A Tora Comes Back to Life

R. Yaakov Bieler

On the occasion

of the eve of the rededication

of the Berg Sefer Tora

Parshat VaYera, 5766

I hope that everyone had the opportunity to read Neil Roland’s wonderful article in the September-December 2005 Kol MevaSer (the KMS Bulletin), entitled, “Torah Scroll, Smuggled Out of Nazi Germany to Kenya, Comes to KMS”. It tells the amazing story of the Berg family Tora that was rededicated at our synagogue by the Pauly and Katzenstein families on Sunday, November 20^th.

Participating in a Tora dedication is an unforgettable experience for all who are privileged to attend. I personally remember the previous three such dedications that we have had at KMS over the years. Marching up Auth Lane with the new Tora that KMS commissioned from Shel Bassil and which culminated an entire year of fundraising and communal study, is unforgettable for those who took part. Dancing in front of KMS at the Cohen family’s dedication of their Tora on a bright sunny day seems as if it took place just yesterday. And the very recent bittersweet dedication of a Tora in memory of Gavi Klonsky, ZaL, continues to be a deeply moving experience that so many of us frequently recall.

However, we should keep in mind that when we take part in a ceremony dedicating a Tora, we are not only sharing in a communal and/or familial milestone, however meaningful and important such a social statement might be. When we join with our family, friends and community to welcome a new or refurbished Sefer Tora for use by a synagogue in its daily, Shabbat and Yom Tov rotation of Tora reading, we are engaged in fulfilling the Mitzva of demonstrating “Kavod LaTora” (giving honor to the Tora.) An entire chapter in R. Yosef Karo’s Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah #282, is devoted to various practical applications of how one is expected to show reverence for the most precious possessions of any Jewish community, the scrolls and bound volumes that contain the record of the Revelation at Sinai and its associated applications, legislations and customs. The Codes of Jewish law, such as the Shulchan Aruch, when they list the mandated practices designed to insure that the sanctity of the Tora be properly appreciated and demonstrated by all observant Jews, include: a) standing in a Tora’s presence, b) physically following a Tora when it is being carried from one location to another, c) decorating a Tora with appropriate covers and ornamentation, d) arranging books of Tora in accordance with their respective levels of holiness when stacking them one atop another, d) how to securely hold and transport a Sefer Tora[1], and e) a prohibition against sitting on something upon which a Sefer Tora or holy books have already been placed. Jewish law even mandates that when one wishes to raise a book in order to more easily read it, s/he must not use another holy volume in a purely instrumental manner to support the one being read.[2]

The basis of the holiness of our Torot, Megillot and “Sifrei Kodesh” is articulated by the great codifier RaMBaM in the following manner:

RaMBaM, Mishna Tora, Hilchot Sefer Tora, 10:10

…Someone who is sitting in the presence of a Sefer Tora must do so with reverence and respect, with awe and deference. Because it is an “Eid Ne’eman) (trustworthy witness) for those who come from every corner of the world, as it is said, (Devarim 31:26) “Take this Sefer Tora and place it alongside the Ark of the Covenant of HaShem, your God, and it will be there for you as a witness.”

By means of not only its being read, but its very existence and an awareness of what it contains, a Tora is considered to attest to the relationship between God and Israel, how the nation developed, and HaShem’s Expectations of its members. The scroll is intended to serve as a piece of objective evidence, an official record that a Covenant once was entered into by the God and His People. Moshe’s verbal instructions to the Jews over the course of his 40+ years at their head are similarly categorized by the Tora itself as acts of testimony:

Devarim 32:46

And he (Moshe) said to them: Pay careful attention to all the matters that I am “Mei’id” (testifying) concerning you today, so that you in turn will command your offspring to observe and fulfill all of the words of this Tora.

Recognizing that any Tora is literally a witness to our traditions and responsibilities, and therefore should be treated by Jews as so much more than merely an inert religious artifact meant to be used during the course of select Jewish rituals, accounts for the following deeply symbolic “Halacha” (Jewish law).

Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 146:1 (based upon Berachot 8a)

It is prohibited to leave (the synagogue) and to leave the Sefer Tora open (once the Tora has been taken out and is readied to be read from); but between “Aliyot” (the time when one person’s reading is completed, and the next person’s reading is about to begin), it is permitted.

Mishna Berura #1

It is prohibited to leave, as it is said, (Yeshayahu 1:28) “…and those who forsake HaShem will be destroyed.” And it is rendered in the Aramaic Targum: “And those who forsake HaShem’s Tora will be destroyed.”[3] And even if 10 remain that are listening to the Tora reading aside from him, and even if he has already heard the Tora reading in a group of 10, it is still prohibited.

Ibid. #3

It is permitted (between “Aliyot”) assuming that he has already heard the Tora reading or his intention is to return immediately, and even this is not permitted unless there is some extreme necessity.

While the Tora appears to be inanimate and therefore insensate, both RaMBaM’s metaphor of considering it a “witness”, a term that is always applied to a person, as well as the Halacha that one must not “turn his/her back” upon the Tora, again suggesting that the Tora is so much more than an object, imply that when we participate in a Tora dedication, we are welcoming into our midst an entity that is alive, that has sensibilities, that is deserving of behavior normally reserved for our fellow human beings.

However, the Berg Tora that we have just dedicated at KMS is a powerful witness not only to our relationship with HaShem, but also in another incredibly dramatic sense. This particular Tora has been estimated to be more than 250 years old, and therefore has not only survived the “Shoa” (holocaust), but also many other significant events marking Jewish history in general, and German Jewish history in particular. This Tora’s most recent provenance forces us to starkly turn our attention to German society’s efforts to totally eradicate Jews and Judaism, and its ultimate failure to do so. Karl Schwarz bought the Tora shortly after Kristallnacht in November, 1938. One can only imagine how many Tora scrolls were turned to ashes during the Kristallnacht pogrom, when synagogues in over 200 German cities were burned to the ground. Yet this Tora survivor—it is as much of a survivor as our brothers and sisters who emerged from the Nazi occupation and death camps—bares steadfast and eloquent witness to the survival of our people, even as it symbolizes the specific survival of the 19 members of the Berg family, who, along with their Tora, first traveled to Kenya where they spent the war years, and then settled in the United States.

The odyssey of the Tora that we have just dedicated, emerging from the hell of Nazi Europe to a safe haven and a new life, first in Vineland, New Jersey and now in Silver Spring, dramatically calls to mind a haunting passage in the Talmud regarding a famous prophetic vision:

Sanhedrin 92b

…It has been taught:

R. Elazar said, “The dead that Yechezkel brought back to life (see Yechezkel 37), stood on their feet, and sang praises to HaShem, and then died once again.” What song did they sing? “HaShem Causes death justly, and Restores life mercifully.”

R. Yehoshua said: They sang the following song: (I Shmuel 2:6) “HaShem Causes death and Restores life, He Sends to the grave and Raises up”…

R. Elazar beno shel R. Yosi HaGallili said: The dead that Yechezkel brought back to life went up to Israel, married and had sons and daughters.

R. Yehuda ben Beteira stood on his feet and said: I am one of their descendents and these are the Tefillin that my grandfather, who was one of them, left for me.

