Dear Friends,
Judaism was founded the moment that our Israelite ancestors left Egypt almost 3300 years ago. Just seven weeks after they crossed the Sea of Reeds, they were summoned to Mount Sinai to witness the giving of the Torah by God to Moses. Every Israelite who escaped from Egypt heard the Word, or the words, of God. And not them alone. The Torah tells us that generations past and future were there, too. That includes us, wondrous to say. So our Sages teach that each one of us was present, which means that each one of us bears the responsibility to carry Torah forward.
But what do we mean by Torah? In our congregation, Torah comes in three different forms: in a hand-written scroll (we have four of them); in books (we have about fifty of them); and in the members of our congregation who embody Torah teachings and values.
Before we had even one Torah Scroll and before we had a single book, before we had a building in which to meet as a congregation, we relied on Torah ‘people’ who first met to study and then to gather for services. Though we found halls to rent, we had a problem when it came to Sukkot. We could rent a space for services, but where could we put a sukka for a week? Harold and Arlene Silberzweig, who lived in Roslyn, offered their backyard to ‘ground’ the congregation’s Sukkah. And so they sanctified their home by fulfilling the Torah’s commandment to erect a Sukkah for us all.
That’s only one of the many mitzvot they fulfilled for the benefit of our RSNS community. Not only did they work to help expand our synagogue’s membership so that others could hear the Torah read on Shabbat and the Holidays, but about thirty-five years ago, they literally carried a Torah Scroll that had been rescued from Prague after the Holocaust. That Torah was one of about 1500 that were brought to the Westminster Synagogue in London for safekeeping. A b’nay mitsva class (which included Rabbi Jodie’s brother, Eden) decided to arrange for our congregation to adopt a Scroll. But how would they get the Scroll from London to Roslyn, where our congregation had its home at the time? The Silberzweigs yet again by offering to bring Torah from Prague by way of its new home in our ark.
Decades earlier, Arlene brought Torah from her neighborhood in Boro-Park to the North Shore. Exemplifying the Torah values of justice, equality, and truth, Arlene has been a force for good and for positive change in our congregation, in Nassau County, and in New York State in the past sixty years. The Roslyn School Board, the League of Women Voters, and the Nassau County Democratic Party have been but three of the vehicles for her bridge-building between people and communities. Arlene embodies the best of Mordecai Kaplan’s idea of Living in Two Civilizations. Just as Judaism benefits from growing in America’s soil of democracy, so she has used Torah’s ethical teachings that keep America America.
Her children and her grandchildren wanted. They chose to recognize her work. They decided to celebrate her ninetieth birthday at the synagogue at Family Services on Hanukkah. They marked Arlene’s life of advocacy and righteousness – her Torah-based deeds – by contributing 100 Torah books to our congregation, each with a book plate that carries her name along with Harold’s. I was privileged to address Arlene that night. She sat on the bimah in view of so many families and their young children as I spoke to her. I concluded my remarks with the following:
“For decades to come, everyone who opens this book so aptly named Aytz Hayim / Tree of Life, will marvel at the contribution you have made to keep Judaism alive and thriving. Dear Arlene, bask in the blessing of your family, who you taught so well, who knew just what gift to give to celebrate your achievement on reaching age ninety by applauding your life well lived and by acknowledging all you have done to create the world in a godly image. It’s an extraordinary gift that benefits this community that you and Harold helped to build, which holds worthy people who admire and respect you. It is a gift that will bring Torah to everyone who opens the book for generations to come and who will associate your name with its teachings. From Sinai to Boro Park, and from Boro Park to Plandome, you have kept Torah alive.”
So, to the question, what is Torah, we might answer, it is Arlene Silberzweig and so many, many others who live Torah’s teachings in our sacred congregation.
With love and gratitude and warm wishes for a Good New Year,
Lee
