Torah scroll honors Weston teen killed in Israel bombing

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The four hands moved together in unison, pushing the quill across the blank parchment, writing the Hebrew word bereshit.

The word, which means ”in the beginning,” was the first of tens of thousands to be inscribed in the Torah scroll in memory of 16-year-old Daniel Wultz.

His parents, Tuly and Sheryl Wultz, and his sister Amanda were the first to write in the scroll, which contains the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.

Daniel was in Israel with his parents, celebrating Passover and visiting his grandparents, when a 21-year-old suicide bomber detonated 30 pounds of explosives at the entrance of a Tel Aviv restaurant where Daniel was eating.

Daniel died from organ failure May 14, almost a month after the April 17 attack.

The teenager was one of 11 people who died as a result of the attack.

The family began writing the Torah at the Chabad Lubavitch synagogue in Weston Sunday, the same day the traditional Jewish period of mourning ended.

Rabbi Yisroel Spalter guided Daniel’s family and extended family members as they wrote about 55 letters on the parchment.

The Torah will be taken to Israel, where a scribe will complete the more than 300,000 letters before the anniversary of Daniel’s death.

”We are honoring Daniel with the utmost religious honor,” Tuly Wultz said. “The Torah he was so eager and thirsty to learn, the Torah Daniel was trying so hard to obey.”

The Torah will be returned to the Weston synagogue, where it will be placed in the ark with three other Torah scrolls.

”We will dance with the Torah, we will celebrate with the Torah,” Spalter said. “We will dance with Daniel. We will celebrate with Daniel. He will be engraved in our hearts and our building forever.”

Esti Wultz, who traveled from Israel for the service, directed her words to her nephew. ”We are here because you had the biggest soul, the largest neshamah, which someone doesn’t usually find in such a young boy,” Esti Wultz said. “You were the biggest hugger and smiler.”

Amanda Wultz said she too would remember her brother for his smile, which spread “from ear to ear.”

Her family was touched by the outpouring of support from all over the world. ”It’s heartwarming to know how many people care,” she said.

For Daniel, the Torah “was the basis for living. He wanted to live the Torah as best he could every day.”

Dr. Yitschak Ben Gad, the consul general of Israel in Florida, spoke at the service and wrote a word in the Torah.

”The question is not if peace will come, but when?” Ben Gad said. “Until then, we pay a very high price. Daniel was a very high price.”