Son Returns Father’s Torah Scroll to Sa-Nur 20 Years After Disengagement

Twenty years after residents were expelled from Sa-Nur during Israel’s 2005 disengagement from northern Samaria, Shlomo Chalfon returned his late father’s Torah scroll to the renewed community on Thursday in an emotional ceremony attended by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan.

The Torah scroll had originally been donated to Sa-Nur before the disengagement by Shaul Chalfon, an Israel Defense Prize recipient and former fighter in Unit 101 under Ariel Sharon. After the evacuation, the scroll remained with the family for nearly two decades before being brought back today to the reestablished community.

Sa-Nur was one of four northern Samaria communities evacuated in 2005 under the disengagement plan. The Knesset repealed parts of the Disengagement Law in 2023, and families returned to Sa-Nur earlier this month after a series of government approvals. Israeli planning authorities this week also approved 126 housing units for the renewed community.

Before the disengagement, Shaul Chalfon built Sa-Nur’s synagogue and named it after his former commander, former IDF Chief of Staff Rafael “Raful” Eitan. The synagogue was the only structure in the community not demolished during the evacuation. Instead, it was buried under tons of earth, where it remains today.

“Before the expulsion, my father wrote a Torah scroll for Sa-Nur and worked tirelessly to raise funds and build a new synagogue in Sa-Nur named after his friend, former IDF Chief of Staff Raful,” Shlomo Chalfon said.

Chalfon said he was expelled from Sa-Nur at age 20 and returned this week with his wife, six children, and the same Torah scroll his father had brought into the community before the disengagement.

“The meaning of today is closing a circle,” he said. “I was expelled from Sa-Nur as a 20-year-old young man, and I returned with my wife, my six children, and the sacred Torah scroll with which I left.”

After the disengagement, the Torah scroll, ark, and curtain remained in the family home for nearly 19 years, first in Nofim and later in Kedumim. About a year and a half ago, the family loaned the scroll to Yeshivat Bnei Chayil after encouragement from Chalfon’s wife.

“She told me, ‘The moment the Torah scroll leaves the house, it will return to Sa-Nur, and all of us will return to Sa-Nur,’” he recalled.

According to Chalfon, the final decision to bring the scroll back was made spontaneously during a visit to Sa-Nur on Israel’s Independence Day.

“When we arrived, we realized the Torah scroll still had not been brought up,” he said. “My wife and I immediately understood that we were going to bring it. We quickly drove back to Kedumim, gathered our children, and returned.”

“This was the most spontaneous and holiest Torah scroll dedication ceremony possible,” he added. “When I see Sa-Nur with the nucleus families, I feel as if a dead person has come back to life.”

Smotrich described the return as part of a broader reversal of the disengagement from northern Samaria. “The most moving part of this revolution is erasing the injustice and terrible folly of the expulsion from northern Samaria,” he said. “We returned to Homesh and Sa-Nur — and this time permanently.”

Dagan, who was also expelled from Sa-Nur in 2005 and has since led efforts to rebuild the community, described watching Shaul Chalfon remove the Torah scroll during the evacuation. “We watched through tears as this righteous man, Shaul Chalfon, carried this Torah scroll out of the Sa-Nur synagogue during the expulsion, surrounded by police officers and soldiers,” Dagan said. “Today we are privileged to return the Torah scroll to its place.”