the torah is kept in the ark in the synagogue.
where is the torah kept in the synagogue?
ark
about any mediaeval institutions, nothing is known, but there might have been a prayer room on hand in the earlier half of the 15th century, when there were four or five jewish families in town. the modern jewish community, too, began with a prayer room in the 17th or 18th century. beginning in 1816, this was to be found in a private house (the werner house at marumstraße 20). as early as the late 1830s, the building police were threatening to close the roughly 25 m room as it had become too small for the swelling jewish community. first, the community strove to secure a plot on marumstraße (later the site of the bottlinger house), but this proved to be too small for a new building. only in 1858, amid great financial sacrifice, was a synagogue built on what is now called gymnasialstraße, on a piece of land where once had stood a barn. it was a late classicist sandstone-block building with round-arched windows and a pyramid roof. the original building was – in comparison with the one that has been preserved – smaller by one window axis; this area was to be occupied by a schoolhouse. about the synagogue's consecration on 18 june 1858, performed by chief rabbi dr. auerbach together with the sobernheim cantor and schoolteacher alexander cahn, a newspaper report from the "allgemeine zeitung des judentums" survives from 19 june 1858, written by "master bricklayer s. hadra":sobernheim, 18 june 1858. on this day, the local jewish community celebrated the consecration of its newly built house of god. this is, in relation to the not very numerous jewish population, built very roomily, so that in the case of growth thereof by as many again, there would still not be a lack of room. the building itself is built in a suitable modern style. the community spared no expense furnishing its house of god in the worthiest way. they even enjoyed valuable donations and contributions from non-resident members. the consecration celebrations were conducted with great pomp. many friends from near and far attended to participate on this festive day. the festive procession moved from the old prayer house to the new synagogue. forth under the grand baldachin of the chief rabbis, dr. auerbach from bonn and the local cantor and schoolteacher, mr. cahn, followed by the bearers of the scroll of law. hereupon followed the choir that has been newly instituted here by sobernheim’s young women and men, the officials who were invited to the festivities and other members of the community. the synagogue at this memorable celebration was adorned with leaves and wreaths of flowers by the teacher. chief rabbi dr. auerbach gave a deeply gripping sermon characterizing the day’s importance. on saturday, the jewish community’s schoolteacher and cantor mr. kahn preached on the theme “build me a house of god and i shall live among you.” s. hadra, master bricklayer.in 1904, the synagogue was thoroughly renovated and expanded towards the west. about the completion of this work and the synagogue's reconsecration on 11 and 12 november 1904, a magazine report from "der israelit" survives from 24 november 1904:sobernheim. 14 november 1904. the 11th and 12th of november were high festive days for the local community, as on these days, the expanded and beautified synagogue was consecrated. to the festivities, many guests from here and elsewhere were invited and they showed up. the consecration service held on friday afternoon, at which, among others, the mayor, the town executive, the royal district school inspector, the principal of the local realschule and representatives of the schoolboards took part, was opened with the motet “"gesegnet sei, wer da kommt im namen des herrn"” (“blessed be he who cometh in the lord’s name”), presented by the synagogue choir. hereupon, the community’s schoolteacher, mr. berendt, read out, in an upliftingly expressive voice, psalm 110. after the choir then sang ma tovu (מה טבו), leadership member mr. michel’s eldest daughter presented a prologue in exemplary fashion and handed the community head, mr. m. marum, the key to the holy ark. he then gave a speech thanking, in brief but heartfelt words, all those who had contributed to the completion of the building work. upon this, mr. marum opened the holy ark and bestowed upon it its ceremonial function. while the choir sang vaychi benisa (ויחי בנסע), leadership member mr. löb took out one of the torah scrolls and handed it to mr. berendt, who with a festive voice spoke the following: “and this is the teaching that moses set before the children of israel, and in this teaching is the word that served israel as a banner on its long wandering through history, around which it gathered, the word, which was its guiding star in friendly and dreary days: hear, o israel, the everlasting, our god, the everlasting, is the only one.” after the choir and the community had repeated the last words in hebrew, the torah scroll was put into the holy ark amid song from the choir for that occasion. deeply moving and seriously thought-out was mr. berendt’s celebratory sermon that followed about the word of the prophet isaiah: “ביתי בית תפלה יקרא לכל העמים” (“my house shall be a house of prayer and a house for all people”). after the consecration hereafter performed by him and the reading of the general invocation, the aaronitic blessing was then conferred in