Wednesday, October 07, 2009

New Torah scroll

On Tuesday evening a new Torah scroll was dedicated at the Park Hotel in Netanya. This was in memory of the 23 people killed in the Passover bombing at the Hotel seven years ago, and of others killed by terrorist incidents around Israel, totaling 35 people. The Torah scroll will be used in the Hotel synagogue for prayers. In the Jewish religion it is considered to be a mitzva, a good deed, to memorialize the dead with a living Torah scroll.
There was a festive meeting in the hall, now completely rebuilt, where the bomb went off. The former Chief Rabbi Meir Lau made a speech and then a band played and he carried the Torah scroll with its decorations out into the street, where a huppa on wheels was pushed along following a van festooned with lights, and a band played drums, brass instruments and shofars. There was a large crowd and it was altogether a very joyous occasion. We did not follow the parade thru the streets because just as it was leaving it started to rain. But, it was not a heavy rain and it soon ceased.
These parades can be seen in Israeli cities and elsewhere around the world when a Torah scroll is dedicated. Often they are scrolls that have been saved from the Holocaust and repaired, but in this case it was a new one. Since each letter is written by a scribe by hand and must be perfectly reproduced it can take a year or more to write a complete scroll of the Bible. So these scrolls are very expensive and the cost was underwritten by a wealthy American benefactor.
Of course, it's wonderful to have a new scroll and to memorialize the dead, but everyone wishes that the people did not have to die for the evil of the terrorists who hate Jews.

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