In God’s words
For Meyerland Minyan, receiving new Torah reflects a rebirth for the synagogue
It took nearly an hour for the rabbi to write the first word of Genesis: “Bereishit,” which is Hebrew for “in the beginning.”
As he finished each letter, drawn with a quill dipped in ink, the crowd in the Meyerland Minyan synagogue followed with applause.
The hundred or so people crowded together to watch the rare sight of this sacred scroll being crafted by hand. Some of them, many members of the shul, touched the hand of Heshy Pincus, an ordained rabbi who specializes in writing, as he filled in the letters.
Pincus himself contributed to the lengthy process, deriving meaning from each letter and word of the scroll, which Orthodox Jews believe was written by God and transcribed by Moses more than 3,000 years ago, and is still the same, word for word, today.
By some counts, there are 600,000 letters in the Torah. “The same as the number of Jews that left Egypt,” Pincus said.
At one point he explained that the Torah is made of 62 panels of animal hide, soaked, stretched and sanded to create parchment. Then he made a quip about holy cows, referencing an idol the Israelites once worshipped while in exile.
For members of Meyerland Minyan, the new Torah marked a rebirth, not just of God’s word, but of the congregation. After enduring floods that destroyed one of the synagogue’s Torahs, members of the 16-yearold synagogue purchased their own building and moved in last fall, at the corner of
Chimney Rock and North Braeswood.
“We feel like this is ours,” said Randee Smolensky, one of the founders of the synagogue. “This is our home.” Stories still resonate
Meyerland Minyan is easy to miss.
In quintessential Houston manner, the house of worship is located in a strip mall, sandwiched between a UPS store and a gym. The rooms housing the synagogue used to be a toy store, with a party room in the back.
Since the congregation moved in on Oct. 1, the members have adorned the facility’s eastern wall with a mural of old Jerusalem and the ceiling with a star of David. The synagogue’s remaining walls are lined with prayer books and shawls.
The Torah, stored at the front of the synagogue in a wooden box, is instrumental to the attendees’ faith and identity. As Orthodox Jews, members of Meyerland Minyan try to follow all 613 commandments in the Torah — from logistical rules such as keeping kosher and resting on the Sabbath to those that address morality and faith in one God.
For them, the Torah is synonymous with their Jewish identity. Its stories still resonate.
“Our belief system, the laws, the rituals, all of that is found in that scroll,” said Gidon Moskovitz, the rabbi of Meyerland Minyan.
The Torah is a vital part of every service. But because Torahs are scrolls, not books, it can take some time to find the readings. Multiple Torahs already opened to the correct verses often are used during a single service.
This is the first time the Meyerland synagogue has had the resources to commission a new Torah.
The congregation of about 60 families started out as a group of 10 families, who met around their dining room tables and, later, at the local Jewish Community Center. There wasn’t a place in the community center to store the Torah, so each week after service Smolensky and her husband, Lester, carried the 30 pound scroll home and kept it on a shelf in their closet.
In 2015, the congregation rented a storefront on South Braeswood and Chimney Rock. That spring, during the Memorial Day floods, 4 to 6 inches of water sloshed into the synagogue. One of the synagogue’s two Torahs was damaged beyond repair.
One of the Torahs is about 40 years old. The other, the one that was damaged, dates back to before World War II.
Once a single letter is damaged, the Torah can’t be used, Pincus said, as he inspected the scroll earlier this month. The older Torah’s parchment has the consistency of sandpaper. The ink letters are peeling off. Torahs can be repaired. But, in this case, it would cost thousands, Pincus concluded, after running his hands over the scroll.
He advised Moskovitz not to try to repair the Torah but bury it instead, as is done when a Torah is no longer in use. ‘Filled with meaning’ Torahs aren’t cheap. Ahigh quality version costs upward of $50,000 and takes eight to 12 months to write.
It’s created in the same manner that Jews believe Moses transcribed the first Torah: by hand, with a quill and ink, on animal hide.
Though Pincus is authorized to write Torahs, he’s more of a middle man. He runs a business out of Brooklyn, where he sells Torah covers and mantles and prayer shawls. Pincus hires scribes in Israel to write the Torahs then he delivers them to American synagogues. Ascribe averages a column a day, Pincus said. There are 245 columns in the Torah.
The letters on the panel Pincus wrote at Meyerland Minyan had already been outlined by the Israeli scribe, mailed to Pincus and brought to Texas. Pincus will send the parchment back to Israel for completion. That way the hand writing stays consistent, Pincus said.
Once the Torah is written, it will be proofread by computers. The scroll may be done by hand, but, “We’re not opposed to technology,” Pincus said, with a wink. The Torah’s different panels will then by sewn together with animal sinew.
Other panels of the Torah already were underway when Pincus wrote the first word of Genesis earlier this month in Meyerland. Moskovitz hopes the scroll will be complete by spring, when Pincus will return to write the final few letters.
Only about a dozen of the attendees at the Meyerland Minyan synagogue that night had seen a Torah written before. When Lester Smolensky was a child, his family drove two hours, from Memphis, Tenn., to Little Rock, Ark., to see a Torah’s completion. This experience resonated just as much as his first, Smolenksy said.
“Every word, every sentence, every paragraph is filled with meaning.”