Another Synagogue

Tonight, I joined Rachel and Adam on a new adventure: Simchat Torah services at a synagogue only about 10 minutes from here by métro (in the 11th). The synagogue, Communauté Juive Libérale (CJL for short), is an egalitarian "reform" synagogue (reform/"libérale" in France = conservative in the US, or at least that's the sense I get) with a female rabbi and a family-oriented feel. I liked the service there better than the ones I attended at the U.L.I.F., and not only because I wasn't in a convention center amphitheater with 3,700 other Jews. More importantly, I recognized a lot of the tunes this congregation used. That's huge - for me, recognizable music is a key feature (pun intended) of synagogue attendance.

The service tonight was special because it marked the beginning of Simchat Torah, a holiday that celebrates finishing the Torah (five books of Moses) and starting all over again. To mark the occasion, there was all the usual dancing and singing and parading of several Torahs around the room. But then, something extraordinary: the rabbi had all the adults gather in a circle and then un-scrolled the Torah so that the entire text was visible. Each person held a bit of the parchment, and we needed almost the entire space of the sanctuary to accomplish this. Neither Rachel, Adam, nor I had ever seen the Torah in all its handwritten-on-sheepskin-if-you-drop-it-you-have-to-fast-for-forty-days glory. For symbolic purposes, an older member of the congregation read the very last portion, followed promptly by a young member reading the very first portion. Circle of life, children are the future, you get the idea. It was both clever and moving.

Next on the Paris synagogue tour: Kehilat Gesher, another "libérale" Franco-Anglophone congregation that splits its time between the 17th and St.-Germain-en-Laye. I'll keep you posted! (Another bad pun. But I'm not sorry.)