Dear Elul Writers,

Each year we are meant to imagine receiving the Torah from Mt. Sinai. Some years, as it turns out, we actually get to receive the Torah from Mt. Sinai.

This year I traveled to pick up two sifrei Torah from a synagogue in Dalton, GA that was closing its doors. These Torahs were to live in the Interfaith Center at Emory and be shared with burgeoning Jewish communities in Atlanta. The scrolls had, wisely, been removed from the synagogue before it fell into disrepair. They were kept in the home of a longtime congregant. I realized as I headed North on the interstate that I didn’t have an exact address. I asked if they might share it, so that I could put it into Google Maps. I nearly had to pull the car over when I received a text… the Torahs could be picked up from Mt. Sinai Road.

It was a misty, March morning, and when I arrived in Dalton there was low visibility. Perhaps my memory is shaded by a desire to be dramatic, but I believe there were flashes of lightning in the distance. I drove the car up a winding mountain road. When I arrived at the house (lovely, MCM, stunning views), I was handed the Torahs by a kind, older woman, who was the housekeeper. I buckled the Torahs into the back seat, carefully placing the chest strap across their velvet covers.  

Driving back home, I kept catching a glimpse of the Torahs in my rearview mirror. My sweet little passengers in the back, each leaning slightly towards the center. Perhaps they were resting, apprehensive about their new home in the big city. All I knew was that I was grateful for their presence, for returning from my brief road trip with the wisdom of my people strapped in behind me.

DAY 28 PROMPT

Whether we get to go up Mt. Sinai (Road) or not, each year we have the opportunity to be accompanied by Torah. On this penultimate day of Elul, consider how you would like to carry Jewish wisdom with you into the new year. Are there texts that you want to learn? Friends who you’d like to study with? In the book of Joshua, almost immediately after the final words of the Torah, we are given this charge:

לֹא יָמוּשׁ סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה הַזֶּה מִפִּיךָ וְהָגִיתָ בּוֹ יוֹמָם וָלַיְלָה

Do not let this sefer Torah depart from your lips, speak of it day and night…

How might we live into this in 5785? What physical spaces, what relationships might be enriched by bringing more Torah into them? 

Bivracha,

Jordan

As we near the end of the month, I want to express my gratitude to my friends at the Jewish Studio Project for partnering on this practice. In particular, much gratitude to Kayla Ginsburg, who is my point person at JSP and has proved again to be a wonderful reader and copy editor.