I've seen some people saying stuff about the Nessah Synagogue vandalism like, "well, all that happened were some Bibles were burned, no one died."
Thank goodness no one died, but it's a bit more serious than that. Torah scrolls aren't Bibles.
Thank goodness no one died, but it's a bit more serious than that. Torah scrolls aren't Bibles.
I'm not sure what to compare them to, as far as cost and rarity. It's not quite like destroying the Book of Kells--they're not unique--but it's also nothing like destroying a printed Bible, even a valuable one.
Each Torah scroll has to be hand-written by a qualified scribe. Each letter exact. If the scribe screws up even a single letter--adds, forgets, lets it touch another--the scroll can't be used.
That's why they're so expensive--I think they start at about $30k--and why so many congregations use very old Torah scrolls that were brought here in honor from Europe, or smuggled out during dangerous times. wsj.com/articles/SB100…
Sometimes the Torah scroll, carefully saved from destruction during pogroms or the Shoah, is all that is left of a vanished Jewish community.
We stand to greet the Torah when we take it out of the ark. We dress it in special garments for the holidays. We press kisses upon it with a tallit. We dance with it at Simchat Torah. If it falls to the ground, we mourn with 40 days of fasting.
And for those who are either Christian--and know it only as *part* of a purely religious document they follow--or angry at Christianity--and know it as only *part* of a purely religious document they resent--you do not understand, at all, the place it holds for Jews.
It is our Constitution, our Magna Carta, the personal story of our family, and more. It is the foundation of our cultural library, our people's literature, that we have carried with us and has kept us as one people despite thousands of years of repeated scatterings.
And it has carried us. When the world seemed too cruel to be borne, it was a homeland that went with us, into which we could retreat at times to rest and regain our strength and determination to emerge and fight again.
When one wears out or is damaged, and can no longer be repaired, we bury it like a person. We keep a light on at all times, so it is never alone in the dark.
It can serve as the 10th person to make a quorum for Jewish practices that require a minyan.
It can serve as the 10th person to make a quorum for Jewish practices that require a minyan.
Each one is precious, expensive, heavy, and beloved. They are the resident soul of a synagogue, the focal point of traditional Jewish community.
To see one desecrated is a blow I don't know how to describe.
To see one desecrated is a blow I don't know how to describe.
So no, while this is not as bad as a shooting, this also isn't just "vandalism." And it's nothing like, "some Bibles got burned."
And for those that are interested, here's more on how they're made. myjewishlearning.com/article/torah-…
