In Jewish ritual, texts and ritual objects are often intertwined and interchangeable. In a previous chapter, Ochs gave a list of the functions of new Jewish objects: “They introduce. […] They retell sacred stories. […] They generate rules and spiritual possibilities. […] They make ritual tangible. […] They provide assurance. […] They appeal to those on the fringes. […] They address communal need” (Ochs 108-109). Both the text and the materiality of such objects as Holocaust Torahs and wedding booklets fulfill the aforementioned needs of new ritual objects.
Whether powerfully holy or subtle and recyclable, ritual texts can fulfill Ochs’s aforementioned scheme. In order to use a Holocaust Torah effectively, a congregation must take into consideration its textual contents and its material history. Beyond its existence as a ritual object, the Torah exists as a symbolic being, as a channel between human and God. As in Ochs’s story about a congregation’s adoption of a Holocaust Torah, the Torah must be transformed into life in order for the Torah to transform the congregation. A congregation can physically and orally utilize its new ritual object to retell an important story in Jewish history, to materialize that history, to act as an object of interest to bring congregants “on the fringes” closer to the center of the congregation, and of course, as the textual object it was originally intended to be. In a similar manner, both the physical presence of a wedding booklet and the text inside of it can act as a couple’s confession of their desire for changed ritual. With enough personal investment, such an object can act as introduction, storyteller, pacifier, and article of interest. By ritualizing objects and text such as Holocaust Torahs and wedding booklets, individuals and communities can access the opportunity for transformation.
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