The rejected Torah book

An event that took place on the fifth day of the week, after the "Midnight Fix" of Aricht, the worshipers in the synagogue prayed in the name of Avraham Abinu "Vatikin" with the hot hawk. And there was one old man among them who they did not know where he came from. The worshipers were surprised that they did not see him in the evening in the synagogue and in the morning in Nablus he was with them. However, they didn't say anything, because they thought that the old man didn't arrive at the synagogue until early in the morning and all that night he was walking around the cave, like many others who used to do that.

When they came to the reading of the Torah, they asked to honor him with "Israel". The guest refused and said: "I am a priest." what did they do - They honored him by bringing in the Torah book. The man was happy for the refreshment, took the book in his arms and walked with confident steps, the custom of a "householder", to the second Ark of the Covenant, where stood the ancient Torah books that were used only for circumambulation.

The public was outraged and started chanting: "This is not the coffin". But the old man went straight to their presence, opened the doors of the ark and put the Torah scroll among the other invalids for reading.

At that time, the rabbi approached him and asked to stop him, but was unable to. The rabbi asked to take the Torah book out of the second ark and the man would not let him. When the rabbi saw that this was the case, he left it to the man to do as he wished and he returned to the "pillar" and continued the prayer until he finished.

When the crowd dispersed and that guest also left, the rabbi approached the Ark of the Covenant and took out a Torah scroll. When he opened the book and checked it, he saw that letters had indeed jumped out of it in many places and there was no fix...

The rabbi went out into the city to look for that man, in order to ask for his forgiveness, lest he had offended his honor, and they could not find him.

(The Hebron book 'Agots from the Day' by Dr. Shaz Kahana)