Word by Word a New Torah is Born

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — On a recent chilly evening, more than 150 people gathered inside a fancy hotel ballroom to witness an uncommon 3,318-year-old tradition.

As all eyes watched, the white-bearded rabbi in the black robe and yarmulke bent over an animal hide parchment scroll. He dipped his turkey quill into black ink, lifted his unhelpful spectacles to his brow, and pressed the pen to parchment.

A small printed Hebrew letter took shape to begin the first word of the sentence, “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth.” Camera bulbs flashed, and the polite sounds of jubilation filled the room.

“This is quite an auspicious occasion,” said Charles Ziontz of Brooklyn, who brought his grandsons Ben and Ari Scherzer of Warren Township to witness the creation of a new Torah. “This Torah is not only for the boys, but hopefully for their children’s children.”

And also for their friends, their neighborhood and larger community. The Chabad Jewish Center of Basking Ridge, an Orthodox Jewish congregation dedicated to outreach to secular Jews, has declared this Torah will be a community Torah. By taking the Torah scroll out of the synagogue and into the world, Rabbi Mendel Herson hopes to share the cornerstone of the Jewish faith, educate others and celebrate Judaism in daily life.

“We want to try to engage, to the extent we can, our non-Jewish neighbors,” said Herson. “It’s a cultural thing,” he said.

The five books contained in the Torah are considered by both Jews and Christians to be the inspired word of God, as revealed to Moses. Torah scrolls, written in printed Hebrew, have been passed down from one generation to the next. Across the world, Torah scrolls are identical in content, down to every last letter.

Rabbi Abraham Shlomo Teicher, 51, has been a professional sofer, or scribe, for half his life. He runs a sofer store on Chestnut Avenue in Teaneck, and lives in Monsey, New York. Teicher estimates he is one of two dozen Torah scribes in New Jersey.

“We take special training for about two years,” he explained. “We practice the formation of the letters, learn special laws about what is involved in producing the parchment, repairing the parchment.”

In all, Teicher said, there are 4,000 laws a sofer must know, and more than 300,000 characters to copy precisely from the master scroll.

God is watching. We can’t sneak anything,“ he quipped.

At the Grand Summit Hotel in Union County last month, spectators marveled at the scribe’s cool control and exactitude, despite the pressure of transcribing a holy text on one long sheet of parchment with non-erasable ink.

”Everyone makes mistakes,“ Teicher said, during a break. ”We wait for the ink to dry and rub it off with a scalpel if we have to.“ The worst thing that can happen to a scribe? ”Leave out some words,“ he said.

Cyndi Heller of Gillette brought sons Jared, 9 and Ethan, 12 to learn about the Torah. ”I hope it will infuse a feeling of Jewish character,“ she said.

Ross Golding, 9, of Basking Ridge was fascinated by the scribe’s task. ”I thought it would be fun to come and see,“ he said.

The Torah project idea grew out of Herson’s relationship with Stanlee and Florence Kissel’s family of Bound Brook. The Kissels wished to honor the memory of their son Marc, a Shakespeare scholar, who passed away in March, of cancer at age 43. They decided to be major financial sponsors of a new Torah, which will cost about $30,000, and support Chabad.

”To have a lasting memory,“ said his father. Moments after the printing of the first letter, done in Marc’s honor, Stanlee Kissel wiped his moist eyes and said he felt ”Happy. Sad. Mixed.“

In the book of Deuteronomy, the final mitzvah encourages the reader to write a Torah with the phrase: ”So now, write this song for yourselves.” Since most people are unable to write a Torah, they can partake of the mitvah through communal Torah writing. At the Oct. 28 event, guests could sponsor letters ($10), sections ($100), or Books ($1,000.) When it was their turn in line, they were instructed to verbally appoint the scribe to be their agent, and they could look on as their contribution was transformed into the words of God.

Community Torah writing is scheduled for Feb. 16, at 7 p.m. at the Chabad (pronounced Habad) Jewish Center in Basking Ridge, 3048 Valley Road, Basking Ridge. Their Web site is: www.chabadcentral.org. Phone (908) 604-8844.