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December 26, 2003/Tevet 1 5764, Vol. 56, No. 14
Sephardic celebration
Synagogue welcomes new Torah
LEISAH NAMM
Managing Editor
Diane Zerbib watches as her husband Joseph writes the last letter of the Torah scroll with Scribe Shlomo Ibguy.
Photo by Leisah Namm
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Using similar customs to a wedding, members of the Sephardic Community of Arizona greeted their new Torah on Dec. 14.
After the scribe wrote the last letter of the Torah at the home of Joseph and Diane Zerbib of Phoenix, celebrants drove across town to meet a block away from the Scottsdale synagogue, where the Torah was carried under a chuppah and accompanied by singing and dancing to the sanctuary. As the group arrived closer to the front door of the synagogue, President Jacky Sebag carried the synagogue's other Torah across the parking lot to greet it. Once inside, participants danced with both Torahs to songs led by Cantor Alain Bohbot of France.
After brief speeches by Rabbi Laibel Blotner, Rabbi Chaim Silver of Young Israel of Phoenix, Zerbib and Sebag, it was time for the seuda (meal).
"It's like a wedding," Sebag says. "In a wedding, you have a meal that you offer - it's part of the ceremony ... you have to have a festive meal."
Members of Ayshet Chayil, the women's organization of the Sephardic Community of Arizona, prepared a variety of traditional dishes, from babaganoush and hummus to chicken with lemon and cooked olives and couscous. Desserts included sweet cigars, candied eggplant and orange peels cooked with sugar and spices. It was the "kind of catering that has never stepped in Arizona yet," Sebag says. That evening the congregation hosted its second Sephardic concert, "Sephardic Night Live," with Bohbot and local cantors Julie Berlin of Temple Solel, Marc Philippe of Beth El Congregation and Mikhal Shiff-Matter of Temple Beth Israel.
The congregation read from the new Torah, which was donated by the Zerbibs in honor of Joseph's father, for the first time during the Dec. 20 Shabbat service.
Future plans for the Sephardic Community of Arizona include a Jan. 2-4 Shabbaton with Rabbi David Russo of Woodland Hills, Calif., and a 2004 Sephardic film festival. The synagogue, which hosts weekly Friday night and Saturday morning services, is located at 14415 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. Call 480-443-5288.
Contact the writer at leisah_namm@jewishaz.com.
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