Why is this Tora Dedication Different

from all other Tora Dedications?

 

R. Yaakov Bieler

Summer 2010

 

Being a Rabbi in the Washington DC area has allowed me over the years to take part in many events that are truly unique to this area and the people who live and work in it. How many Rabbis have the chance to take part in military promotion and retirement ceremonies of personnel who attend shul regularly, be present at the swearings-in of friends and congregants who are becoming important  government officials, attending a Sheva Berachot at which were a high concentration of Senators and Congressmen, and giving Shiurim to OU interns in Congressional hearing rooms? 

 

On Monday, May 10th, 2010, I had the privilege of participating in one of these one-of-a-kind ceremonies on Capitol Hill. At the previous GA last fall in Washington, the Jewish Welfare Board’s Chaplain’s Council, an organization that serves the 37 full time and 55 reserve Jewish chaplains in the US armed forces, started publicizing a program called, “Torahs for Our Troops.” This is a new project undertaken by this  incredibly important organization, which in the past has not only supplied the Kashrut and Pesach needs of soldiers overseas, but also provided holiday materials, prayer books, bibles and other religious articles so that chaplains will be well-equipped to serve their special congregants. While Sifrei Tora are located at sixty major US bases throughout the world, with respect to soldiers in combat zones, even if a chaplain is able to visit them,[1] he usually does not have access to a Sefer Tora, the single most holy symbol of their Jewish heritage. Even though a Minyan might be hard to come by on certain ships at sea, or in remote outposts, the mere ability to connect with an actual Tora scroll, referred to by RaMBaM (Mishna Tora, Hilchot Tefillin, Mezuzah, VeSefer Tora, 10:11)  as “…a faithful witness for all who come from everywhere in the world…” can be an extremely meaningful way by which a Jewish soldier or sailor far from home and possibly risking his life on behalf of his country, can feel a bond to his heritage and his forefathers.  Therefore “Torahs for Our Troops” was initiated with the hope that six small, light, extremely portable Sifrei Tora would be commissioned through private donations in order that they could readily be brought to and used in the theater of battle.

 

The first of these Torot was completed by its Sofer, R. Zerach Greenfield,[2] on a bright Monday morning in a room on the lower floor of the Senate Building as part of a ceremony that involved a truly interesting, varied group of people of all ages, denominations, religions and walks of life. In addition to the donors who supplied the funds for making the writing of this Tora possible, among them a local family, were Senator Carl Levin, current chairman of the Armed Services Committee, a number of generals and admirals, the Chief Chaplains from the various military services, active duty chaplains, family members of a Jewish soldier who had recently lost his life, representatives of various Jewish organizations as well as friends and well-wishers. The gathering was reminded by a number of speakers of the heroism that Jewish soldiers have displayed during their service to protect this country and its way of life.  The Sofer, who had come from Israel together with the Tora that he had been writing in order that the scroll could be completed on this day, invited various dignitaries and attendees to take turns holding the quill together with him as he filled in the final words and letters completing the final lines of Sefer Devarim. Once the Tora was finished, it was inserted in the special hard case in which it could be carried safely and securely by the chaplains who will be taking it on their rounds.  The ceremony concluded with a procession accompanied by singing where the Tora was covered by a canopy consisting of a Tallit held by various representatives of the people who were in attendance.  Colonel Brett Oxman, a Jewish chaplain with Orthodox ordination who is now beginning a tour in the Middle East, and recently has been attending  KMS while training for his upcoming mission, told me that this Tora was one of three that he would be taking with him when he would assume his duties just before Shavuot. 

