Six Torah scrolls nabbed a week ago in a mystery heist from the historic Tzemach Tzedek Synagogue in the Old City of Safed, Israel, will be back in place in time for Shavuot, the Jewish holiday commemorating the original giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. The news promises to make for an ecstatically joyous holiday, locals say, especially given the horror that befell the local Chabad-Lubavitch community after the scrolls were discovered stolen in the early morning hours of May 5.
A group of young boys discovered the Torahs Sunday afternoon in an abandoned stone home not far from the synagogue during a playful outing, one week after Safed police under the command of detective Meir Asraf launched a nationwide investigation to recover the holy items.
Detective Dodo Dahan said the scrolls had been dropped off at the location by the perpetrators in an attempt to evade arrest. He said he spoke with one suspect by phone earlier in the day who told police to stop their pursuit.
“These were Torah scrolls; no cash,” the detective remarked. “It looks like G‑d really helped.”
According to Dahan, investigators believe the Torahs were stolen by criminals of Jewish descent with access to markets where scrolls are sold. He would not reveal authorities’ plans now that the Torahs have been recovered.
“The important thing is that the Torahs have been returned,” he said.
Rabbi Gavriel Marzel, director of the Tzemach Tzedek Synagogue and the nearby Chabad of the Old City of Safed was summoned by a manager of a learning center housed on the first floor of the 160-year-old synagogue after the boys ran in excited about their discovery. Betzalel Ravitch, 13, spokesman for the three boys, said they knew what they had stumbled on as they had been told of the tragic loss the previous week.
“I am standing here in disbelief, like some kind of fairy tale,” said Marzel at the scene of the find, surrounded by other elated congregation members, yeshiva students and at least three detectives standing guard at the entrance of the home until the Torahs could be officially returned. “This comes as a bolt of bright lightning.”
Built in the early 1800s by the followers of the Third Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, who was also known as the “Tzemach Tzedek,” the synagogue holds a special place in the hearts of Chabad-Lubavitch Chasidim all over the globe. Its array of Torahs had been collected over time, three from donors, two on loan, and one acquired as part of a Torah-writing fund honoring the memory of Rabbi Aryeh Leib Kaplan, the emissary dispatched in 1973 by the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, to rebuild the synagogue to its former glory.
Rabbi Shalom Pasternak, the synagogue’s caretaker, said the community had begun planning a community-wide gathering as a way to invoke spiritual blessings for the Torahs’ recovery.
“I am happy to say we can hold the event now in joy instead of sorrow,” he said.
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