Ingeniously, the verses were separated. First, the synagogue choreography preserves the link between the text and the ark. The ark of the synagogue is to be seen as the Ark of the Tabernacle, as the most sacred space in the institution that came to replace the Temple. Despite the destruction of the sacrificial system and the loss of the Tablets, a corner of holiness remains which can serve to represent the nearness of God. Second, that divine presence has taken the form of the written word.
Nothing exceeds the sanctity of the Torah scroll.
And finally, the invocation of God to assist us communally and personally loses none of its existential urgency. The wilderness of the biblical narrative becomes a metaphor for life with all its bewildering, unpredictable and precarious qualities. All of these foreboding qualities were intensified for the Jewish communities in Franco-Germany after the First Crusade. Hence the liturgical expansion of the Torah service. But even without persecution, we are individually in need of ultimate meaning to fight the demons, both real and imagined, that we encounter along the route of our life's journeys.