Temple Beth Or travelers & Hermanuv-Mestec townspeople
after 1st Torah Service in 68 years (April 3, 2008)
Stacy Grove, April 18, 2008
For those who could not be present last Friday night at the Shabbat service as Reb Raachel walked the Hernanuv Mestec Torah to the Bimah where Rabbi Lucy read from it the week's parashat, it was a unique opportunity to acknowledge the ongoing journey of this scroll and our link to it. Those who could be present were invited to follow Reb Raachel to the Bimah and stand there, as we had done 2 weeks earlier just before embarking on this very special journey together. That evening we were a group of travelers -- some who knew one another and others who did not -- getting ready to visit Eastern Europe and touch aspects of history and heritage in ways that we could not imagine. We stood on the Bimah last Friday evening as a 'family' bound together by the sharing of delicious meals, excellent opera, ballet, and symphony, along with some intense, overwhelming experiences of joy, sorrow, anger, gratitude, laughter, silence, song and worship as we visited some beautiful and some horrific sites that speak of human creativity at its best and human evil at its worst.
Only 8 days earlier we stood with the same Torah in Hermanuv Mestec, a land foreign to us and 'home' to that scroll. It seemed as though the walls of the synagogue could feel the Torah scroll being placed back into its beautifully decorated ark, the heart space of its being. All who were present sensed something very sacred going on in our midst. In its home town we were welcomed by people who eagerly awaited our arrival and the opportunity to share in a profound worship experience. It was a typical Reform Jewish worship service for reading of Torah, because it was a Thursday morning. Yet it was so much more than typical !!
This sanctuary had been void of God’s spoken word and worship for 60+ years. That day it was filled with the warmth of two loving communities: one which had cared enough to preserve a sacred space that for centuries served a faith community which today no longer exists, and another that took on the role of caring for its most important ritual object. We began with flute music and Rabbi Lucy Dinner’s welcoming words honoring this special moment in time when “two communities from across the globe are gathered together to celebrate what they share in common”, the Torah. Then we all stood and raised our voices “to proclaim the best that is in all of humanity.” Just hearing the chant of Mah Tovu –“How beautiful are your tents, how glorious to join together” echoing and reverberating throughout that building was a very moving experience. Each member of our group took part in the service by reading a prayer or reading from the Torah -- community present together and actively engaged.
After completing the Torah portion of the service in the beautifully restored sanctuary, we chanted the Mi Shebeirach, the healing prayer. We lifted up the names of TBO members and other loved ones who we acknowledge are need of healing. How many of us were silently praying for healing of our own wounds, as emotions surfaced that we can’t even name in the moment? Who among us was asking healing for the people who shared homes in these communities with neighbors that were walking alongside them one day and forever gone the next? What other prayers for healing did we lift up that day in silence, only one day after walking in the streets of Terezin? The mixed emotions of joy and sadness spread throughout the room as we listened to the meditation Carol read just prior to Reb Raachel chanting the El Malei Rachamim and all of us reciting the Mourner’s Kaddish.
This day was a celebration of firsts: the first time this century a worship service was being conducted and peace sought for all peoples in this synagogue; the first time women rabbis were present and leading the worship; the first time men and women participated in the worship service from the bimah; the first time women read from Torah within these walls; the first time El Malei Rachamim and Mourner’s Kaddish was recited here in minyan for those from this community and all who have gone before us.
If any of the local people there were Jewish, besides our guide, Eliska, we did not know. We do know there were Christians there to celebrate with us this special honor of the first Jewish service here since 1939! If it weren't for these caring people, this synagogue would not have been restored in the beautiful authentic decorative style of its time... this trip would never have had reason to be.
The Torah has made yet another cycle from its home ark in Hermanuv Mestec, this time back to the ark from which it continues to be honored at Temple Beth Or, where it has become part of this community's ongoing life cycle story. The Torah portion in Leviticus just before we left spoke of theophany, of God's presence appearing to all the people outside the Tent of Meeting after Aaron and Moses came out of the Tent of Meeting. The Torah portions while in Hermanuv Mestec and as the Torah returned to its TBO ark spoke about different types of 'impurities', discharges, leprosy -- the reasons for separation from community, always with instructions for how God provides return to one's community.
These were the bookend Torah readings for this scroll's journey to its original home and back to its adoptive home at TBO. Both of the arks that serve as the resting place for this scroll have similar decorative style --- one of the many little synchronicities that marked this two week journey.
The scroll was with us as we went to some of the places where people endured persecutions in numbers that rocked this world!!! The wounds were so great!! It has been more than 60 years, almost 20 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, and the darkness that has cast its heavy veil over this land shows signs of lifting. It’s as though the shock and numbness that accompanies death has loosened its grip and given way to feeling the emotions that allow us to move ahead in the healing.
This huge wound that has scarred hundreds of miles of land and spans the globe in its emotional rippling is seeking a major healing. A wound as it heals becomes itchy, in need of being scratched. The numbness and denial give way to sensitivities that beg to be felt and spoken; new discoveries are made while cleaning out the attics of family homes…. the truths are told, the diaries are read …and the ripple effect continues to vibrate throughout the world. Some Christian people discover they are Jewish or learn how their family history has been influenced by these ways in which human evil doing tried to destroy God.
There is a huge void in this part of the world that can not be forgotten, and will be remembered throughout history. How are each of us called to remember and how do we choose to respond to the feelings that surface? Our response can make a major impact in the overall healing for our families and our communities. Will we find what we need to smooth our wounds’ fragmented edges? Can we truly let go of those feelings that keep us stuck in the past or can we free ourselves and open our eyes to the God who walks with us amidst our deepest and darkest times?
Stories were shared as we met people from these communities we visited. They were told by Jewish people and by Christian people, shared with one another; and in those stories more light filled the spaces where darkness has been.
As we enter this season of Passover, Pesach, it is the time to remember the liberation of the ancient Israelites from their bondage. I recall Carol and Peter’s cousin, Merika’s, comment about being able to tell Americans because “they walk like they are free”. Have we healed some of our wounds that have been keeping us fragmented and in bondage? Can we now walk with a new sense of freedom, as we recall our own liberation experiences from this journey we shared?
The Tent of Meeting traveled with the people of Israel in their journey through the wilderness, and God’s presence was made known to the people throughout that journey. Blessed be God who traveled with us on our journey, continues to speak to us through the black fire on white fire of the Torah, and invites each of us to become healed and whole -- to become Shalom.
B'Shalom, Stacy
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