How Do We Handle Sacred Texts?

How Do We Handle Sacred Texts?

June 10, 2005

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor

 

Every religious tradition has its sacred texts. Every religion has its most sacred texts, with very specific rules on how to write, use, store and handle them. Without investigating other faiths, I presume that there is some penalty for mishandling them. From Judaism's universal vision, "what is good for the goose is good for the gander." We believe that all sacred texts should be handled with the same reverence and the same respect. If we claim sanctity for ours, our tradition teaches us to respect the claims of others for the sanctity of theirs. It is clear why have picked this topic for my remarks.

 

Our most sacred text is the Sefer Torah – the Torah Scroll.

How does our tradition instruct us to behave that reflect its holiness?

 

1.      When the Torah is being transported we must stand.

2.      When the Torah passes us we are supposed to kiss it.

3.      Children are supposed to be brought to kiss the Sefer Torah.

4.      Forbidden to show it any disrespect by using it casually.

5.      Not to sleep in the same room with a Sefer Torah.

6.      Cannot touch the Sefer Torah with dirty hands.

7.      Don't touch the scroll with our hands, but a cloth.

8.      Don't leave the scroll open when not reading from it. Cover it with a cloth called a 'bein gavra.'

9.      When reading from a Sefer Torah or having an aliyah, in earlier times the person having the aliyah did his own reading, we are to kiss the Sefer Torah using a cloth or the corner of the tallit.

10. When a Sefer Torah is worn out beyond repair, or has too many errors, or errors concerning God's name – the four special letters – it is buried in a clay urn near a scholar.

 

Clearly from this list, we behave towards the Sefer Torah, the scroll of the Torah, in ways that manifest its supreme holiness. It has this highest status because in whatever way lies its origin, it is the basis of our understanding of God, what He wants from us, how we are to lead our lives, and the formative chapters of our history. We have carried it, studied it, preserved it and died for it for over three thousand years. It is the closest thing we have to "God's Word."

 

There is one moment in the life of a synagogue that is guaranteed to take your breath away: when the Sefer Torah seems as if it is going to fall, someone is going to drop the scroll. We try with all our might and every precaution not to allow that to happen. We have two people standing by the Sefer Torah. Here we have elevated sides of the shulchan, the table. Those standing next to the Sefer Torah hold on to it with the Etz Chayyim, the handles top and bottom. Yet we had a situation on a Shabbat in the past few months when the Sifrei Torah – that is the plural – started to topple from the top row and we strove mightily to catch them, which we did.

 

What is the penalty, the punishment, for dropping a Sefer Torah?

 

I have spent some significant time researching this question. While we might have heard the quick quip – you fast for forty days – I needed to see it in print. By the way, it isn't. That led me on a fascinating journey.

 

1. No where in Talmudic literature or the earlier codes of the Tur, Shulchan Aruch, or Maimonides' Mishne Torah does this subject appear. There is no halacha in the codes about dropping a Sefer Torah.

 

2. It is introduced as a minhag – a custom.

 

3. It is found appended in a 17^th century commentary by Rabbi Abraham Gombiner in the laws concerning dropping Tefilin. The minhag there was to fast one day, probably only from sunrise to sunset, a minor fast.

 

4. It is possible that the concept of fasting when a Sefer Torah was dropped originated in the actual law that if a Sefer Torah was burnt, we act as if someone had died and perform keriyah, the tearing of our clothing. The reasoning might have been that if we do that for the Sefer Torah that was burnt and if we fast when we drop the Tefilin, thencertainly we need to do something if the Sefer Torah falls. The most natural pattern was to fast.

 

5. In later Responsa literature of Europe this was developed, still in the form of a minhag. The strictest custom was the one who dropped it was to fast a succession of three days, Monday Thursday, Monday, a pattern that already existed, from another subject, and those who saw it, fast one day. Other opinions were that the one who dropped it was to fast just one day and others not at all. Being a minhag, another opinion was that if fasting was difficult, then they could give tzedakah. One posek – legal decisor – left the matter to the discretion of the local Rabbi, with the intention to preclude it from happening again.  Lastly, a posek from the early 20^th century suggested that the person who dropped it should perform acts of atonement, such as buying a new mantle, and studying the laws of the Sefer Torah.

 

It is clear from all of this that all of these rules and customs pertain to an accident. It was inconceivable that the Sefer Torah would be dropped on purpose. It is a sacred text. In the Torah, the penalty for the intentional misappropriation of articles of the Tabernacle/Temple was stripes – whipping. Certainly the intentional dropping or any other disgraceful conduct towards a Sefer Torah is considered the highest desecration.

 

If in any context this would happen to a Sefer Torah, let us say by Palestinians rioting against Israel, or in the streets ofBaghdad or any other terrible situation, we would all be up in an uproar. We would be screaming for Congress and all our Jewish representatives like Eric Cantor to do something. We would want media attention. We would be outraged.

 

Thus I am perplexed at our Jewish silence over the desecration of the Koran, even if it was just these few situations, even if it was in a book form, as they didn't preserve a scroll form for the Koran. If the Koran is sacred to Islam, then it should be accorded respect and handled reflecting that status. The logic of our Jewish vision extends that to the New Testament as well. I/we do not compromise our beliefs about our own sacred text and faith by extending respect to that text which another faith claims as holy. If we would be angered by our text being desecrated, then we should be similarly outraged over the desecration of anyone else's sacred text.

 

Without compromising our appreciation and admiration of the military forces engaged in a most difficult campaign, it is appropriate to raise our voices in protest to any desecration of sacred texts and demand accountability and punishment. It is a disgrace that our national organizations have been silent. We cannot make selected protests. Hopefully, the respect we demand for others will reinforce the respect we receive for ourselves and out sacred texts. By recognizing holiness in other forms, we perform an act of Kiddush HaShem, Sanctifying God. May we be of broad mind and even broader vision, and always and everywhere sanctify the Name of God.        

 

Shabbat Shalom.