hebrew and german and the consecrational song was presented by the choir. the celebratory service obviously left all participants with an impression fully matching the dignity of the celebration. after a short break, קבלת שבת took place (onset of shabbat), at which our splendid house of god shone as surely as it had at midday in glorious electric light. on saturday morning, the main service was held, whereupon the religious celebration concluded. at four o’clock in the afternoon, a banquet began in the hall at the “high castle”. this event, too, went off in the loveliest way, making the festival into a harmonic whole, honouring its organizers and giving all participants a lasting memory. to the following goes credit for the embellishment of the house of god: mrs. jakob kaufmann "née" van geldern, who by collections among the women made possible a magnificent parochet; mr. ferdinand herz, who endowed a sumptuous shulchan cover (for the lectern); mrs. else jakobi "née" marum from grünstadt and mr. b. steinherb from aachen, who each donated a richly ornamented torah mantle. the family jakob marum from karlsruhe gave a rare carpet that decorates the inside of the house of god.in 1929, the synagogue's roof was renovated. in august 1930, a memorial tablet to the fallen from sobernheim in the first world war was put up at the synagogue. on kristallnacht (9–10 november 1938), the synagogue was demolished and desecrated. the prayer books were burnt. somebody managed to save the torah scrolls and the parochet. the memorial tablet to the fallen was broken to bits, but alfred marum safely gathered up the bits (he put it back together and on 15 october 1950, set it in the memorial at the graveyard, fractured though it still was; the jewish worship community of the bad kreuznach and birkenfeld districts replaced it with a replica of the original in january 2005). in 1939, the synagogue was sold to the town, who had in mind to turn the building into an atrium for the gymnasium. in the second world war, however, the synagogue was used as a storage room by the wehrmacht. in 1953, after the war, the building was sold to the owner of the schmidt department store and thereafter used for furniture storage. intermediate floors were built inside. in 1971, the building was threatened with being torn down. a broad bypass road was, according to the plans then put forth, to lead right across the plot occupied by the synagogue. only with great effort could the application to put the building under monumental protection be put through. the town and the owner objected, albeit unsuccessfully. in 1986, the building was once again sold, and then used for drink storage and stockpiling. on 9 november 1989 – the 51st anniversary of kristallnacht – the "förderverein synagoge sobernheim e.v." (sobernheim synagogue promotional association) was founded. it set itself the goal of conserving the legacy of jewish culture in bad sobernheim. central to its purpose from the outset were the preservation and renovation of the synagogue. the house of god was to be led to a use that was wise and in line with its dignity. the use to which the building was to be led turned out to be as the new home for the town's public library, which would allow the space formerly used for worship to keep its original shape (the intermediate floors were to be torn out). in 2001, the town of bad sobernheim acquired the synagogue. through a usage and maintenance agreement, the building passed into the promotional association's care. in 2002, the roof and the windows were repaired. the family marum's descendents donated a new star of david for the roof. at once, several memorial events, concerts and even jewish religious services took place inside, even though at first, it did not look very appealing. in connection with this, close contacts were developed between the promotional association, the "zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der juden in deutschland" (central welfare post of the jews in germany, represented locally by "max-willner-haus" in bad sobernheim) and the jewish worship community in bad kreuznach. in 2003, the first jewish religious service in 65 years took place at the synagogue. between 2005 and 2010, the restoration of the old synagogue was undertaken, and it was turned into the "kulturhaus synagoge". this was festively dedicated on 30 may 2010. the address in bad sobernheim is gymnasialstraße 9.
bad sobernheim
the theme of tahrif was first characterised in the writings of ibn hazm (10th century), who rejected claims of mosaic authorship and posited that ezra was the author of the torah. he also systematically organised the arguments against the authenticity of the biblical text in the first (tanakh) and second part (new testament) of his book: chronological and geographical inaccuracies and contradictions; theological impossibilities (anthropomorphic expressions, stories of fornication and whoredom, and the attributing of sins to prophets), as well as lack of reliable transmission ("tawatur") of the text. he explains how the falsification of the torah could have taken place while there existed only one copy of the torah kept by the aaronic priesthood of the temple in jerusalem. ibn hazm's arguments had a major impact upon muslim literature and scholars, and the themes which he raised with regard to tahrif and other polemical ideas were modified only slightly by some later authors.
tahrif