When Rabbi George Gittleman stood over his synagogue’s new Torah, quill in hand and ready to inscribe the first letter, an unusual feeling came over him.
“At first, I was shaking,” said Gittleman, of Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa. “To write the first letter was overwhelming.”
Yet, when the Reform congregation’s religious school students were put to the same task, “They were so calm,” Gittleman said with a laugh. “Like it was just another art project.”
More than 300 congregants — young and old — wrote Hebrew letters in the new Torah, which will be unveiled and read from during a dedication service, “Year of Our Torah,” at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15.
A musical arrangement by Petaluma composer Nolan Gasser created in honor of the new Torah will be premiered, and guests are encouraged to bring their shofars to welcome the new Torah. A reception will follow the service at the hilltop synagogue, located at 2600 Bennett Valley Road.
The celebration will mark the culmination of yearlong educational programs infused into the religious school curriculum and lifelong learning classes that focused on the Torah as a multilayered symbol of Judaism.
The goal was to “demystify” the scrolls and make them “real” to those who were in awe, Gittleman said. He added that the act of writing one letter in the Torah is equivalent to writing an entire Torah, which is considered a mitzvah.
Most participants pledged a donation (ranging from $36 to $18,000) to be part of the Torah creation process, though no one was turned away for lack of funds.
With assistance from Rabbi Menachem Youlus, a Washington, D.C.-based sofer (Torah scribe) known as the “Indiana Jones of Torah rescue” because he recovers and restores dilapidated Torahs, congregants either filled in a letter on their own or guided Youlus’ hand, placing a hand on top of his.
“People were really moved,” said Billie Blumenthal, religious school director at Shomrei Torah. “Parents were choking up and the kids took it so seriously. They were really present in that moment.”
While Shomrei Torah already has two scrolls, both suffer from excessive wear and overuse. One of them, a Holocaust relic known as the Czech Torah, will remain a symbol of the congregation, though it will be used sporadically, according to Gittleman.
“We love our Czech Torah,” he said. “We’re not retiring her, but changing the way we use her. There is a sense of loss there, though. For all these years, the Czech community has lived on through the Torah.”
The new Torah, known as the “working Torah,” will provide the congregation with greater access to the scrolls that its worship and study activities demand. It also will serve as a lasting symbol of the writers who helped complete it.
“For hundreds of years, families will be reading from that Torah scroll,” Gittleman said. “It will forever be a reminder of the congregants who made that possible.”