COOPER CITY
Cooper City family donates Torah
A Cooper City family honored its youngest son's recovery from once-constant seizures by donating a Torah to its synagogue.
Posted on Mon, Jun. 09, 2008
BY DIANA MOSKOVITZ
CANDACE WEST/MIAMI HERALD STAFF.
Through the heat, humidity and traffic, more than 100 people sang in Hebrew and danced in joy down Stirling Road in Cooper City on Sunday, following the sacred scroll that they said marked a miracle.
Gabi Damatov, now 17, suffered from horrific seizures since he was 16 months old. Gabi doesn't remember any of them, saying he would wake up in his bed or a hospital bed and know he had another seizure.
His parents tried every medicine, every prayer, but nothing worked.
Until one day several years ago, when Gabi's mother, Shoshi Damatov, said the family would dedicate a Torah scroll to its synagogue, Chabad of Southwest Broward, if Gabi's seizures stopped.
Since then, Gabi has had only a few seizures, going almost three years without one until this past February.
''I'm going to have a lot more freedom,'' Gabi said with a smile about life without the seizures.
And so the Damatovs kept their end of the bargain with the Lord.
More than a year ago, the Damatovs commissioned a scribe in Israel to write a Torah scroll, which contains a handwritten version of the Five Books of Moses in Hebrew.
Or, as Gabi put it: ``Torah is one of the biggest parts of the Jewish religion.''
ALMOST COMPLETE
Several months ago, the scroll arrived in South Florida, almost complete except for about 65 letters, which were to be filled in at the dedication ceremony, Rabbi Pinny Andrusier said.
But they got a new sense of urgency when Gabi suddenly had a seizure in February. It was Gabi's first seizure in almost three years.
His family believes he suffered the seizure after accidentally smelling fried fish -- one of three things well-known healing rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri warned Gabi to avoid.
The Damatovs immediately pushed ahead with the Torah's dedication ceremony, deciding the best day would be Sunday, which also was Shavuot, the holiday celebrating the Jews receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai.
Sunday afternoon, friends and family members streamed into the Damatov home in the Embassy Lakes neighborhood. The Torah, decked in a gleaming custom metallic case, sat on a table, waiting for its moment.
In the middle of it all was Gabi, getting congratulations and high-fives.
He is 17, going into his senior year at David Posnack Hebrew Day School and looking forward to freedoms he couldn't have with the constant seizures, like a permanent driver's license and going out by himself.
Then the music started, traditional Hebrew songs piped from speakers atop the flatbed of a tow truck, accompanied by a man on a keyboard and another man singing into a microphone.
The tow truck led the way, followed by seven small boys carrying torches and a stream of people, singing, dancing and clapping to melodies like Am Yisrael, chai! meaning ``the nation of Israel lives.''
They surrounded the Torah, which was always carried by hand, never touching the ground. Every few feet, the group stopped and passed the Torah to another person.
''You can't not be pulled into this enthusiasm,'' said Gabi's aunt, Rebecca Fischer of Plantation, in between snapping pictures with her digital camera.
SLOW MARCH
It was a slow march that ended a half a mile away at the synagogue. Gabi walked it in himself, right foot first for good luck.
Inside, the crowd gathered to watch as the Torah was completed, the last letters finally filled in.
Outside, children were already grabbing snacks at the makeshift tables and tents set up for the celebration.
''I am in heaven,'' said Gabi's father, David Damatov.
``There is nothing better than what we are doing.''
