When Air Canada Flight 887 left the tarmac at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport on May 12, a rather unusual item was in the overhead bin. Together with the coats and carry-ons, in an army-green duffel bag was a newly completed Torah scroll.
It flew first class.
And on June 11, members of Congregation Beth David in Saratoga marked the end of a year they called “The Year of the Torah,” with a celebration welcoming the new scroll into the congregation.
“This is an event that is not even once in a lifetime, but fairly infrequently in the life of a congregation or the life of a Jew,” said Rabbi Daniel Pressman, now in his 20th year as spiritual leader of Beth David.
“The Year of the Torah” began in June 1999 with a kickoff ceremony in which a scribe, Rabbi Shmuel Miller from Los Angeles, explained the process of making a Torah.
Beth David President Margie Pomerantz had heard of another synagogue that had commissioned a Torah as part of its fund-raising efforts.
“We wanted to have something lighter in weight, and that was much more legible, and would be a better teaching tool for our kids,” said Doris Katz, co-chair of the Torah project.
Families could contribute anywhere from $36,000 for the etz chayim — the wooden staves of the Torah — to $1.80 for a single letter, allowing the congregation’s children to participate as well.
But synagogue leaders wanted the project to be more than just a fund-raiser. They also wanted to promote Jewish education.
At the time, the chairs of the Torah committee thought they would hold a contest, in which the winner would go to Israel to accompany the Torah back home. But then, they came up with a better idea: Plan a synagogue trip to Israel, with picking up the Torah on the itinerary.
“We could have a dinner or something, but we wanted something tangible, something beneficial and permanent,” Pressman said.
So the congregation asked Pressman to lead a trip and he was more than happy to oblige.
Using a book by Lawrence Hoffman, “Israel as a Spiritual Travel Guide: A Companion for the Modern Jewish Pilgrim,” Pressman designed the itinerary.
“On many synagogue tours to Israel, the religious and pilgrimage aspect is ignored,” said Pressman. “I wanted to do something with a really spiritual component to it and this book provided a wonderful way of how to do it.”
Meanwhile, several events were held throughout the year, all focussing on Torah education. After the initial kickoff in June 1999, an education day was held on Jan. 9, called “Touching Torah.” Events included text study sessions, displays, and arts and crafts. More than 50 parishioners of nearby churches visited, to see a Torah scroll for the first time.
The trip took place from April 30 to May 12.
The group began in Jordan, visiting the biblical sites, and got to Israel in time for Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day.
Member Eleanor Dickman, who went on the trip, said the timing of the trip made it special.
“It’s a historic time, being there for Yom HaZikaron and [Israel’s Independence Day] Yom HaAtzmaut,” she said. “They’re not traditional religious holidays, but the sense of movement from sorrow and loss to strength and achievement was really very striking.”
Also, Dickman said, “to be there in the country and watch the city put away its sadness at sundown, and become a country of celebration and unity, was something really nice to feel.”
On the last day of the trip, Pressman went with some male synagogue members to the scribe’s home to pick up the Torah. Only men accompanied Pressman because he sensed that the scribe would not be comfortable handing over the Torah to women.
“It was clear to me that he wasn’t comfortable with it,” said Pressman. “My feeling was that if an ultra-Orthodox Jew tells me what I should be doing in my synagogue, that’s one thing, but he was in his own home.”
At the airport, “we took it out of the duffel bag and took pictures with it,” said Katz. “It was a very moving moment.”
Then on June 11, the synagogue held a celebration in which members carried the new Torah, under a chuppah, to “meet” the others.
The dedication was a “really amazing event,” said Pressman. “It was one of the most significant Jewish experiences [my congregants] ever had.”
When putting a yearlong program together, Pressman added, one can never count on everything going as planned. But in this case, the synagogue succeeded all expectations.
“This whole year, on every level, it went extra well,” he said. “We got a lot of people doing Torah study, we had kids writing essays, we had over 600 people at the dedication, and we exceeded our fund-raising goal. We succeeded any way you want to look at it.”