Many years ago, when my son Ilan was applying to Shalhevet High School in Los Angeles, he was asked to write an essay describing his “Jewish role model.” The genre known as “role model essays” typically involves a famous person whose status is well known by people all over the world. Ilan’s original choice was Maimonides, but upon further thought, he changed course. “It’s always the big figures who get all the credit,” said Ilan. “Everyone knows about Maimonides. What about the unknown people who keep Judaism alive? There are so many people out there that nobody has ever heard of, but without them, Judaism would have been gone a long time ago.”
I asked Ilan if he had such a person in mind.
Here is what he wrote:
One of the greatest men you’ve never heard of…
Role models are often famous people. My role model is a quiet, unknown, elderly person. His name is Amos. He is the Gabbai at the famous Yochanan Ben Zakkai Sephardic synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. For as long as I can remember, my father and I have always gone there for minyan when in Jerusalem. Without fail, Amos is present every morning, before everyone else, which is incredible, because Yochanan Ben Zakkai is a netz ha’chamah minyan. The service begins at least 40 minutes before sunrise. Amos opens the synagogue, turns on the lights, prepares the Siddurim and Sifrei Torah, makes sure someone leads services, and assigns aliyot. He then prepares the table for Daf Yomi with volumes of Gemara, tea and biscuits. Watching Amos inspired me to become the Gabbai at my school’s minyan. Now that I have the same responsibilities as Amos, I respect him even more. When I become frustrated in my position as Gabbai, I remember that despite his grueling early morning routine, Amos always has a smile on his face, even giving candy to all of the kids. More than the famous leaders who get lots of publicity, I think it is the quiet people like Amos, with his day-to-day dedication to Judaism, who continue to keep the Jewish people alive.
I share Ilan’s reflections this week, because Parashat Tetzaveh introduces the commandment that became the symbol of daily continuity for Judaism and the Jewish people: prayer.
As the details for the construction of the Mishkan– Judaism’s first house of worship – come to a close, the Torah describes how to build the Mizbeah (altar), the centerpiece for worship in the Mishkan’s sanctuary. The Torah then commands the Korban Tamid (The Continual Daily Sacrifice), which was offered twice a day in the Mishkan (and later in the Temple in Jerusalem).
After the destruction of the Temple, this Mitzvah continued, except we changed the form from sacrifice to prayer. For close to 2000 years, this Mitzvah of daily prayer has continued uninterrupted in the form of daily Shaharit (morning) and Minha (afternoon) prayers services (Arvit – the evening service, was added later).
More than anything else in the Jewish world, daily minyanim have been the rock solid constant in Jewish life. No matter the community, the geographic locale, or the circumstances, Jews have attended minyan everyday – morning, afternoon and night.
Who makes these minyanim run smoothly? Ilan’s role model “Amos the Gabbai,” and thousands of other unsung heroes like him of the Jewish world. These heroes don’t sit around discussing Jewish continuity on panels or in articles; instead, they wake up to it, act upon it and sustain it, “day by day, continually,” as per the Torah’s commandment.
I think Ilan had it right. Amos the Gabbai represents a 2000-year-old chain of uninterrupted Jewish continuity that has been far more consistent than anything else in the Jewish world.
For the Sephardic world, Amos has sustained daily, Shabbat and holiday prayers in Jerusalem’s most iconic Sephardic synagogue. He never wrote any great books of Jewish philosophy, halakha or history, he doesn’t cook or bake Sephardic recipes and he doesn’t speak a word of Ladino or Judeo-Arabic. All he’s done, very quietly, is make sure that a historic Sephardic synagogue remains true to its authentic Sephardic prayers, customs and and tunes.
That’s a real Sephardic role model.
When I am in Jerusalem and I stay at the Sephardic Educational Center in the Old City, just ten steps from the Yohanan Ben Zakkai synagogue, Amos the Gabbai becomes my “Sephardic role model next door.” Who is yours?
Shabbat Shalom