Tuesday, April 20, 2010

What Torah Means... to Deborah Freedman

Counting the Omer Day 22

It’s no secret that I love to read. As a child, and still today, there is a usually a book (or newspaper or magazine) within reach and I’ve always loved to read and reread many of my favorites. So too, the Torah is a book which I read and reread. Each rereading gives me new insights and personal connections, new characters to focus on, and always brings up new questions to ask.

Knowing that Jews all over the world are reading the same section of Torah each week is, to me, a comfort. It means that we all belong to an enormous collective book group! It means that wherever in the world we may find ourselves, we can access other Jews through our common book.

We traveled to Italy on our honeymoon. On Shabbat, we sought out a synagogue in the small, ancient city where we happened to be. Besides the aged caretaker and his wife, we were the only people there for morning services. Their siddur was in Italian, of course, and Hebrew, and we followed along as best we could. But when they took out their Torah and the man read from it, chanting the same familiar trope and melodies that we knew, we could have been in our home synagogue, following along with the week’s portion. But we were not. We were in a tiny, Italian synagogue, built in 1756, feeling a kinship with Jews of today and yesterday, near and far, linked by our Torah.

Our Reform movement’s new siddur puts it this way: “Those who study Torah are the true guardians of civilization.” That is us. We read and reread and study Torah. We take care of each other, fellow Jews, no matter where we are, across time and place.

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