Sefer Torah Project 1991

Saul Friedman, 7th Grade ASHAR

My Report is on a Torah from my family. It was bought by my great-great grandfather Dovid Aryeh Friedman. The Torah was written in 1944 and dedicated in 1945. Since Dovid Aryeh was poor, he cashed in a life insurance policy to buy the Torah. The Torah was bought for around $500 and the mantel for about $15. The Torah was dedicated to a Synagogue in the Bronx where many relatives were in attendance, some of which were about to go overseas to fight in the War.  The Torah was dedicated by Dovid Aryeh in honor of his second wife, Freyd'l, for being a loving and caring wife. The shul where the Torah was dedicated was Congregation Tifereth Moshe. It was written by a Sofer named Leib Berman.

Dovid Aryeh Friedman was from Turiv in Russia. He came to the US in 1920. He was a shoemaker and it was always his dream to have a Sefer Torah written for his family.

So After Dovid Aryeh passed away, the Torah was given to a relative and stayed in his shul in Fresh Meadaows, Queens. Then the Torah was placed in Dovid Aryeh's son Morris's house in Long Beach. Morris Friedman then gave it to my grandfather Izzy and he put it in the Old Nyack Turnpike shul. Since the Torah was getting old, my grandfather decided to get it checked by a sofer in New Square. The Torah had many problems but they were corrected by the New Square sofer. My grandfather decided to give it to my uncle's shul in Livingston, NJ. The reason my grandfather gave the Torah to my uncle's shul is that whenever my grandfather goes to that shul, there are two relatives there of Dovid Aryeh Friedman. The Torah was dedicated there in 1987, and it has been there ever since. This Sefer Torah is special because it was made from the dream of a poor shoemaker and was passed from generation to generation.

On the Occasion of My Son's First Siddur Celebration כ"ח שבט תשע"ד

Avner Shalom with his great-grandmother Maralyn Friedman "תחי

.לבני היקר, אבנר שלום מאת אביך שאול משה ב"ר פייוול אהרן
 יהי רצון שיהא הסידור הזה כלי קודש וכלי זמר בידיך להרים קולך בשירות ותשבחות כי קולך ערב ושירך נאה ושתהא תפילתיך מביא לידי שלום והתאחדות ותיקון בעולם ומשיכת ברכה בחייך ובחיי כל ריעיך ושישמע את קוליך ותחינותיך כי הטה אזנו לי ובימי אקרא, אכן נצר בני מצות אביך, ואל תטש תורת אמך קשרם על לבך תמיד ענדם על גרגרתך

Und dann shreit eine Stimme!!!

!!קדושה אין דער סיטרא אחרא

!איך קאן נישט

!איך פערשטעה נישט

!לאז מיך בעטראכטען

From S. An-sky's "Der Dybbuk"

Tales of Old; commissioned illusration of a Talmudic story

To Kalon of the Jews.

האי מאן דבעי מחזי שופריה דרבי יוחנן נייתי כסא דכספא מבי סלקי ונמלייה פרצידיא דרומנא סומקא ונהדר ליה כלילא דוורדא סומקא לפומיה ונותביה בין שמשא לטולא ההוא זהרורי מעין שופריה דר' יוחנן

One who wishes to see the beauty of Rabbi Yochanan should take a silver chalice after being polished, fill it with red pomegranate seeds, surround the mouth of the chalice with a crown of red rose petals, and place it between the sun and shade, and this shining brilliance is akin to the beauty of Rabbi Yochanan.

- Babylonian Talmud, Bava Metzia 84a

"The Metamorphosis": A Terrible Encounter With the Father

It is the custom of the Sanz-Klausenberg Rebbe to throw 
apples to his followers on Simchas Torah. The apples are said to
bring blessing to their recepients.

Es war ein Apfel; gleich flog ihm ein zweiter nach; Gregor blieb vor Schrecken stehen; ein Weiterlaufen war nutzlos, denn der Vater hatte sich entschlossen, ihn zu bombardieren. Aus der Obstschale auf der Kredenz hatte er sich die Taschen gefüllt und warf nun, ohne vorläufig scharf zu zielen, Apfel für Apfel. Diese kleinen roten Äpfel rollten wie elektrisiert auf dem Boden herum und stießen aneinander. Ein schwach geworfener Apfel streifte Gregors Rücken, glitt aber unschädlich ab. Ein ihm sofort nachfliegender drang dagegen förmlich in Gregors Rücken ein...

It was an apple. Immediately a second one flew after it. Gregor stood still in fright. Further running away was useless, for his father had decided to bombard him. From the fruit bowl on the sideboard his father had filled his pockets, and now, without for the moment taking accurate aim, he was throwing apple after apple. These small red apples rolled around on the floor, as if electrified, and collided with each other. A weakly thrown apple grazed Gregor’s back but skidded off harmlessly. However, another thrown immediately after that one drove into Gregor’s back really hard.

- The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

Please God, Piska Tava, a Gut'n Kvitel!

Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) appears before the court.
- 'M', Fritz Lang, 1931

"Do you know your case is going badly?" asked the priest. "That's how it seems to me too," said K. "I've expended a lot of effort on it, but so far with no result. Although I do still have some documents to submit." "How do you imagine it will end?" asked the priest. "At first I thought it was bound to end well," said K., "but now I have my doubts about it..."

"You don't understand the facts," said the priest, "the verdict does not come suddenly, proceedings continue until a verdict is reached gradually."

-Franz Kafka, 'The Trial'

According to Jewish tradition our fate is not sealed on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, but rather the judgement waits to be sealed until the seventh day of Sukkos, Hoshana Rabbah.

יומא שביעאה דחג, הוא סיומא דדינא דעלמא 

ופתקין נפקין מבי מלכא  

On the 7th day of the Holiday, this is the comletion of the verdict for the world, as the letters go out from the House of the King. - Zohar, Tzav 31b

Kafka Meets the Rebbe

A little morsel from the annals of Jewish summer vacations: Kafka went to Marienbad on holiday, and there he had the opportunity, thanks to his chasidish (BT) friend Langer to "accompany" the Belzer Rebbe, Yissaschar Dov Rokeach.
Here's some of what he had to say about him:

Er sieht aus wie der Sultan, den ich als Kind in einem Doréee-Münchhausen oft gesehn habe. Aber keine Maskerade, wirklich der Sultan. Und nicht nur Sultan, sondern auch Vater, Volksschullehrer, Gymnasialprofessor u. s. f. 
Der Anblick seines Rückens, der Anblick der Hand, die auf der Hüfte liegt, der Anblick der Wendung dieses breiten Rückens - alles das gibt Vertrauen. Auch in den Augen der ganzen Gruppe ist dieses ruhige glückliche Vertrauen, das ich gut ahne.

"He looks like a Sultan, like I had often seen as a child in the stories of Baron Munchhausen. No joke! Really the Sultan. But not only a Sultan, but also a Father, a Teacher, a Professor, etc.  The sight of his back, the sight of his hand sitting on his hip, the sight of the turns of this wide back  - all of it inspired trust. Also I surmise in the eyes of the whole group that there is a calm, contented trust."

(from a letter to Max Brod, July 1916)

H/T Torah Musings via Bernard Wasserstein, On the Eve, 
The Jews of Europe before the Second World War.