Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Memories of Der Alter Heim

Found this charming bit of memory in an Internet archive:

Among those who kissed the Torah scrolls that were held in the hands of those honored with the hakafa were the women and girls, who bent their heads over the benches to kiss the Torah scrolls. This time, they were granted permission to kiss the holy Torah, and they made haste to place their soft lips upon the silk coverings of the Torah scrolls. The older boys, who already knew in their hearts the meaning of the kiss of a girl, would cunningly, during the crowding, place their hands between the Torah covers and the lips of the girls, so that they would receive the kiss. Laughter would break out among those who witnessed this, and the face of the girl would redden from shame.

2 Comments:

Blogger frumhouse said...

Sad that today such a scene would harldy elicit laughter, but at the least a stern lecture and at worst being expelled from the shul!

Anyway, it is a sweet story.

March 08, 2007 7:30 AM  
Blogger e-kvetcher said...

Yes, frumhouse, I thought of that too.

March 08, 2007 7:34 AM  

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