Neot Kedumim’s Torah Crowns

Many people consider the “last” of the fall Jewish holidays to be Simkhat Torah (roughly translated as rejoicing with the Torah). In Israel, it seems as though the entire country gets caught up in the dancing and gaiety, where dancing in the streets with scrolls of the Torah are a feature of the celebration.

On Simkhat Torah, we conclude the yearly cycle of weekly Torah readings with the death of Moses, and immediately begin again with God's creation of the world. Life following death—a major theme in nature and at Neot Kedumim. This cycle, moving from ending to beginning, is symbolic of unending Torah learning. This learning takes many, many forms. As friends of Neot Kedumim, we understand that one of the more beautiful places to learn is on 625 acres between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

In her book "To Begin Again," Rabbi Naomi Levy writes, "Nature's grandeur cautions us not to take ourselves too seriously. It forces us to recognize our smallness and asks us to remember that splendor is a product of patience, of time. Nature's ferocity demonstrates to us that we are not in control, that there are forces in the universe far greater than we are."

And so, at the end of this festival of dwelling in nature, when we dance in the face of forces far more powerful than we are, we carry the Torah as our dancing partner.

At Neot Kedumim, our three Torah scrolls are especially precious to us. Their ornamentation was commissioned to express themes of the Reserve.

"Nature's grandeur cautions us not to take ourselves too seriously"

Tel Aviv silversmith Eitan Erel created unique pairs of rimonim (Torah crowns) for each of the three Torah scrolls at Neot Kedumim.  In their simple beauty these rimonim clearly recall the fruit for which they are named.  Six strips of silver form the outer shape of the rimon.  The open form admits light to the inside, where a cluster of three carnelian stones suggests the pomegranate’s glowing red seeds.  The six silver bands, representing the six days of Creation and also the Sabbath, the crown of Creation, meet at the top to form the crown of the pomegranate .  The symmetrical six-pointed crown also suggests the six-pointed Star of David, the Magen David.   These three sets of rimonim were donated to Neot Kedumim by staff member Beth Uval in memory of her husband, Ezri Uval, and Helen Frenkley in memory of her mother, Natalie Frenkley.