Pinecrest, Fla. – Dinner was over by the time the party’s honored guest showed up at the table. She didn’t speak a word. And she left in the rabbi’s arms.
The visitor to this family home was no lady. The visitor was a torah.
Most Jews see the holy scroll only in their synagogue and have rarely held one. But one synagogue in Miami is taking the unprecedented step of allowing congregants to host Judaism’s sacred text in their homes in exchange for a donation. They call it a torah time share.
For a one-time gift of $1,800, members of Temple Israel can sponsor a section of the scroll. Each year, during the week before that section is read at Shabbat services, donors can keep the torah in their home – an event that has prompted families to host Scripture studies, parades and dinner parties.
Rabbi Mitch Chefitz, who came up with the idea, showed up at Sandy Grossman’s house this Rosh Hashana week with the torah in a wheeled black duffel bag. After dinner, he put it on the dining-room table and took off the torah’s white fabric covering. “She’s a she,” he explains, “because she wears a dress.”
As for the torah’s age, the rabbi said you shouldn’t ask a lady. But she’s about 160 and appears to have originated in Poland. The scroll later was bought by a couple.
The torah was in need of cleaning and repair, so Chefitz came up with the time-share project.
About 40 of the 52 available weekly torah time shares have been purchased at Temple Israel, a Reform synagogue.
