200-year-old Torah scroll dedicated at Foreign Ministry
After decades in Iraqi intelligence center antique scroll finally brought to Jerusalem synagogue.
A ceremonial Torah dedication (hachnasat sefer torah) for a 200-year-old scroll was held Thursday at the Foreign Ministry's synagogue.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman joked that "the Torah scroll will help us solve all the foreign diplomatic problems. I asked the chief rabbi to give a secret blessing: That we will wake up next week and discover that Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) resigned and Hamas disappeared."
The scroll was written on deerskin, and the ink was made from concentrated pomegranate juice. It made its way from Kurdisan to the cellars of the Iraqi intelligence service, where it lay for decades.
It was located by American soldiers after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, was sent to the Israeli embassy in Jordan, and ended its long journey in the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.
The scroll was restored by a Torah scribe and brought into the small synagogue in the Foreign Ministry's cellar. It was placed in a decorated ark, which was brought to Israel from Aleppo, Syria.
Hundreds of Foreign Ministry employees, including Minister Lieberman, joined Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef and Foreign Ministry Director Nissim Ben Sheetrit in accompanying the scroll through the ministry's hallways under a bride and groom's canopy.
The employees threw the customary candy as a Klezmer musician played traditional Jewish music.
