On the Shabbat of June 10 at Temple Ramat Zion, Rebecca Diamond attained a goal achieved by few laypersons, and even fewer women: With her husband, David, and sons Jacob and Rafii looking on from the pews, she read from the Torah portion Bechukotai, completing her reading of every verse in the Torah in a formal setting.
Only “a handful of people” have attained this feat, Ramat Zion’s Rabbi Ahud Sela told the Journal, adding that in his 13 years at the Conservative congregation in Northridge, Diamond is the first woman he knows to have completed the cycle. When he asked his friends in the rabbinic community if they knew any 100% Torah readers, “only two or three mentioned women.”
The 62-year-old Diamond’s ambition to chant the entire Torah dates back 40 years, when she recited kaddish for her father at a woman’s minyan in Stony Brook, New York. “This was very unusual,” she told the Journal, “because the little Orthodox congregation where we belonged would not have allowed that.” Since she had never lained (chanted) the Torah, she memorized it as a song. But it wasn’t until Diamond’s family moved to Covina in the mid-‘90s and joined the small congregation at Ami Shalom that things came into focus.
“I was looking at the b’nai mitzvah going through there,” Diamond said, “and I said ‘Hmm, I should put my money where my mouth is.’” So she began studying for her adult bat mitzvah. Torah, especially the weekly portions of the Torah read on Shabbat and holidays, represented foreign territory.
When the Diamonds moved across the Valley to Northridge and Temple Ramat Zion, there were many b’nai mitzvah occasions during the year. “If I wanted to do something,” she said, “it was read Torah or sit in the congregation and just participate that way.” She started laining more and more.
“My husband David was my tutor,” Diamond said, “and at that point, it just clicked. My husband taught me how to read Torah for real.” Prior to this point, the Hebrew language was Greek to her. A beginning Hebrew class at Brandeis University, where she met my husband, was the extent of her Hebrew education. “A lot of my Hebrew was self-taught, mostly in shul,” she said. “We enjoyed going to shul. So the more you go, the more you learn, the more you are able.” She acknowledged that she does not comprehend everything she reads. “I can’t converse much,” she said, “but I do know where to stop and where to begin (with each aliyah).”
Diamond admits that, even after 20 years, when she reads, she is always nervous. “I bring my tikkun (a book of Torah scroll texts) with me every week. My security blanket. I’ll give it a last minute look … A little adrenalin is good for people in that situation.”
It’s hard to discern any nerves when Diamond reads. “Rebecca is very exacting,” Rabbi Sela said. “She doesn’t get away with doing it half-way. When she was reading last Thursday morning, she made one mistake, and she said ‘I am really sorry.” Sela called her a model for Ramat Zion’s other Torah readers. “Rebecca rarely errs,” said her rabbi. “She is very careful, a really diligent student. She takes it seriously. She understands she sets a high bar for herself and for everyone else.” Rabbi Sela acknowledged he is not as precise as she is. “Rebecca is the most exacting of our Torah readers. She makes sure she gets it right. People definitely appreciate it.”
Precision is her passion. “She will get every word with the right trope (the cantillation of Torah, denoted in signs on the scroll) on the right syllable,” Sela said. “This is crucial to understanding how the trope gives meaning to the word,” he said, adding that putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable can change its meaning. “It is so good to have somebody who sets the bar for the other lay Torah readers,” Rabbi Sela said.
For her part, Diamond labels her commitment “a passion. I just want to do it.”
