Hakhel or the Story of Two Torahs

I haven't posted in almost 2 years. I was sure that my blog got deleted, but to my great surprise it was still there today when I felt a great need to post again.

I went to the Kotel today with my family for a commemoration of the mitzva of Hakhel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakhel). The Torah commands that every 7 years on Succot after the year of Shmitta all Jews, men women and children, should gather at the Bet Hamikdash for a public Torah reading, done by the king, of the book of Devarim. Even though the mitzva doesn't apply today since we don't have the Temple, it has been revived in a symbolic fashion. 

So today was the big day. There were thousands of people at the Kotel. It was so packed that I couldn't even walk through the plaza and had to turn around and go back to the steos of Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi just so that we could stand in place. The ceremony was suposed to start at 3pm. After waiting for over an hour for it to start I started to give up. I understand that everything runs on Jewish time, but when thousands of people are waiting you would think it should start at least almost on time. The delay was caused by the fact that the Chief Rabbis, both Ashkenzi and Sefardi, current and previous, who were supposed to come and read the Torah, didn't show up. Well finally by 4:15pm they started to show up one by one. We watched their cars escorted by police drive up to the Kotel plaza gates and then they would walk into the crowd to make tot he Kotel itself.

I thought to myself what kind of chutzpah is this to show up so late to such a massive, public, and rare event. And not just one of them, all of them? Unbelievable! 

At about 4:30pm they still didn't start, so we decide to keep going up the hill back into the old city, since we couldn't see anything anyway except for a wall of people. As we got to the Churva Shul Square (that's where the big arch used to be) the ceremony started. There was a large screen setup in front of Churva Shul with loudspeaker that broadcasted the whole thing. I was actually glad that we went there, because this way it was like we got front row seats. 

The first person to read was one of the Sephardi Rabbis, I couldn’t tell exactly who it was. He read from a Sephardi Sefer Torah in its wooden case that stands upright by itself. He got up to Shema and then he was switched by one of the Ashkenazi Rabbis, who I believe was Rav Meir Lau. As the Ashkenazi Rabbi got up to read a thought went through my mind: “Are they going to switch the Torah for him to an Ashkenazi Torah?” I thought that would be so contrary to what the mitzvah of Hakhel is all about that they would never dare do that. But low and behold they closed the Sephardi Torah, put it away, took out an Ashkenazi Torah and then he continued on reading.

I was really upset at that moment. I couldn’t believe it. Two Torahs? The mitzvah that out of all unifies the Jewish people by bringing them all, young and old, to one place to read out of The One Book – and they take out Two Torahs? And for what? To emphasize one of the largest rifts in the Jewish People – Sephardim and Ashkenazim? Once in seven years we couldn’t be as one nation and read from one Sefer Torah? 

Soon after that, with great disappointment, we left the Old City and started making our way back to the car.

I am at home, hours went by since we were at the Hakhel reading, but I still can’t get over it. Two Torahs?

There is a prohibition in the Torah of Lo Tisgodedu, that the Jewish people should not divide themselves in a way that it would appear that there are two Torahs. Rashi (Succah 44a) emphasizes this point regarding shaking the Lulav on the first day of Succot that falls out on Shabbat, that even in Eretz Yosrael it’s not taken so that the Jews would not divide themselves between Jews in Israel and Jews outside, so that it doesn’t appear like there are two Torahs. 

How ironic is it that on Succot we would do something that shows our division when Chazal established on the same Succot regarding the Lulav that we shouldn’t divide ourselves. And not only that, but we literally showed everyone that we have two Torahs - a Sephardi one and an Ashkenazi one.

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Here is a picture of what the Kotel looked like today.