Cantor Jacob Sandler stands in front of the most recent board honoring Team Torah participants.
(Daniel I. Dorfman/ For the Pioneer Press)
By Daniel I. Dorfman | Pioneer Press
UPDATED: October 1, 2024 at 10:08 a.m.
Jews all over the world will gather this week observing the start of the new year. For some members of North Suburban Synagogue Beth El, the services will be a showcase on how well they can read from the Torah.
With Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) of 5785 starting Wednesday night, the services will be the latest opportunity for members to read portions of the Torah as part of NSSBE’s Team Torah initiative.
While members have read Torah at services for many years, the Team Torah program launched in 2021, is steadily growing in popularity.
Participants in North Suburban Synagogue Beth El Team Torah get a cookie as a reward.
(Daniel I. Dorfman/ For the Pioneer Press)
“It’s really important to have a sense of community,” said Michael Millenson, Team Torah’s organizer.
Team Torah’s origins are tied to a perceived overall decline of synagogue membership throughout the country, coupled with the coronavirus pandemic limiting the number of people who could attend services in person.
In 2021, with the pandemic mitigations easing and synagogue officials anxious to get members to come back to the Highland Park synagogue, a NSSBE committee brainstormed creating the “Back-to-Shul Challenge: Everyone Reads Torah!”
They hoped for 100 people out of the approximate 900-member congregation to step up.
“We were pretty sure we could reach that,” Millenson recalled.
Within six months, the initial goal had been exceeded and over the last 12 months, there were 210 participants taking the time to read the Torah, the five books of the Hebrew Bible.
“It’s fun and we try and make this something the community does, and we encourage people to do it,” Millenson said.
Team Torah member readings are not just limited to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (the day of Atonement which begins October 11), but members can read at services throughout the year. The program is eligible to people who anyone older than 13, corresponding with a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Millenson mentioned how a 98-year-old member was a recent participant.
Millenson pointed to requirements are motivation and effort, but everyone will be accommodated.
“If you want to read 10 verses and you want three months to prepare, we will look ahead three months,” he said.
There is recognition. The names of the people taking up the Team Torah Challenge is on a big board just outside the congregation’s main sanctuary and members can be enticed with the promise of a small sugar cookie with the Team Torah logo on it.
Among the group is Laura Patterson who had read Torah regularly into her early 20s, but she had stopped as time did not allow due to other demands.
Then after joining NSSBE a few years ago, she heard one of the NSSBE rabbis describing Team Torah.
“I remember looking at my husband and (saying) I like cookies. I think that is literally what I said to him,” Patterson said. “Picking up the skill again was a nice entry into a warm and welcoming community as well as being rewarded with a cookie.”
Patterson recalled the first couple of times she read she dealt with some stage fright.
“My voice was shaking and I am sure I sounded like a nervous wreck. It’s intimidating to be on the Bima (the platform for speakers) in front of the congregation with a microphone in your face,” she said.
Yet she eventually settled into the process and eventually asked to read longer verses.
“It’s a rewarding hobby,” Patterson said. “It is a very good challenge for my brain because it is learning a series of melodies which you have to memorize somewhat but I am a fairly fluent Hebrew reader so that part is not as hard for me. But it is a really good brain challenge.”
However, reading the Torah represents a major task as the scrolls do not feature vowels or punctuation marks. Some people take pictures with their phones so they can study outside of the synagogue.
Many work with NSSBE Ritual Director Jenna Greenberg (or Cantor Jacob Sandler) before going in front of their fellow members.
Greenberg notes her involvement varies as she tries to prepare members where as many as 12 people might participate in a service.
“It is very dependent on the person’s skill level. Some people are skilled Torah readers and they don’t need any help,” she explained.
Greenberg said the program is a source of pleasure.
“I enjoy seeing various congregants taking on a new skill and learning how to do something that maybe they have never done before,” she said. “It is wonderful to see people of all ages taking this on.”
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Originally Published: September 30, 2024 at 3:51 p.m.