Consecration: The Honey on the Page
Our tradition tells us that at the commencement of religious learning, as a young child began his or her formal education in Jewish texts, a swab of honey was placed on the pages of a book, and a “taste” given to the student – so that the study of Torah would ever be “sweet” in our mouths, and our minds. At Kol Ami we welcome our youngest Religious School students into the “study of Torah” with a ceremony of Consecration – a celebration of learning and the presentation of miniature Torah scrolls that often is linked with the holiday of Simchat Torah (the occasion on which the last words of Deuteronomy and the first words of Genesis are read on the same night, on which an unrolled Torah surrounds and embraces the congregation, and on which we dance with the scrolls). We enter into our study of sacred texts with joy, celebration, and love.
