A new Torah arrives just in time for the High Holy Days
A new written Torah, the Unity Torah of Bellaire, was dedicated at the Shul of Bellaire a week before Rosh Hashana, setting the stage for the joyfulness of the High Holy Days, which will come to a close this week on Yom Kippur.
“Completing and dedicating a Torah within a week of the new year and awesome days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, there isn’t a more auspicious time to do so. Because those are the days we renew our covenant with God Almighty,” said Rabbi Yossi Zaklikofsky, co-founder of the shul, a Chabad-based synagogue open to all Jews.
Chony Zucker, a musician and cantor, flew in from Brooklyn, N.Y., to set the tone and got feet dancing. Local caterer Laykie Donin laid out a beautiful spread of sushi and frosted Torah-shaped cookies. Bellaire police blocked a road so the newly completed Torah could be paraded beneath the chuppah. But before the parading and dancing, serious work was done; the writing of the Torah was completed with the help of the members of the shul.
A Torah is produced under strict kosher standards on regulated parchment using specific ink by a sofer, or scribe, who has rigorous training and a remarkably steady hand.
Rabbi Moshe Klein is a fifthgeneration sofer originally from Jerusalem. He can work eight to 10 months hand writing a Torah. Then, as the last beautiful strokes are within view, he takes a remarkable risk.
The renowned scribe traveled from the Jewish enclave of Brooklyn’s Crown Heights to have untrained hands help in completing his task. He invites the assembly to join him in writing the last of the sacred text. In ones, twos or whole families, congregants join him at his worktable, reciting “I’m writing this for the sake of the holiness of the Torah” — in
Hebrew if they can — then lay a hand over his. And, somehow without any jostling, quill moves on parchment and another small but critical part of God’s message becomes evident for future study, debate and inspiration.
“It is called the Unity Torah because it unites every member in the community dedicating a section of the Torah. Whether it’s a whole portion, or a verse or word, or even a single letter, it unites us all in this beautiful mitzvah,” Zaklikofsky explained.
The mayor of Bellaire, Andrew Friedberg, participated and called the event “a wonderful way to start the new year.”
Jack Sinuk, the principal benefactor, contributed in memory of his parents; he helped write a letter and was the first to carry the completed Torah as it was paraded through the shul. Others
sponsored entire sections of the Torah, known to many in Houston as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Everyone contributed, if simply by their presence.
“I have been thinking more deeply about the value of the Torah and how lucky I am to have access to the Torah’s timeless wisdom,” Allie
Zilberman, a seventh grader at Trafton Academy and student at the Bellaire Hebrew School who is nearing her bat mitzvah, told the assembly. “This is especially true in today’s challenging world. The completion of a new Torah is a sign that Judaism is alive and thriving, and that makes me feel proud to be a Jew.”
For those who witnessed it, the celebration of completing and dedicating this new Torah may echo into the heavy lifting of Yom Kippur, during which personal introspection and selfevaluation are serious business. Repentance means admitting something needs to change. But Zaklikofsky said even in that, there is joy.
“Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, at-onement. It’s the day we are at one with God, the day all masks are removed, all layers are shed. It’s just us, our souls standing before God. We are rededicating ourselves to God, His commandments, His Torah. We have the opportunity to move into the new year with clean slates. And here, then, is a
deep-seated joy.”
As Klein said: “The ink used in a Torah must not be too permanent. Repairs must be possible in case, God forbid, a Torah is damaged. Or, if you make a mistake, you should be able to fix it.” Atonement, in other words.