Kelowna Cap News and COLlive
The Jewish community in Okanagan, British Columbia has a new Torah scroll.
After years of borrowing scrolls to read from during ceremonies, religious gatherings, holidays and events, Stephen Cipes, owner of Summerhill Pyramid Winery, paid $40,000 to have one written especially for the Chabad Okanagan Synagogue in Kelowna.
“The Torah is the heart of Judaism, it is our backbone,” said Rabbi Shmuly Hecht who directs Chabad Okanagan along with his wife Fraidy. “It is a user-manual for a Jew, how a Jew should live life according to G-d.”
The scroll, written by a certified Torah scroll scribe in Israel, took a year to write and is written on special parchment in a special ink, using a quill. The calligraphy is precise.
On Tuesday, in a park in south Pandosy, members of the local Jewish community gathered to not only get a look at their new Torah scroll but also participate in a once-in-a-lifetime experience, helping complete a Torah.
Each member of the community got to help complete a letter in the new scroll with the assistance of certified Torah scroll scribe David Ehrentreu, who flew in from New York to participate.
Also on hand were Rabbi and Mrs. Yitzchak Wineberg, Directors of Chabad Lubavitch in British Columbia, who drove from Vancouver for the ceremony.
“This is quite amazing,” he said. “I’m here to help celebrate a milestone.”
He commended the great work of Chabad Okanagan and thanked its supporters, while blessing them with continued growth and even more success.
The evening ended with a farbrengen, with encouragement and inspiration that lasted late into the night.
The new Torah scroll will make its home in the Chabad Okanagan Synagogue in Kelowna.
www.JewishOkanagan.com
Yechi Rabbi Shmulie.
Kol Hakovod!!!!!!
NF