By Donald H. Harrison
ENCINITAS, California — Seacrest Village Retirement Community dedicated a portable Aron Kodesh (Holy Ark) donated by Jeanne Gold in memory of her late husband Rabbi Aaron S. Gold at Kabbalat Shabbat services on Friday, Nov. 5.
The Holy Ark is on wheels. Rabbi Leah Herz, who has served for 3 1/2 years as spiritual leader at the Jewish community’s home for senior adults, assured an outdoor audience of 60 people in attendance, “If you can’t come to the Ark, the Ark will come to you.” She added, “I can move it myself and so we will be able to bring it into the Sun Room, into Assisted Living, just about anywhere. We won’t roll it with the Torah in it, because I don’t want the Torah bobbling around.”
Seacrest Village has units for Independent Living, Assisted Living, and for Memory Care, according to Pam Ferris, the president and chief executive officer of the facility, who was in attendance.
The cabinet designed to hold the Torah when it is not in use was built by furniture maker John Strauss of Canton, Ohio, in accordance with a design upon which Jeanne Gold and Rabbi Herz collaborated. It was constructed out of several different kinds of wood and has a handle simulating one that the Torah describes as having been used by the Israelites to carry the Ten Commandments through the Sinai desert.
“Jeanne wanted an etz chaim — a tree of life — on the front, and the colors that you see (on the branches) are not painted on; they are actually gold, copper, and silver leaves,” Rabbi Herz said. The choice of colors and the phrase written in Hebrew letters atop the Holy Ark — “You shall build Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among you” — were inspired by Exodus 25:1-8, which is included the Torah portion Terumah.
After Rabbi Herz revealed the Holy Ark by removing from it a covering that she had quilted, Jeanne Gold spoke about her late husband, Rabbi Gold–who spent the lion’s part of his career in San Diego County at Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego, but after his “retirement” went on to other Conservative pulpits at Ner Tamid Synagogue in Poway and Temple Beth Sholom in Chula Vista.
“He used to come up here very often and with his Chasidic genes, he would dance and sing with the residents and tell stories from times long ago in [his native] Poland and from New York,” Jeanne said. “He always remembered the victims of the Holocaust. At Tifereth Israel, we have a beautiful wall for that inside.” The prayer space within the larger sanctuary of Tifereth Israel is named the Ohel Aharon (Tent of Aaron) after the late rabbi.
Jeanne noted that “Rabbi Gold, my dear husband, was a dynamic preacher and a good speaker. he was an institution-builder and a visionary. He always came up with new projects. he was involved in the creation of the San Diego Jewish Academy. He established a scholarship fund at Tifereth Israel for young adults and for students so that they would be able to spend some time in Israel. … Together we led, Aaron and I, over 1,000 couples in Jewish Marriage Encounter here in San Diego County. Jewish Marriage Encounter is a program that taught enriched communication between parents and children.”
Her decision to donate the Aron Kodesh was prompted by a “wish list” printed in a Seacrest Village bulletin for a portable ark. “I thought how perfect that is, since he was a Torah scholar. I approached the powers that be at Seacrest and I was able to order that. … This is in loving memory of my dear husband Rabbi God. Thank you and good Shabbos.”
Rabbi Herz thereafter led the congregation in the recitation of the Shehekiyanu prayer, thanking God for bringing those assembled to this moment, and a chorus of the celebratory “Simon tov u mazel tov” song. During the prayer service itself, congregants followed along in a specially prepared pamphlet with large type. The rabbi asked those who were unable to stand at times when it is customary in the Shabbat service to instead try to sit a little higher in their chairs, which, indeed, many did.
The Holy Ark is reserved for the Torah, so nowhere on the portable cabinet does the late Rabbi Gold’s name appear. However, a plaque on the wall near the Ark’s usual resting place will note in whose memory it was dedicated.
*
Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com