Bringing forth Torah

The architecture of the synagogue declares that Judaism is a book-centered faith, of which the scroll at the front of the room is the sacred heart.  The old scroll sits hidden within the Ark, waiting to be unrolled and spoken into life by a reader.  Even then, however, the language remains darkly sealed until it is illumined by loving human inquiry.   We bring ourselves to the words and like blossoms in springtime they open to give forth their fragrance.            

Moses would call out two invocations during the Israelites’ forty-year march through the wilderness: the first whenever the camp began to travel and the second upon coming to rest.    In our Torah service, we sing the first of these two verses upon removing the Torah from the Ark and the second upon returning it after the reading.     Here the prayerbook offers a surprising insight: in the hustle and bustle of our ordinary lives, we are spiritually motionless. Only when we open the Torah and begin to read do we set off on our journey.  At that moment, we sing Moses’ words for traveling:  “Kuma Adonai/Rise up יהוה...”  

             After the reading, as we close the scroll and return it to the ark, our journey of memory and imagination reaches a stopping point.  There we conclude with Moses’ invocation for coming to rest: “Shuvah Adonai/Return יהוה...”