A group of commuters living in Beit Shemesh have commissioned a special small Sefer Torah scroll and custom-made carrying case for their travelling daily prayer group. Donated by the Shaw family from England, the Torah was inaugurated at a ceremony on Sunday 13th July and first used on the train on Monday 14th July.
The train leaves Jerusalem at 05:43 for Beit Shemesh, picking up the Sefer Torah and a large portion of the prayer group from Beit Shemesh at 06:23, and arrives in Tel Aviv at 07:06. Between 20 and 40 people pray in the train’s Mesilat Yesharim Minyan each morning, and will now be able to read from the Torah on Monday and Thursday mornings. During the remainder of the journey, people can be found studying Torah and Gemara.
The last carriage on this train is unofficially reserved as the premises for the Minyan. It is open to everyone and there are women who participate while sitting in the adjoining carriage. There are Israel Railways crew members who join, and sometimes the ticket inspector announces the Minyan on the tannoy, in case new passengers are unaware. There are also afternoon and evening services on the train home from Tel Aviv.
The regular participants are a mixture of native Israelis and immigrants from North America and Europe, who work in Tel Aviv in banking, law, computers, medicine, as teachers and entrepreneurs, but choose to live in the religious communities in Jerusalem or Beit Shemesh.
Howard Jackson, a recent Oleh from Britain to Jerusalem, explains: “My job in the financial sector necessitates an early start, which makes praying with the Train Minyan an excellent option. The Mesilat Yesharim Minyan was well established when I joined, and we tried unsuccessfully to obtain a Torah for many years. New residents of Ramat Beit Shemesh, Darren and Dina Shaw, decided to step in and donate a scroll in honour of their grandparents.”
Darren Shaw made Aliyah from London in August 2006 and works for UBS Bank in Herzliya. He hired a Sofer (scribe) to write an unusually small Sefer Torah, which is just 30cm high. Fellow traveller Aariel Abraham, originally from Elizabeth New Jersey, has converted a suitcase on wheels into a portable Aron Kodesh (holy ark). Removing a Sefer Torah from a synagogue is often problematic, and the Halachic (legal) questions concerning how the Torah should be stored and transported on and off the train have been referred to Rav Moshe Sternbuch Shlita.
The Hachnasas Sefer Torah Event took place in Ramat Bet Shemesh, co-hosted by BeLev Echad, an organisation which teaches secular and unaffiliated Jews in the Moshavim and Kibbutzim around Bet Shemesh about Judaism.
(YWN Desk – Israel)
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6 Responses
Monsey people dont have this on any NJ Transit train!!
they have to daven pretty quickly. they can’t come late or leave early. NO COLLECTORS!!!
ITS AN EVENT TO BE PROUD OF .there are busses that travel here in usa with minyanim on them. i believe they do have a sefer torah on board. specifically the monroe busses.that go to ny early in the morning.i guess it was only a matter of time when the israelis had to do the same thing.i wish them much ruchnios hatzlocho with this new sefer torah and all the learning on goings.
Neve,
that too.
I had the pleasure of meeting darren and dina shaw last summer. They are such nice, down to earth people who barely knew me but were extremely friendly and helpful when needed.
It doesn’t surprise me, that they would want to do this to help other people fulfill the mitzvah of davening w/ a torah.
KOL HAKAVOD Darren and Dina!
I find the whole idea of davening on a train or bus very troubling. There are plenty of Minyanim in Tel Aviv for early morning commuters.
In addition, during Shmona Esreh the daveners should it due to the swaying of the train and most certainly on the bus.
Not lechatchila!