Rabbi's Message

Each week in this column we talk Torah, but rarely to we talk about Torahs.  What I mean is talking about the actual Torah scrolls that we read from at TBS.  In our Torah vault live 18 Torahs.  A few of them are no longer kosher, and we use some of those for teaching.  Most of them, however, we use throughout the year.  We have Torah scrolls that survived the Holocaust, and scroll that we wrote as a congregation about 25 years ago that we read from every Shabbat.  There is a scroll from Yemen, a Sephardic scroll that Rabbi Lewis brought back after his sabbatical in Israel in 1967, and a number of scrolls that were donated by families to the synagogue.  One of the first Torah scrolls that TBS ever received was donated in 1949 by Harry Fastow, who was the first president of our congregation.  Since then, this Torah has had a place in our ark each Shabbat and we have continued to read from it on holidays.  A couple of years ago, Harry's son, Joe Fastow, reached out to us about this Torah.  Joe is helping to build a new synagogue in Sun Valley, Idaho, and asked if the Torah his father donated to TBS when we were starting out could now be donated to his new shul.  

We recognized right away what a wonderful mitzvah this would be.  So, after consulting with other members of Harry Fastow's family, and of course talking it through with Alvin, we decided to donate this Torah to the Wood River Jewish Community.  This Shabbat the Fastow Torah will be in our ark for the last time, and this Sunday morning our Rabbi Albert & Sarah Lewis Religious School students will give it a proper send off at our end of the year celebration.  Next Tuesday, Joe and his family will come to TBS to get the Torah, and CBS News Philadelphia will be here to share our story on the evening news as part of their coverage of Jewish Heritage Month.  We will post on our Facebook page specific details about when the story will be aired.  

Each time we prepare to take the Torah out of the ark we say ki mitzion tayzei Torah -- Torah comes out from Zion.  Over the centuries, this verse has been adapted by various communities to proudly share the Torah they have taught.  This week we can say ki miTBS tayzei Torah -- a Torah comes out from TBS.  We may be giving an actual Torah scroll, but what I am most proud of is the lesson that this teaches.  Jews are responsible for one another, and when we can help our fellow Jews, whether they are in need of food, support, or a Torah, we do the best we can to provide for those needs.  This Tuesday will be yet another example of our how our kehillah kedoshah, our sacred community, of TBS does this.  We can do this because of the strength of our congregation, which is due to the commitment of each and every one of us.  May this Torah, which has inspired us at TBS with its lessons for more than 70 years, do the same for the Jewish community of Sun Valley, Idaho.