I often talk about the importance of transitions in Judaism: the threshold marked with a mezuza, the start of Shabbat marked with candles and kiddush, the end of Shabbat marked with Havdalah ceremony and so on. The new beginnings are to be celebrated with much joy and excitement, but so are the endings! In fact it’s the endings that often deserve that much more joy. A siyum is the completion of any unit of Torah study, or book of the Mishnah or Talmud. A siyum is usually followed by a celebratory meal – the joy of reaching a certain moment surely deserves a party!
As most of you know, this year we have engaged in a very special project: restoring the Temple Emanuel Holocaust Memorial Torah Scroll. This has been a humbling experience, as we researched the history of the town of Horazdovici and its Jewish community, raised funds necessary for the restoration and the upkeep of our Torah scrolls, and helped dozens and dozens of TE families experience the joy of assisting the scribe in restoring the damaged letters in the scroll, one by one. This has been a remarkable project, and I am delighted to report that we are nearing the end! With the scroll restoration nearly complete, the scribe will return to Temple Emanuel on March 22, allowing 40 plus additional families to take a personal part in restoration all throughout the day.
The most important moment will come at the end of the day at 6:00pm, as we celebrate the Siyum – a completion of the restoration process. The scribe will write the final letters and affix the final stitches, we will sing and dance with the Torah, carrying it not only around our sanctuary, as we do during the Torah service, but also outside and around our building (weather permitting, of course), before we joyously place the Torah into the Ark where it will now reside once again. There will be music from our band, and lots of joy to go around, and food, and a chance to say l’chayim to the completion of this sacred task.
There will be more information coming your way in the Shofar blast over the next few weeks, but in the meantime please make sure you mark your calendars for the evening of March 22 – just write ‘siyum’ and get ready to celebrate one of the most special things we ever get to do as a community.