Not only is it miraculous that the Tora was not destroyed during the infamous “Night of Broken Glass”, but an even more recent miracle simply takes our collective breaths away by mirroring R. Elazar beno shel R. Yosi HaGallili and R. Yehuda ben Beteira’s comments in Sanhedrin. The Berg Tora was thought to have become irreparably “Pasul” (ritually disqualified)—figurative “death”, a muting of its testimony—more than a decade after the family had safely relocated to the United States from the African continent. Upon the recommendation of a “Sopher” (a Jewish ritual scribe) who declared that the Tora could not be restored to a state of “Kashrut” (ritual acceptability) the family had actually considered burying it in a Jewish cemetery, as called for by Jewish law,[4] before deciding to allow KMS to essentially turn it into a Holocaust memorial in our Beit Midrash. But even in its own case hanging from the wall, the Tora could not be read, could no longer “testify”, and therefore was de jure in a state of destruction, if not physically, than at least Halachically and ritually. Quite miraculously, over the last few months, Rabbi Menachem Youlus’ amazing skills of Tora restoration, particularly with regard to scrolls that survived the Holocaust, has allowed the Berg Tora to finally emerge from its special “Zachor” case, and join other Torot in the various Arks used for KMS’ Minyanim. In Neil Roland’s Kol Mevaser article, it is noted that Rabbi Youlus is referred to by some as a Jewish “Indiana Jones” due to the places to which he has traveled and the means by which he has managed to obtain buried and discarded Torot from around the world. But at least in the case of the Berg Tora, perhaps it would be more apropos to compare him to the Prophet Elisha, who in II Kings 4 manages to bring a boy who had just died, back to life.

The story—perhaps we should call it the “legend”—of the Berg Tora is not only about remembrance and miracles. It attests to yet another important perspective that is crucial for especially Jews to make part of their worldview. R. David Ebner, in “The Library of Everything”, the keynote poem of his recently published collection of poems on Tora topics,[5] imagines that there is a place in the spiritual world where every event that has ever taken place could be revisited and experienced once again. If each individual would be given a single opportunity to relive something that has already taken place, regardless of how long ago it may have been, what would s/he choose? The poet writes about his own desire:

…If these things happened,

If this was the world I lived in,

I will go on to

Judaism/Hasidut/Breslov,

retrieve the 1811 file of

Shabbat Nahamu

In Uman,

hear Rabbi Nahman

raise his voice

to the future:

“Gevald Yidden,

do not despair!”

And listen to him

for eternity.

When Yechezkel’s resurrected people return from the dead, when the survivors of the Shoa return from the dead, when a Sefer Tora returns from the dead, we have no choice but to be optimistic, to recognize that nothing is irretrievable and irrevocable, to hold fast to our faith and trust in HaShem. Perhaps this is the testimony that is most precious of all, and this is what should pass through our minds every time we open the Aron and see the Berg Sefer Tora in all its splendor and living vitality.

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[1] I recall once flying to Israel, and a tourist group was bringing their own Tora with them. Unfortunately, they stored the Tora in the upper luggage compartment, and I spent the entire flight worrying that a patch of turbulence was going to pop open the compartment’s lid, launching the Tora into an unsuspecting passenger’s lap. Needless to say, a Tora needs to be much better secured in order to accord it requisite “Kavod HaTora”.

[2] It has always been disturbing to me to note the manner in which Chumashim, Siddurim and other books used for services and study are either left strewn around synagogues and day schools, or even if they are shelved, how many are placed upside down or left in a disorganized fashion. By not taking the time to take care of our “Tashmishei Kedusha” (artifacts that serve the purpose of demonstrating and representing the holiness of Judaism and Jewish practice), we are failing to show appropriate “Kavod LaTora”, something that not only reflects poorly upon ourselves, but is almost certainly noticed by our children. I remember my mother, ZaL, from the time I was very young, showing me how a Siddur was not to be placed atop a Chumash, and that Seforim, once one has completed using them should be closed and respectfully placed down with the proper side up. Not only have I not forgotten the specifics of the lesson, but I am sure that such a sensibility communicated during my formative years, has contributed to my appreciation for what a Sefer truly stands for, and therefore how it is meant to be treated to this very day.

[3] Although the simple meaning of the verse in question refers to an individual who does not fulfill God’s Commandments, the homiletic interpretation approaches the Tora as the objective symbol of these Commandments, and the manner in which one treats the Tora, both for good and for bad, is an external indicator of the internal spiritual attitude and commitment of the individual.

[4] This is yet another manner in which a Tora is treated as if it is a person.

[5] The Library of Everything—Poems and Torah Commentaries, ATID, Jerusalem, 2004, p. 84.