Brooklyn, NY – A Chumash found in tatters on a Bay Ridge street is one step closer to a proper burial after being discovered and collected, page by page, by an off duty NYPD commander.
Deputy Inspector Emmanuel Gonzalez, commanding officer of the NYPD Auxiliary Unit was riding his bike on Ridge Boulevard near 67th Street when he saw pages covered with Hebrew writing scattered on the roadway in front of him at approximately 1 PM.
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“I recognized it as a Torah and put a few pages in my bicycle case and I looked around and saw that there were pages scattered all over,” Gonzalez told VIN News. “At first I had one or two, and then it turned out to be three or four and then I saw them all over the avenue. There were cars beeping as I stopped to pick them up, but if I was going to do the job, I was going to do it the right way.”
New York’s Finest indeed!@NYPDnews Inspector Manny Gonzalez was out for a bike ride when he saw pages of a holy Jewish text scattered across the street. He collected them, and then called me to find out how to respectfully dispose of the holy book.
— Councilman Deutsch (@ChaimDeutsch) December 30, 2020
Wow!
Watch his recounting: pic.twitter.com/2hptvfnn6d
Gonzalez picked up whatever he could and then returned to the scene, located near a busy Belt Parkway off ramp, to make sure that there were none left behind.
“There were cars running over the pages and I had to stop traffic but it was important to take the time to show respect for the Torah,” noted Gonzalez. “Sometimes you have to take time out of your day to do a mitzvah.”
Not knowing the proper way to show respect for the damaged pages, Gonzalez reached out to City Councilman Chaim Deutsch, who confirmed that the pages were part of a Chumash and agreed to make sure that they were handled appropriately.
Gonzalez, who represents people of all religions and races in his work with the NYPD Auxiliary, doesn’t believe that anyone set out to destroy the Chumash and suggested that perhaps someone may have put it down on top of their car and then inadvertently driven away without remembering its presence. His experience left him wondering if there was a way to educate people about the proper way to ceremoniously retire religious objects that may come their way.
“We need to let people know what to do in situations like this,” observed Gonzalez. “I wasn’t actually looking to do a mitzvah, but sometimes G-d, Hashem, calls on you to do one.”
Deutsch said that he will be putting the Chumash in shaimos. He posted video of Gonzalez describing his find on social media and praised the veteran of two tours in Iraq for his thoughtfulness.
“Inspector Gonzalez is a class act and a true mentsch,” said Deutsch. “I was so impressed with his sensitivity and respect. I’ve always known he was a great guy, and now the rest of our community can see it too
FILE – Deputy Inspector Emmanuel Gonzalez, Commanding Officer of NYPD Auxiliary Unit is receiving a Blessing from Satmar Grand Rebbe Aron at Chuf Alef Kislev event at the NYS Armory in Williamsburg.-Dec 19, 2019 (TwitterHQSatmar)
