As Tisha b’Av approaches, we prepare to mourn the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem and the beginning of our long exile. Yet sometimes, in the most unexpected places, we glimpse signs of our eventual return.
A Story of Lost Scrolls
My Polish guide Lukaz called with unexpected news: a resident of Radom was selling two Torah scrolls. After confirming their authenticity through photographs, I knew I had to see them myself.
The two Torah scrolls on the couch in an apartment in Poland
I flew from Israel to inspect them on the Tenth of Tevet, the fast commemorating Jerusalem’s siege and the day Holocaust survivors recite Kaddish for relatives whose death dates are unknown. After visiting Chelmno, a site of mass destruction, I headed to this small city between Warsaw and Lublin.
An Apartment Frozen in Time
Winding through backstreets, we found the seller’s building. Inside, two large Polish men welcomed us into an apartment that seemed untouched by the past century, its walls covered with Christian imagery. In the living room, two dusty Torah scrolls lay casually on a couch.
I couldn’t look away.
Who once read from these scrolls? What fathers danced with them on Simchat Torah? What bar mitzvah boys received their first aliyah? What happened to all those people?
The questions haunted me, but one thing was very clear: these Torah scrolls did not belong here.
The Polish man selling the Torah scrolls
With permission, I carefully examined them on the table. There I was in a cramped Polish apartment in a city emptied of Jews, during winter 2020, touching remnants of a vanished world. After negotiating a price, I left with a mission burning inside me.
The Power of Jewish Memory
Though these scrolls were likely no longer usable, I could not abandon them to remain forgotten in foreign hands. When my student heard about this endeavor, he launched a fundraising campaign. His message was simple: help restore Jewish honor.
The author inspecting the Torah scrolls
Within days, all the funds were raised. After the money was transferred, Lukaz returned to complete the purchase. Finally, he sent the photo I’d been waiting for – him holding the Torah scrolls with a broad smile: “They are yours again!”
The Deeper Truth
These Torah scrolls had been in foreign hands for 80 years – neglected, forgotten, abandoned. Now they were coming home to people who would love and cherish them.
Their story is our story.
During these Nine Days leading up to Tisha b’Av, as we mourn the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and our long exile, these scrolls whisper a profound truth: What appears lost is never truly gone. What seems abandoned will find its way back to loving hands.
Like those Torah scrolls, we have wandered in foreign places, sometimes forgotten, often neglected. But exile is not the end of our story – it’s a chapter in our return.
The prophet Isaiah promised: “Nachamu, nachamu ami – Comfort, comfort My people.” In a Polish apartment on a winter fast day, two sacred scrolls taught me that redemption doesn’t always arrive as we expect. Sometimes it comes through strangers’ kindness, through Jews from all backgrounds who moved by their heritage, through the most unlikely messengers.
And here’s what fills me with hope: If two forgotten Torah scrolls could find their way home after 80 years of exile, how much more certain is our own return? If sacred parchment can survive decades of neglect and still inspire strangers to open their hearts and wallets, how much more powerful is the Jewish soul that refuses to be extinguished?
The scrolls are home now. And so, one day, will the entire Jewish People, living in peace and prosperity.
May this Tisha b’Av be the last we observe in mourning.