RSVP for Our First Ever Hachnasat Sefer Torah!

We had an unusual entry in the "Overheards" section of Ta Shma last week. It read as follows: Head of School responding to a colleague knocking on her door: "Just a second, I'm just attaching the Torah in the rifle case to this pipe with a bike lock." 

Your first question should probably be, "Is this school in Chelm, Poland?" No, it is not, it is on West 89th Street. I can answer this question with confidence because I am the head of school, and this is my office. With those details cleared up, you're probably formulating a second question that goes something like this: "Why is there a Sefer Torah in a gun case, attached to a pipe with a bike lock in Stephanie's office?" Many others have asked this same question over the last few weeks. Students have wondered about the big black case and its contents, suggesting the most imaginative possibilities (none of which was a Torah), and many adults have asked me what instrument I play. It's time I come clean and share the true answer…

Beit Rabban received a beautiful Sefer Torah on long-term loan from one of our students' families! It's hiding out in my office until we celebrate our first-ever Hachnastat Sefer Torah at Beit Rabban on the morning of December 23! 

A Hachnasat Sefer Torah is one of the most joyful traditions of Judaism; it is basically a gigantic Torah parade. Likely based on the ceremony described in Sefer Shmuel, the Book of Samuel, wherein King David and the people accompany the Ark of the Covenant on its journey to Jerusalem, during a hachnasat Sefer Torah, an entire community gathers to welcome its new Torah with singing, dancing, and celebration. Sometimes this celebration welcomes a new Torah into existence, and other times it welcomes an existing Torah into a new home.

Ours is an old Torah, finding a new home- one written in memory of the ancestors of a current student. This student and all our students will have the opportunity to read from and learn with this Torah for years to come, creating meaningful connections to our tradition and to the generations of learners who have come before them. But before that learning ever starts, we will parade through the school, carrying the Torah under a chuppah, showering it with joy and reverence as we usher it into the space where it will live and be read. It's a moment of pure communal celebration—a chance to honor the sacred text that has connected Jewish communities across time and place, and an opportunity to instill this sense of connection in our children.

We are already preparing to welcome our Torah through art, music, dance, ritual learning, and more. In fact, this hachnasat sefer Torah is the focus of this year's Whole School Project—our beloved Beit Rabban tradition (from time immemorial!) when all grades spend the last two days of the semester digging deep into one topic together in fun, hands-on, cross-age groups. Among other things, we are building an aron (ark), making a parochet (curtain), and a meil (Torah cover) with the help of parents who are volunteering their talents.

There is only one thing we need to ensure this experience is as magical as our old/new Torah deserves, and that is each one of you. Please join us on Tuesday, December 23, at 8:30 AM for the first-ever Beit Rabban Hachnasat Sefer Torah. RSVP here, and be sure to bring your castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums, and cymbals.

P.S. You'll probably understand the role of the big black case, the bike lock, and the pipe better if you join us for Hachnasat Sefer Torah.