I'm posting my usual jokey snark tonight, but I want to say something to whatever non-Jewish following I have about the reaction I'm seeing to the damaged Torah scrolls at the Nessah Synagogue. There's a theme to the reactions on my TL.
It hurts to see it.
It physically hurts.
It hurts to see it.
It physically hurts.
I've seen it described as a gut punch. As being hit with a hammer. As being strangled. I felt like my lungs were being squeezed. Someone said it was like looking at pictures of dead bodies.
It's hard to describe what the Torah scrolls mean to us. I don't think 'sacred object' captures it. I've heard people learning to carry the Torah being told to hold it like a toddler. We kiss it (indirectly) when we greet it on Shabbat. When it's too damaged to repair, we bury it
It's like a member of our family. So the pictures circulating, it's liking looking at a member of our family torn, broken, tossed carelessly across the floor and the furniture. This isn't just vandalism. It's not just destruction of an expensive book. It hurts.
