Rabbi Daniel Siegel

“The Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat”

Mt Ararat is a dormant compound volcano (situated in present day Turkey). One would think it not the best place to land a boat of refugees, the last remaining family and animals on earth, escaping mass destruction.

A Russian proverb teaches: “Where necessity speaks, it demands”. It would not be unreasonable to suggest that perhaps a Jew first spoke these words.

During my recent visit to Turkey, and after much negotiating with the local authorities in Istanbul, I was fortunate to visit the Ahrida sinagogu in Balat. Named after the Romaniot Jews from Ohrid (in N. Macedonia), Ahrida (its Greek cognate), is the only synagogue in the world that has a ship shaped bima.

Our Jewish history has taught us that in escaping one storm, we may well land upon another, soon to ship us off, again.

In 1600 a disastrous fire struck the synagogue. However, the Sultan insured it was rebuilt and that the Jewish ship would retain its mooring.

In 1992 a quincentennial celebration was held by the Jews of Greece and their supportive countrymen. 1492 is a year well-known to us. While some maintain the bima of Ahrida is intended to recall Noah’s ark, others claim it represents the ships that brought Sephardi Jews escaping the Inquisition in Spain.

In the Torah, Noah’s ark is called “tevah”. Tevah subsequently became a Rabbinic term employed for the Aron Kodesh, Holy Ark (In the ancient Ethiopian Christian Church “tabot” means ark).

Standing in the Ahrida’s teva, which is directly facing and in-line with its Holy Ark, I wondered if the first Jew standing here felt that neither teva could exist or flourish without the other.

Perhaps, he understood and hoped, as well, that the Jewish boat will always remain afloat, If not on this mountain then surely on another.