When A Torah Scroll Falls …

How one Conservative congregation in the Bronx is making a teaching moment out of a rare accident in the synagogue.

Monday, Nov. 7: A day set aside for fasting, giving tzedakah and studying sacred texts to “focus on the holiness of the Torah and its message.”

Too often we take things for granted until they are endangered.

On Shabbat morning, Sept. 24, at the Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale (CSAIR), a Sefer Torah that had been placed in its usual wooden holding rack during services fell to the ground. Congregants responded with “a gasp,” recalled Rabbi Barry Dov Katz, the senior spiritual leader of the congregation. 

“It felt like a long time before anyone responded,” he told me, though the Torah was lifted back into place almost immediately. “It was an accident, no one was hurt and the scroll was undamaged. But it is jarring and disturbing to see a holy object on the ground.”

Immediately after the incident, Rabbi Katz rose to the occasion by making  a brief announcement that  comforted his congregants, connecting them to the depth and sensitivity of Jewish tradition. He explained that it is customary in such situations to give tzedakah, fast, pray and study Torah, and that a date would be set aside to mark the accident.

The fast is scheduled to be held tomorrow, Nov. 7, beginning at 5:21 a.m. and ending at 5:16 p.m.A notice sent to the congregants pointed out that “these acts are not meant as punishment but to help us focus on the holiness of the Torah and its message.”  People were asked to “choose the ways of marking this day that speak to you.” 

Options include tzedakah, and specifically donations to the Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund to replace the aztei chayim (wood dowels) that hold the Torahs, and for future repairs of the synagogue’s Torah scrolls, prayer books and other religious articles. (It is believed the Torah fell as a result of the almost-full weight of the parchment on one of the scrolls, since it was near the end of the annual cycle.)

The fast itself is “an expression of communal solidarity, especially [for] those who saw the scroll fall,” the notice said. It added that “popular lore has it that when a Torah falls, we fast for 40 days. Halacha, Jewish law, is more modest.”  There is discussion among the sages, post-Talmud era, about how to respond when a holy object like a Torah scroll or tefillin falls. Some texts say fasting is appropriate, though limited to the person who dropped the Torah, which does not apply in this case.

At Monday’s 5 p.m. Mincha service at CSAIR, participants will “learn laws and ways Jewish texts talk about the holiness of a Torah scroll.” After the evening service, a break-fast will take place at the synagogue and include Torah study.

Rabbi Katz said the response he has received to this planned day of fasting and reflection has been overwhelming. He felt the congregants “appreciated the tone and the chance to participate” in a way that honors the Torah, its laws and traditions.  

This is not the first such Torah scroll fast the rabbi has initiated. In his first year at CSAIR, 25 years ago, a Torah scroll was dropped “for a few seconds,” he said, during spirited Simchat Torah dancing, though the incident was only noticed by the rabbi and two congregants. The rabbi called for and held a similar day of fasting, tzedakah and Torah study at that time.

“I see this ritual as a spiritual and educational response,” he told me, adding that Jewish tradition has rituals to deal with other troubling events. These could include bad dreams, periods of drought, or political crises affecting the Jewish community. 

The concept of a congregation showing reverence, through an ancient tradition, to a scroll that embodies the core of our faith is a source of pride for us all. 




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