Students the art of Torah scribe
CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn — In this age of high-speed Internet connections, iPods and HDTVs, the Jewish Children’s Museum is inviting the public to step back in time – and learn about the ancient process of making Torah scrolls.
It’s a painstaking process that began more than 3,000 years ago with the giving of the Ten Commandments. The process has been handed down through generations, with specially trained scribes taking about a year to handwrite the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
“This is the holiest book for the Jewish people,” Rabbi Benny Hershcovich told girls from the Beth Rivka School in Crown Heights last week during a scroll-making demonstration.
Hershcovich, 23, is being tutored to become a scribe.
“I haven’t done any writing yet,” said Hershcovich, who came to Crown Heights from Montreal 18 months ago. “Right now I’m studying the rules about how the letters are made.”
Together the five books contain 304,805 individual letters, written on more than 80 parchments made from kosher animal skins. Scribes use freshly made black ink and quills from the feathers of a kosher bird, such as a goose.
Once the scroll is completed it is stitched together with threads made from the veins of kosher animals, such as deer.
“Eeeeew!” some of the girls from Beth Rivka exclaimed when they found out the threads Hershcovich let them hold were once deer veins.
But there were lots of giggles as the girls passed around white goose feathers that could be used to make quills.
“We wouldn’t use a pen,” Hershcovich explained, “because it would make holes in the parchment, which would make it unfit.”
Goldie Gross, 10, a fifth-grader at Beth Rivka, said Hershcovich’s demonstration was “really cool.”
Nachama Heller, also 10, said she would tell her brothers and sisters about what she had learned.
Esther Wilhelm, the assistant principal and a teacher at Beth Rivka, said her students attend synagogue every Saturday.
“After praying, they hear the weekly portion [of scripture] read from the Torah scroll. Now, after seeing how it’s made, I think they’ll have a better understanding and a better feeling for what they’re hearing,” Wilhelm said.
The museum is hosting the demonstration so the general public also can get a better understanding, said Rabbi Zev Steinhauser, a museum spokesman.
“We want to share these rich customs and traditions,” Steinhauser said.
SBG
Let’s Write a Torah DVD is available at Kehot , see how you make parchmentfrom Animal hides ,ink from Gall nuts and Carbon ,tefillin shaping Mezuzahs ETC.20 min. Excelent for kids and Adults alike
by SB Goldstein
missin u tunzz
simalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllleeeeeeeee junikkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk we luv u tuuunz we misssss utuunnnnns
ps. its only 81 more days!!!!!!!
luv, ur #1 cuzins in LA
hudi
u go benny
ONE OF THE GIRLS WHO WAS ACTUALLY THERE
IT WAS REALLY COOL!!!!!!!!!! I THINK IT WAS AMAAZINGGGGGGGGGG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I&N
way to go Goldie!!!!!
Always amazed
Thank you Rabbi Benjaminson and the Museum for creating a new forum for bringing Yiddishkeit to the masses, and thank you Zevi S for working your PR magic to get the word out!
I. and N.
Goldie Gross..youre the best!!!
secrete AGENT EMES
go shaina fellig,I can’t wait 2 c u in the DAILY NEWS! J.K. I don’t read shtus!
Elisheva greenberg
Go benny your awsome i dident know that your a torah scoller