Corinne S Kennedy, Palm Springs Desert Sun
With the late afternoon sun beating down on them, dozens of people gathered behind a Rancho Mirage home, watching the back door as two men emerged with two giant scrolls sheathed in leather and felt cases clutched in their arms.
For a moment there was relative quiet, excitement and joy palpable in the air, before the music started and the crowd began to dance, singing and clapping as they made a circle around the two men.
“Lift yourself up a little and the torah will lift you up the rest of the way,” Rabbi Shimon Posner called to the congregation.
The festivities were part of a torah dedication ceremony at Chabad of Rancho Mirage on Wednesday, a joyous celebration marking an important spiritual moment for the community when new torahs are completed and taken to synagogues.
“This is like the most honored guest to be coming and living with us,” Posner said.
The rabbi said throughout history, when Jews were forced out of one area or another, they always kept the torah with them and safe.
Jerry Moses, a Holocaust survivor who attends Chabad of Rancho Mirage, agreed.
“They tried to kill us,” he said of the Holocaust. “But the torah lives on forever.”
The process of creating a torah, which can take six months to a year and is written by hand, is precise. About 4,000 rules explain exactly how the sacred text should be made and what materials can be used.
Packed into Posner’s living room and kitchen, a rabbi from Los Angeles explained the steps of creating a new torah to the dozens of people assembled. The parchment is made using between 60 and 80 kosher animal skins, which are soaked, stretched and sanded down in a particular manner before being cut into a rectangle.
The pages are then scored — deep enough to leave a guide for the scribe but not deep enough to tear the parchment — with 42 lines. The ink can be made several ways, but most commonly it is made from a type of oak tree nut. The quill can come from the feather of any kosher bird.
Every single one of the 304,805 letters in the torah are then written out by hand by the scribe.
As an expensive and lengthy process, the creation of a new torah is typically sponsored by members of the community. At Chabad of Rancho Mirage, several people stepped forward. One woman donated toward the new torah in memory of her late husband.
A man, who had been a teacher in Iran and helped smuggle some of his students out of the country after the 1979 revolution, was able to facilitate a donation from the family of former students living in London.
“It’s a testament to this community that when word got out that we needed torahs, not one but two families stepped forward,” Posner said.
Everyone who attended the celebration was also given a key chain with the same leather that was used to make one of the covers for the torah.
“Something that was used to make the torah beautiful can be taken with you,” he told the crowd before the key chains were passed out. “You can take the blessing with you everywhere you go.”
The festivities continued into the night, with music, drinks, food and dancing, friends and relatives sharing in the joy of an important spiritual moment for the community. Throughout the evening, the smile never faded from Posner’s face.
“The words mazel tov are most appropriate,” he said.
Continued Hatzlachah! From your cousins and fans down under
The Kreimans including Meir !
Mazel tov Rabbi Shimon.
May the big stars and the little stars shine upon you and your family.
Much Hatzlacha.
Wishing you a Ksvc”t.
Kol hakoved