Gift from God
BUTLER — When Cantor Michal Gray-Schaffer, spiritual leader of Congregation B'nai Abraham, 519 N. Main St., thinks of the Torah scrolls at her synagogue, she said it makes her cry.
But what began in January as tears of sorrow are now tears of joy with the gift of a new, kosher Torah.
A burst water pipe in the synagogue damaged the five Torah scrolls containing the books of Jewish scriptures and other sacred writings kept in the congregation's ark early this year. The resulting repair work revealed previous blemishes to the scrolls, meaning additional thousands of dollars in restoration costs.
“It was awful,” Gray-Schaffer said. “It was an awful discovery.”
Now, however, the cantor said the experience is bringing a new sense of community to her congregation.
“In Judaism, we have a word 'besheret' and it means 'meant to be,'” Gray-Schaffer said. “So I think this whole thing was besheret.”
After reading a news article describing the expensive restorations required for the synagogue's Torahs, Carole Stein, a former Pittsburgher living in Boynton Beach, Fla., reached out to B'nai Abraham.
Stein, who left Pittsburgh in 1973, said she was unfamiliar with the synagogue and Gray-Schaffer when she called earlier this summer and offered the congregation a new, kosher Torah.
Stein said the Torah belonged to her late husband, Rabbi Andrew Beck, who died in 2007. Because the Torah was also given in memory of Beck's late mother, Stein said she needed to find a good home for it.
“It was a very heartwarming decision,” Stein said. “My life keeps on coming back to Pittsburgh. I'm just really happy that they have a Torah they can use.”
However, there was a catch.
Jewish tradition dictates Torahs be physically transported from one location to another, meaning Stein couldn't ship the Torah from Florida to Butler. Gray-Schaffer said she remembered Todd Lavin and his family, who attend B'nai Abraham, were in Florida visiting relatives.
“I had no idea where they were in Florida,” Gray-Schaffer said. “I called (Todd) and I told him the situation. He said he was a couple of minutes away and he could pick it up the next week.”
Todd, a professor at Clarion University, and his wife, Melissa, were in Boca Raton, Fla., only 20 minutes from Stein. They were driving back to Butler and had room for the Torah in their van.
“Cantor Michal has been Skyping with my son, preparing him for his bar mitzvah,” Todd said. “So she asked me to pick up the Torah, and I was just more than happy to help.”
The Lavins collected the Torah from Stein's house and had it professionally packaged so it wouldn't be damaged.
“Obviously, it's something reverent that you want to keep in good condition,” Melissa said. “It was a real pleasure meeting (Stein). We were just doing a 'mitzvah,' a good deed.”
Gray-Schaffer called the new Torah “incredibly beautiful” and said she gets emotional thinking about the events following January's burst pipe.
“No one could have made up this story,” she said. “Maybe some really, really creative writer, but I don't think so.”
The cantor said she still hopes to have the damaged scrolls restored as she receives donations toward the process. Until then, she's borrowing a Torah from Rabbi Yaier Lehrer of Adat Shalom in Cheswick to use with the new Torah from Stein. She'll celebrate all the Torahs with her congregation and those who helped them at the Simchas Torah holiday this fall.
“God did this,” Gray-Schaffer said. “This whole thing was really a tragedy and it turned into such a blessing because it brought out the good in so, so many people.”
