Shavuot+More About our Torah
Tonight we begin the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which commemorates receiving the Torah. I thought that I would take this opportunity to tell you a little more about the Torah that Karov received, which is currently being repaired in Florida.
Shortly before Thanksgiving last year, I saw a post on a social justice email list for rabbis that said the following: “My congregation is looking for a new home for 4 or 5 pasul sifrei torah for the price of shipping. Please reply if interested.”
“Pasul sifrei Torah”= damaged Torah scrolls. A pasul Torah is the opposite of a kosher Torah. Often people associate the word kosher with food but really it just means “fit” for use. If a Torah is missing even one letter it becomes pasul. The good news is that most Torah’s that are pasul can be repaired by a scribe and become kosher.
I was astounded to see this email because, in the ten years I’ve worked as a rabbi, I have never heard of anyone giving away a Torah, even if the Torah is damaged. A new Torah starts around $50,000. Even a used Torah starts at about $15,000. So when I saw this email, I jumped at the opportunity. After some back and forth, the donated Torah arrived in February.
In a previous email, I mentioned how this Torah is remarkable because it is extremely lightweight. What I had not realized at the time was that the handles of the Torah contain information about when and where the Torah was written and the Rabbi and his wife that the Torah was written in honor of. Unfortunately, I can’t quite make out the name of the rabbi and his wife, however, the fact that his wife is mentioned is pretty astounding considering our Torah was written in 1928 in Hamburg.
Since receiving our Torah, I’ve become quite interested in Hamburg. Thanks to the book The Last Ships from Hamburg, I learned that Hamburg was a vibrant port city during this period. In fact, many Jews who were escaping the Pale of Settlement often made their way to the United States on a boat via Hamburg. Most bought passage through HAPAG (Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft), which roughly translates to: "Hamburg-American Packet Shipping Joint-Stock Company." HAPAG, under the leadership of a Jewish man named Albert Ballin (he died in 1918), grew to be the world’s largest shipping company at the time. For any of you who enjoy cruises, you can thank Albert Ballin. He invented the idea of the pleasure cruise as a revenue stream for HAPAG during winter months.
While our Torah gives us clues about Her (Torah is a feminine word in Hebrew) history, there is so much more I want to know. I wish I could ask her how it was that she made her way from Hamburg to Sherman Oaks, CA. Did she travel before WWII? Or, did she somehow manage to survive the Holocaust, unlike the countless Torahs that were destroyed? And, what happened to the Jews in her community during the Holocaust? To the rabbi and his wife? Sadly, her story will likely forever be a mystery.
Even knowing what little I do of her history makes me feel even more blessed to have this Torah in our community. Every time we read from our Torah is an act of showing Jewish continuity despite the odds. And in the coming months, when our Torah is used for B’nai Mitzvah ceremonies, we will demonstrate that Judaism lives on in the next generation.
Wishing you a Chag Sameach, a wonderful holiday, and a Shabbat Shalom!
