An Israeli rabbi was convicted of stealing torah scrolls from his own congregation and replacing scrolls with rolls of paper.

Rabbi Yehuda Rosilio, of the Sephardi synagogue in the small Negev town of Moshav Brosh near Be’er Sheva, was found guilty of aggravated theft; fraud; fraud under aggravated circumstances; breach of trust and an affront to religion

At Simchat Torah, death and life are linked by just two beats of the heart. Our Torah reading cycle reaches its final episode, the death of Moses. A single heartbeat later, we are once again “In the beginning”, as we restart the cycle, affirming life through Bereshit, the Creation of the world.

The scene that plays itself out on Simchat Torah each year in synagogues across the country is invariably the same. A small hard core of dedicated men with Torah scrolls in their arms do their best to circumvent the bimah against a riotous backdrop of noise and out-of-control kids fuelled by too much candy and fizzy drinks. Off to the side stand the rest of the adults, mostly parents and the occasional indulgent grandparent. Some are mildly amused. Most are bored stiff and cannot wait for the whole thing to be over.