local weather Click for Sun Valley, Idaho Forecast
 front page
 classifieds
 calendar
 last week
 recreation
 subscriptions
 express jobs
 about us
 advertising info

 sun valley guide
 real estate guide
 homefinder
 sv catalogs
 

 

 hemingway

Produced & Maintained by Idaho Mountain Express, Box 1013, Ketchum, ID 83340-1013 
208.726.8060 Voice
208.726.2329 Fax

Copyright © 2002 Express Publishing Inc.
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 


For the week of February 5 - 11, 2003

Features

Expert scribe to finish Torah restoration and give lecture


By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Approximately 2,000 sacred Jewish scrolls saved from the ravishes of the Holocaust once resided in decrepit condition in London at the Westminster Synagogue. They are known collectively as the Holocaust Torahs. Jews all over Eastern Europe buried or hid their centuries old Torahs from the Nazis in milk cans, underground, in basements, in caves and in attics.

But the Nazis were not deterred; they also confiscated hordes of Jewish artifacts, including Torahs, and warehoused them. They were to be displayed upon the Nazi’s supposed victory. By the end of World War II many villages and entire families had been wiped out, but word spread and many Torahs were recovered.

Rabbi Martin Levy displays the restored Checkoslovakian Torah that belongs to the Wood River Jewish Community. Express photo by David N. Seelig

 

Torah literally means teaching. The Torah is the central teaching of Judaism. It consists of the Five Books of Moses, Books of the Prophets and other writings. It’s what Christians refer to as the Old Testament.

But the Torah scroll is not simply a book, like a printed Bible. The scroll is sacred and necessary to a Jewish community.

"A temple needs a scroll," said Rabbi Martin Levy of the Wood River Jewish Community.

The 110-year-old Checkoslovakian Torah in the WRJC’s possession has been on permanent loan since 1989 from Westminster Synagogue. It’s one of the recovered Holocaust scrolls that had been hidden in a cave for the duration of the war.

On Feb. 10, Rabbi Moishe Druin is presenting a talk and demonstration on his work with this and other Torahs at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts in Ketchum from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. At 4:30 p.m. he will give a talk for children and at 7:30 p.m. there will be a presentation for adults to the entire community on the spiritual life of the Torah. He’ll explain how he went about restoring the scroll, said Levy.

Born in New York and now a resident of North Miami, Druin is also a scribe, or sofer. Only a sofer can transcribe or repair a Torah. Levy met Druin last summer, the day after Levy’s wedding in Houston, and later sent him the still damaged Torah for final repairs. But Druin didn’t finish some parts in the Book of Numbers. On Monday, members of the WRJC, can, with his help, write a letter in the Torah to complete the project.

"It’s pretty miraculous that (the Torahs) were found. Some were 500 to 600 years old," Levy said. Miracles are circumstances that would otherwise be inconceivable to the imagination. The story of the Holocaust Torahs could indeed be considered a religious miracle, Levy said. Their existence means a way of life, and an ancient religion lives.

The entire third floor of the Reform Westminster Synagogue in London has been given over to the Holocaust Torah project. The process of sorting, cataloguing and repairing the Torahs has taken years of devotion. The intent of the project’s organizers was to find synagogues around the world that would essentially, adopt these orphaned Torahs. More than 1,500 have been given away to new synagogues since the late 1940s.

"They are rising like a phoenix out of the ashes," Levy said. Because a Torah is the most sacred object for Jews, finding and restoring these historical writings has enabled and inspired Jews all over the world.

"A Torah is like a human being," Levy said. "You never throw it out, no matter how damaged. The really damaged ones are used for commemorative displays in museums. It reminds us to hold on to the memories of all those families."

The story of how each Torah is made is enough to convince even skeptics of the piece’s value.

First, a Torah is written on parchment, which is made from a sheep or cow skin. The animal must be kosher, or clean according to Jewish laws. It may not be killed for its skin but must come only from an already dead animal.

No base metals are ever used when creating the Torah, since metals can be made into tools or weaponry. It’s written with either a turkey or goose quill, using kosher ink made from gall nuts. The parchments are sewn together with thread made from kosher calves’ intestines. A Torah scroll contains the Hebrew Bible from Genesis to Deuteronomy, in which there are a total of 304,805 letters. Each letter is painstakingly inscribed by the sofer only after he has preformed several rituals.

The sofer starts by taking a ritual bath. He then goes to prayers with the minyan, a group of at least 10 Jews. Afterwards he may begin the actual work. Torahs are always hand-written in Hebrew calligraphy.

The sofer then sews the individual pieces of parchment together using a thread called giddin. Then the scrolls are sewn onto wooden rollers called Eitzei Chayim, or trees of life.

Using this painstaking method, a chapter a day may be completed. As such, each Torah takes over a year to accomplish. Most new scrolls are now made in Israel since there are only approximately 25 sofers in the United States. But all training to be a sofer is done in Israel and sofers are all orthodox. A new Torah costs approximately $50,000. A sofer also makes his living by writing scripture to put in mezuzahs and teflins.

The Torah’s existence can be traced back to Moses, who, the story goes, received the commandments on Mount Sinai in approximately 1,300 BC.

The scroll he transcribed was placed in the Ark of the Covenant, a wooden box overlaid with gold, which Israelites carried with them throughout their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, and then brought to Israel. King David brought it to Jerusalem, when he made the Holy City his capital.

"The Torah is a symbol of life," Levy said. "It’s a great metaphor. It’s a tree of life to those who hold fast to it."

 

Ski Reports

Homefinder

Mountain Jobs

Formula Sports

Idaho Conservation League

Westridge

Windermere

Edmark GM Superstore : Nampa, Idaho

Premier Resorts Sun Valley

High Country Property Rentals


The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.