faces not to mention the comments from the children!) to celebrate the Torah together.   This was finally a year that we had enough hands to hold the Torah, completely unscrolled from beginning to end.  AWESOME SITE (surround sound visually)!!  Yes some of us had to stand on chairs because we were too small, and others had to support each other’s arms because we were a bit tired, but we managed to do it while unraveling the stories of our People, or as our Rabbi says, the DNA of our People.  We saw how the scribal text changes at the verses of the ‘Song of the Sea’ following the Exodus; how it looks like ripples and waves in the water.  Similarly the scribal distinctiveness at the end of the Torah, the ‘Song of Moses’, where Moses reiterates the laws and prescribes what will come next after his death when the People can finally enter the Land.  

….And everything in between – our holy stories, the ones we teach our children,

…and then the children physically supporting the unscrolled Torah,

…and the Rabbi running from section to section finding the little gems that we want to recall from the year’s recitation,

… and the excited questions from everyone, where is this and where is that…wanting to see our favorite stories in the context of the whole – why is that important to us?

…And the satisfaction of knowing where that story lives…

…and the re-scrolling of the Torah, back to resting stance, many hands again.

I know that I was not the only one with a little bit of glistening at the corner of my eye!  Thank you dear friends and community.

But very importantly, I think it is necessary to leave to posterity the wonderfully superb cheer from Team Leviticus from Simchat Torah 5774 (though our competition from the other 4 books was fierce!!) :

“in Exodus, Pharoah tried to kill us , so we moved over to Leviticus!”