My colleague Rabbi Jason Miller comments that Torah Bright's gold medal made yesterday a real "Simchat Torah" for her family, as the gold medal hung around her neck like a breastplate hangs from our sacred scroll.
The breastplate is covered in next week's portion, Exodus 29: And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the LORD continually.
The breastplate, or choshen, was very special, in part because it housed the divination oracles, the urim and thummim.
The prognosticators got it right this time in dubbing Torah Bright the favorite in her event. The Aussie "Queen of Extreme" is a devout Mormon, not a Jew, but the Jewish Week reports that she told a Mormon web site that "The name Torah is “the Jewish name for the first five books of the Bible." A piano teacher also told her the name also means ‘bearer of a great spiritual mission.’”
And so it does. BTW, see that aforementioned Jewish Week article for the latest on all the Jewish or presumed Jewish athletes competing in the Olympics this week.
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