 

While I find every Tora completion and dedication to be deeply moving, and each such event naturally has a great deal in common with similar dedications that we have held over the years at KMS, I was struck by something unique and special about this particular ceremony, specifically the relationship that those assembled would have with this newly completed scroll. The Talmud in Sanhedrin 21b, in the name of Raba, states that even if a person is fortunate enough to have a Tora left to him as part of his parent’s estate, he nevertheless has an obligation to commission/acquire an additional one, based upon the verse in Devarim 31:19, “And now write for yourselves this song and teach it the Children of Israel…” While the simple referent of “this song” is the poem contained in Parashat Ha’azinu (Devarim 32:1-43), the Rabbis additionally understood that the entire Tora constitutes a poem, leading therefore to the conclusion that each individual Jew was being given at this point the obligation to either write such a scroll himself, or have this done via a surrogate, as several other Commandments are typically carried out.[3]  While even the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De’ah 270:2) states that today, since the entire point of this Mitzva is to enable individuals to study Tora with their own text, the Mitzva is fulfilled by owning books that contain the teachings of the Written and Oral Tradition rather than a Tora scroll which could not be studied as readily, not all decisors are in agreement with this opinion (see the commentaries on the Shulchan Aruch’s assertion.) Although a case could be made to support those who believe that the Commandment is intended to aid Tora study from Devarim’s explanation why a Jewish king has a special obligation to write an additional Tora for his own use—

 

(17:19) “And it will be with him and he will read in it all the days of his life in order that he will learn to fear the Lord, his God to observe all the words of this Tora and these statutes in order to do them,”

 

--one could nevertheless draw a distinction between the situation of a king, as compared to everyone else. It is specifically a king who is vulnerable to becoming overly impressed by his power and wealth who needs to be constantly reminded by the presence of the Tora and his studying it, that even he is beholden to HaShem. As for Jewish non-kings, the idea that each of them should similarly have their own Tora, even as the king himself is supposed to own one Tora to fulfill the general obligation and then additionally to have a second Tora, could be explained in a different fashion. Perhaps in order to have everyone develop a sense that s/he has accepted and possesses a stake in the Tora, an actual Tora must either be commissioned or purchased.

 

But it is this very point, i.e., the presence of the Tora will represent our deep bond with it and in turn with HaShem and His Mitzvot,  that at first glance results in a disconnect with respect to “Torahs for Our Troops.” Usually, once the writing of a Tora is finished, the Tora is brought into the shul, to take its place, as it were, with all of the other Torot in the synagogue’s Aron Kodesh. The Tora then becomes known as the Tora that belongs to so-and-so, or the one that such-and-such donated, and its idiosyncratic characteristics, e.g., its Mantel (lit. coat; i.e., the cover on which is often embroidered names of significant individuals in the family of the donor,) the silver that is associated with it, the script within, its size, etc., come to be recognized by regular worshippers, especially the Ba’alei Kriya (those who read the Tora on behalf of the congregation,) as well those who commissioned or purchased the Tora  each time it is taken out and read on Shabbat, Yom Tov and/or during the week. And when the Tora is used regularly in shul, while the family most responsible for the Tora will feel a special connection to it, the entire congregation also shares in that connection, by its membership in the synagogue and its regular participation in its services. But the Tora that was completed in May in the Senate for use by US Chaplains, would probably rarely if ever be seen again by those who were responsible for bringing it into existence. This Tora’s congregation will be far-flung, hardly permanently based in one location, and would constantly change as tours of duty would begin and end.  Designating a Tora for this type of purpose can be nothing other than an act that is purely LeShma, for the sake of itself, to purely and sacrificially help others, as opposed to gaining some personal benefit or even sense of satisfaction. It is an act of spiritual Chesed on behalf of those who very well might feel cut off from every other element of home. The Sofer noted that the last words of the Tora are “Kol Yisrael” (all of Israel) and the sense of the broad range of people that make up “all of Israel” was very much in the air at this memorable ceremony which I don’t ever expect to forget.

 

Anyone interested in participating in “Torahs for Our Troops,” can get more information at:    http://www.jcca.org/jwb/Torahs_for_Our_Troops.pdf


[1] I was talking to one chaplain who told me that he always viewed what he did as a “ministry of one,” i.e., that even if there was a single soldier who was in need of his council or support, that was sufficient for him to exert great effort to try to be with that individual and assist him. He said this is often true about Jewish military chaplains, since Jewish personnel are not all that common and are therefore scattered far and wide.

[2] A video of R. Greenfield writing a Sefer Tora for “Torahs for Our Troops” and explaining what he is doing can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BTtSQHBV-s 

[3] E.g., Brit Mila, teaching one’s children Tora, and public Tora reading.