String of Pearls Welcomes New Ark
September 9, 2011


Who doesn't remember Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," complete with Nazis, a kidnapping, demons, lightning bolts, a clap of thunder, and a secret government warehouse?

Of course, a true ark is never of the Speilberg variety -- except for having a potent symbolism of its own. The Jewish tradition calls for not one but many arks in the world; one for every synagogue, in fact. Each ark should be a quiet, dignified, and above all, empty place -- a container reminiscent of our people's first space for its holiest words, which turns out to be a cabinet which, we tell ourselves in the Torah itself, was built in the wilderness of our exodus story. Even the Torah scroll or scrolls stored inside an ark are, in part, symbols of our people's realization that words are potent, words are mysterious, and are never inherently stable. They must be interpreted and re-interpreted in order to wrest wisdom from them for the challenges faced by each new generation. So the vessel for this dynamic process is a box, rather womb-like, a place for quiet generativity, a place for gestation. That's to say, home. In the most primal sense.

Ark of the Covenant--
standing tall
To the side of our bank of seats in this bright room--
Ark commissioned and accomplished,
modest and strong,
holding our Torah in your measured wood,
red tones, deep brown,
grained by the years growing,
carrying water to living leaves--
now your inner life exposed, honed, oiled and stained
to be sustained for generations by our hands.

Diamond shapes adorn your doors, suggest parquet,
argyle, motley jesters and jewels.
remind us of baseball as well as prayer,
holy and whole, human and sacred--
you are our gift to ourselves.

Ark of the Covenant,
the first carried through the dessert
come to rest again and again,
made new in every century, every congregation,
the four cherubs gone with the four handles of transport,
turned upright to hold our written source of life
containing our stories, scrolling our histories
the side by side Scripture,
rolling and unrolling as the years cycle on.

Ark of our Covenant
womb of our Word,
casement of our window on the world
containing our tree of life, Torah--
O wooden Ark, your trees once stood
and gave shade and fragrance in the summer’s heat.
Growth stopped, you still serve nature and our yearning needs,
keeping keys in your afterlife,
alive to silent voices, prayer and song.

Rabbi Kirshbaum says that while she is grateful that our community is "light on its feet" and not burdened with a building fund, "even a community such as ours, committed as we are to living lightly, needs the experience of being home." She credits Hightstown resident Gershkowitz, who took on the work of creating the ark, with providing the congregation with its "hearth and focal point."

In bringing the project to completion, Bruce has provided the congregation with its most powerful symbol. He spoke eloquently of this endeavor to the congregation on the evening we dedicated to welcoming our new ark:

"When you realize the unique gift of Torah, you then realize the importance of an ark, an aron kodesh: a holy place for the Torah to rest while we begin to understand what we have before us. I started this search for the Ark with the memory of a six-year-old boy whose Dad was driving past the corner shul at five in the morning and saw it on fire, and rushed the door saving three scrolls. That memory has stayed with me and has led me to this project. 
 
"Working with the craftsmen and designing a space befitting the Torah, sizing the space and having the Torah in our home for fittings while thinking this process through, was a joy. Watching the Ark come to life before my eyes was truly rewarding. As we moved the Ark into the sanctuary the skies were opening to a torrential down pour. We put the Ark in place and having it come together in the sanctuary was magnificent!  The next morning was our last Shabbat service for the season, before the summer. When Reb Donna realized the Ark was in the sanctuary and the Torah was at home, she was visibly overcome with emotion. That same morning we were honoring Deb Cohen, one of our beloved members who has retired to Florida. It was Deb’s foresight in establishing the Torah fund that actually made all this possible. As I look up toward the Ark I will have so many wonderful thoughts - one of them will be of Deb, her love for Torah and this community.
 
"A week after that early summer service, I returned to the Ark to install the track for the Torah curtain. As I approached the Ark in the sanctuary I suddenly felt comforted, I felt at home, the very same sensation you get after traveling and returning to the comfort of your home. I know this wonderful feeling; I know this Ark and hope you will, too. We are so pleased to be welcoming our aron kodesh!"