Cause for celebration

Nova Scotia, Canada – Old men and young boys danced and sang on Spring Garden Road in Halifax as they celebrated the dedication of a new Torah on Sunday.

The arrival of the scroll containing the Jewish holy book had the atmosphere of a wedding.

The newly completed Torah, which was to join two existing Torahs used by the Chabad Lubavitch community of the Maritimes, was wrapped in velvet and crowned with silver and carried to its new home under a wedding canopy led by bagpipers.

The dedication is a rare and special event, said Mark Ludman, who carried the new Torah during part of the procession.

“They’re painstaking to make,” he said. “Each one is handwritten and there can be no errors in it.”

The bulk of the scroll was written by professional scribes but a portion was left to be completed by members of the local Chabad Lubavitch community, a branch of the Chassidic movement.

Many members also had a chance to participate in the celebration Sunday as the scroll was passed from person to person.

“You try to allow everybody in the community to have an opportunity,” Mr. Ludman said.

Once the scroll and the celebrants arrived at a banquet room in the Lord Nelson Hotel, a large and vigorous dance began accompanied by boisterous music and singing and Rabbi Mendel Feldman circled the room drawing men into the celebration.

During a pause in the partying, Mr. Feldman told the crowd the Torah has been with the Jews forever and will always be with them.

This new scroll was presented in memory of Beth Medjuck, a member of the community who died two years earlier.

He said members of the community who have passed are present and share the joy of happy occasions like this one.

“The Torah is our eternal gift of life,” Mr. Feldman said. “The one and only thing that has guided us and been with us for 3,500 years.”

In a note to the community, included in the program for the event, he said the dedication of a new Torah is in fact like a marriage: the Jewish people are the bridegroom and the Torah the spouse.

Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum of Toronto, Mr. Feldman’s father-in-law, said the Torah breaks down the facades and differences that sometimes separate Jews.

“Today we all stand together,” he said. “What brings us together is our holy Torah.”

He said it was fitting that the new Torah was dedicated at this time of year, shortly before Rosh Hashanah, the holiday often thought of as the Jewish new year, which begins Sept. 22.