In 2014, thousands of people in the streets of Golders Green, London, said goodbye to a Sephardic Sefer Torah that the following day would be taken to the synagogue in Porto, Portugal. That Sefer Torah had no simple mission, as it was intended to break decades of spiritual emptiness in a community that the Portuguese state had deliberately stifled eight decades earlier.
Kabbalist Doron Ahiel of the London Beit Din was responsible for bringing the Sefer on the flight to Porto. He bought two seats on the plane, one for himself and one for the Sefer, and at the Porto airport, an illustrious delegation from the Jewish community awaited the arrival of the "two passengers" who were received with all the pomp.
Once again, a decent journey of the Sefer Torah to the synagogue was not neglected. The final arrival at the Kadoorie Mekor Haim synagogue, in David Garrett's BMW 730, was an apotheotic milestone celebrated with great emotion by the congregants.
The Shabbat ceremony that followed gathered a crowd that was aware that many good years were to come. A Sefer Torah is the holiest object in Judaism. It is used for communal reading in the synagogue and stored in the ark.
The Kadoorie synagogue is now on its way to completing 11 consecutive years of minyan. Even today, that Sefer Torah once so celebrated in the streets of Golders Green, is used in the Shabbat readings at the Kadoorie synagogue. The God of Israel prevailed, as did the belief, culture, and strategy that always accompany the indestructible people of Israel.
