{"id":45093,"date":"2018-09-28T10:17:11","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T16:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=45093"},"modified":"2018-09-28T10:17:11","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T16:17:11","slug":"again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/again\/","title":{"rendered":"Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RABBI JOSEPH H. PROUSER<\/p>\n

In one of my family\u2019s favorite movies, \u201cThe Princess Bride,\u201d Inigo Montoya (played by Mandy Patinkin) avers: \u201cYou told me to go back to the beginning, so I have.\u201d His statement represents a turning point. Montoya here begins his transition from a dissolute and lawless past to a heroic and redemptive future.<\/p>\n

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The parallel to \u201cPrincess Bride\u201d is particularly apt. We honor those called to the Torah for its last and first verses as \u201cChatan (or Kallat) Torah\u201d and \u201cChatan (or Kallat) Bereishit\u201d \u2013 the Bridegroom (or, in some congregations, \u201cBride\u201d) of the Torah, and the Bridegroom (or Bride) of \u201cIn the Beginning.\u201d These bridegrooms and brides give dramatic expression to the \u201ctrue love\u201d (a central theme of \u201cThe Princess Bride\u201d) with which we properly aspire to the Crown of Torah.<\/p>\n

Simchat Torah asks us to go back to the beginning. For a People with such a proud past, anything else would be\u2026 \u201cInconceivable!\u201d<\/p>\n

(Rabbi Joseph Prouser is the rabbi of Temple Emanuel of North Jersey and is the National Chaplain of the National Jewish Committee on Scouting.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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