Palm Springs Welcomes Torah

Rabbi Yonason Denebeim dipped a quill into black ink and leaned over the parchment. He stroked his graying beard and steadied his hand. A single mistake would unravel two years of painstaking work.

One letter at a time, Denebeim filled in the remaining 32 Hebrew characters to finish what scribes have done for thousands of years, transcribing by hand a copy of the Torah.

“These letters are letters of fire that are emblazoned in the hearts and minds of all creation,” Denebeim said.

“It’s our responsibility to bring that fire to all the world.”

The Torah can mean different things depending on the context, but in the strictest sense it refers to the five books of Moses – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah represents God to the Jewish people.

More than 60 people crowded into Rabbi Yankel Kreiman‘s living room on the eve of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, to witness the writing. The crowd had swelled to more than 100 as they marched with the Torah, shaded under a chuppah, about a half-mile to the Chabad of Palm Springs, the scroll’s new home.

Jewish custom says that everyone should in their lifetime “write a Torah.” Tuesday’s event, gatherers said, was that opportunity.

“It’s a beautiful ceremony,” said Harold Kramer of Rancho Mirage. “It’s not something that you can go into Walmart and buy.”

The Torah was commissioned from a scribe in Israel for about $50,000. It marks only the second time in the Coachella Valley that a new Torah has been purchased. The first and last Torah written for the desert was about seven years ago, said Rabbi Shimon Posner of the Chabad of Rancho Mirage.

Every synagogue is required to have its own scroll, but many are borrowed or purchased used.

“It’s an expense,” said Rabbi Mendy Friedman of the Chabad of Palm Desert. “Not always can a synagogue afford to purchase a Torah.”

At the Chabad of Palm Springs, the men circled the altar seven times singing and praying in Hebrew in a ceremony called hakafot while the women looked on.

The ceremony ended with a long blast of the shofar, which symbolizes the human heart returning to God.

“I don’t know when the last time was that I went to one of these things,” said Chani Lew of Rancho Mirage.

“It’s really special.”