New year, new Torah.
As the Jewish year is set to begin anew on Rosh Hashanah, it’s traditionally a time when synagogues that have commissioned new Torah scrolls welcome them into their communities.
“A new cycle of the Torah is about to begin,” explained Rabbi Chaim Zaklos of Chabad of Solano County. More than 200 people came together Sept. 25 to dedicate the Solano County Chabad’s new Torah, parading the scroll down Vacaville’s main street under a chuppah to its home in the community’s newly renovated sanctuary.
“The mayor of the city said to me, ‘Rabbi, you Jewish people know how to really do a celebration,’ ” Zaklos said.
The Solano Torah was a year in the making. The scribe inked the first lines in Vacaville one year ago, then returned to Israel to continue the job. The final lines were inscribed at the celebration. More than 100 families made donations to support the Torah; they could underwrite a verse, a word or even a single letter.
Just sponsoring one letter fulfills the mitzvah of inscribing a Torah, Zaklos said.
“Since the Torah is not kosher unless it has every single last word and every single last letter, if you commission the scribe to write one letter you’ve fulfilled the obligation of creating a Torah because without yours it wouldn’t be a Torah,” he said.
At least four Bay Area Jewish communities are celebrating new Torahs this holiday season. Chabad of Noe Valley held a Torah dedication in San Francisco at the same time as Chabad of Solano County; about 150 people attended the celebration, and each community member was offered the opportunity to write one of the final letters.
Zmanim, a nature-based Jewish community in Sonoma County, recently received its first Torah. On Oct. 2, Hillel at Stanford will dedicate a new Torah scroll, commissioned for the 50th anniversary of High Holy Day services at Stanford.