Torah Ketubah
The Reconstructionist Havurah of Cleveland (now Kol HaLev) |
The relationship between the Jewish people and the Torah has been viewed as a marriage and the symbol of the Ketubah, the traditional marriage contract, has been used to illustrate it -- even reading it each Shavuot. Havurah Founding Rabbi Jeffrey Schein adapted our text from the Ketubah of Reconstructionist Congregation Dor Hadash in San Diego, California. |
On the seventh day of the month of Sivan, the second day of Shavuot, in the year five thousand seven hundred fifty-nine since the creation of the world according to our accustomed reckoning, corresponding to May 22, 1999 in the city of Beachwood, Ohio. We, the members of the Reconstructionist Havurah of Cleveland, promise to consecrate ourselves, individually and communally to your Torah, represented here today by our new Sefer Torah, just as our ancestors consecrated themselves when they stood at Sinai. We promise to act in such a way as to make the words of Torah sweet by loving, honoring, and cherishing each other and the works of your creation. We promise to work together to make for this Sefer Torah a congregational home which will be faithful to the teachings of Torah, committed to deeds of loving kindness and tikkun olam, filled with reverence for learning and spiritual fulfillment, warmed by loving generosity, sanctified by music, candles, and wine, and always meriting the presence of the shechinah. We promise to act as friends, to give each other joy and to support one another in times of sadness, to honor our differences, to strengthen one another in our goals, and to bring up our children within the covenant of Israel. We promise always to support one another and to act with forgiveness, compassion, and integrity, guided by the teachings of Torah and linked eternally to the past, present and future of the Jewish people. |
DEDICATION OF OUR SEFER TORAH | HISTORY OF OUR SEFER TORAH