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~ General Information & Contact Details
~ The JCS Torah
Scroll: Purim-Torah. What a Megillah
Values:
The Jewish Chaplaincy Society believes in supporting the many
Jews and their families who may wish to express their Jewishness in a
non-synagogue setting. Embracing Canada’s integrated multifaith culture,
the JCS supports interfaith couples and families. We believe that all
persons are entitled to have their tradition present at life’s important
moments.
Services Available:
Rabbi Dina-Hasida Mercy is available for life-cycle events including
weddings, baby-namings, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, and memorial services. She is
also a well-respected Jewish educator for all age groups, a spiritual
counsellor and facilitator for individuals who wish to formalize their
status within the Jewish people.
Home Bar Mitzvah with Bayless Family
How to Contact:
Chaplain: Rabbi Dina-Hasida Mercy (Ordination: Modern Rabbi Program of
the Rabbinic Seminary International of New York City; 1998) ~
604-876-2770 |
dhasida@shaw.ca
The Jewish Chaplaincy Society is a registered non-profit society in the
Province of British Columbia: Registration number S-44321
JCS gladly accepts donations in support of its work for which charitable
tax receipts are issued.
Purim Torah at L’chaim
Purim Torah at L’chaim
The JCS
Torah Scroll: Purim-Torah. What a Megillah
When Adar comes in, joy increases. On Purim we engage in Purim-Torah:
jokes and irreverent teachings that blur the differences between the
sacred and the profane.
The Jewish Chaplaincy Society has wanted a Torah Scroll of its own since
its inception in 2002. Every once in a while, I would check out the
Torah section of ebay and dream. The notion of acquiring a Torah through
ebay is Purim-Torah to begin with.
In March 2007, being in an Adar frame of mind, I decided that if there
was a suitable, somewhat affordable, scroll on ebay, I should just go
for it.
The ad read “Rare Antique Gorgeous Torah Scroll VERY CLEAR”. I checked
out the seller’s feedback rating (100% positive), I examined the photos
(looking good!). I bid and I won. How beautifully simple! The seller
sent an email saying that he just arrived in New York for 10 days, but
his wife in Bnei Braq would pack up the scroll and send it.
10 days later, I heard from the seller again: he’s back in Bnei Braq and
my Sefer Torah is sitting on his desk and he doesn’t really know which
Torah Scroll his wife mailed to me. I emailed back that the scroll had
not yet arrived. He found out (in Israel!) that the scroll was indeed in
Vancouver and that two attempts had been made to deliver it and that I
had been notified. All of this was news to me. The seller asked me to
examine this scroll to see if it would an acceptable replacement for the
one I had purchased.
By this time, my pre-Purim joy was replaced by anxiety and a sense of
surrealism. I picked up the scroll from City Square and considered the
interface between the sacred and the mundane and that this whole process
was getting too Purim-Torah for me. The scribe was out of town so I
started checking out the holy traveler on my own.
This scroll has obviously had a long and active life. I have never seen
a Sefer Torah like it. I could tell that repairs had been made at
different times by different scribes and that not all of them were
gracefully done. Whole k’lafim had been replaced in several places.
There were stretched letters here and cramped letters there. I imagined
that this scroll had been the treasure of a small congregation somewhere
in the old country. They couldn’t afford a new Sefer Torah and just kept
repairing this one. I imagined the joy and celebration when the
community finally acquired a new scroll and retired this one. These
thoughts were totally imaginative because the seller told me that he
really didn’t know very much about this particular scroll.
As much as I wanted this scroll to be ‘The One’, I emailed back just
before Purim and described my observations and asked for the scroll that
I had purchased to be sent. I told him that I would send this one back
COD by the evening of the next day (so I would be able to hear back from
him before sending).
Most of the packing material that the scroll had arrived in was still a
small mountain in my living room, so I repacked it and, using some
fabric I had around the house, sewed it into its final outer layer for
additional protection. I mailed it late on a Thursday evening. There is
no COD available to Israel, so I cringed and put the postage expense on
my credit card. In my mind I could hear my friends telling me NOT to do
that and me replying something about faith.
There was an email from the seller Friday morning: Don’t send it back!
Apparently Israeli customs could charge duty as if it were a new scroll.
He asked if I would look for a home for the scroll here and he will mail
‘my’ Sefer Torah after Shushan Purim (the next business day).
This is when the real miracles happened: I was actually able to retrieve
my beautifully packaged holy traveler from the postal outlet where I had
mailed it the evening before. I was also able to reverse the charges on
my credit card.
In shul the next day, I announced that this Torah Scroll is looking for
a good home, most likely a retirement home. I have a hard time calling a
Torah Scroll ‘un-kosher,’ even if it is no longer usable for public
Torah readings. The holiness remains. The history is there, even if it
is as hidden as the name of God in the scroll of Esther.
The Purim-Torah Scroll, as I think of it, is now in the Jewish Museum
and Archives of British Columbia where it is used for educational
purposes.
The Jewish Chaplaincy Society’s Torah Scroll eventually arrived in March
2007 with a slightly smaller amount of confusion. Customs Canada opened
the parcel and decided that it was ‘wall-covering material.’ The Scroll
is over 100 years old, but very little else is known about it. Even as
Torah Scrolls go, it is big and heavy.
The JCS Torah was first used in Vancouver for a Bat Mitzvah in April
2007. When that announcement was made during the service, a big moment
got bigger. The awe and wonder was palpable. Since then, the Scroll has
been used for Sh’ar Harim High Holyday services in Whistler BC.
Both of these Torah Scrolls have been written about in greater detail by
Ronnie Tessler in The Scribe, The Journal of the Jewish Historical
Society of British Columbia Volume XXVI. No. 2., 2007.
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Last updated: September 4, 2008