Lake Worth Congregation Celebrate New Sacred Contract

GREENACRES, FL — It’s a wedding, but the center of attraction is not a new bride, but a new Torah scroll.

Members of the Chabad of Lake Worth congregation celebrated the completion of their new Torah on Sunday with dancing, food and a traditional chupah canopy over the scroll.

“During the time when the Jews received the Torah, God said that it is the most precious thing that he has and he wants to give it to us,” said Rabbi Mendy Rosenfeld. “So it’s like a marriage contract.”

The small congregation has been using a borrowed scroll. A donor commissioned the new one, fulfilling a commandment that every Jew should have a Torah.

A scribe in Israel began the hand-lettered scroll in May. The final steps were for congregation members to write one letter on the scroll and to sew the last piece of parchment to the scroll with a wooden needle. Then it was time for the food and festivities.

Besides containing the laws that govern religious practice, the Torah is also considered symbolic of the oneness of all Jewish people. When Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the word of God, he was gone for 40 days. During his absence, the Jews, restless and fearful, made a blasphemous gold idol of a calf. When he returned, he brought the Ten Commandments and the set of laws all Jews are expected to follow.

The parchment from which a Torah is made comes from the skin of a kosher animal, usually a cow or sheep. There are many rituals for its proper safekeeping.

The Torah includes more than 300,000 letters, and if a scribe accidentally leaves out even one of them, the Torah is not usable. When the ink on an old scroll begins to chip, the letters must be repaired.

“It has something incredibly holy about it,” said Leah Rosenfeld, the rabbi’s wife. “People kiss it on Shabbat. Little kids run over and try to give it a kiss (at services). We’re brought up with this reverence.”