Out of Zion Comes Torah

The invitation heralded what would happen today in Edison, New Jersey …

It was the escorting of a Sefer Torah, a new scroll of the Old Testament, from the home of our sister and brother-in-law, to its home in their local synagogue.  The dedication of the Torah itself was in memory of their parents/in-laws, and the procession was preceded by completion of the last few sentences of  “And This is the Blessing” ending with “To the Eyes of All Israel”.  All eyes were fixated on the completion of these 100 letters, pre-etched by the Scribe, inviting attendees one-by-one to fill in a letter.  The Scribe thoughtfully asked one’s Hebrew name, then selected a letter accordingly.

My brother-in-law started out in accounting but found his calling in what he could do with his hands.  His handiwork was evident in every phase of this project, from traveling to the Holy Land to hand-pick the Sofer, to commissioning the wood crown, to securing a cover that inscribed the names of family members lost in the Holocaust and adorned with  a ribbon-like banner front that read in Hebrew, “Out of Zion Comes Torah”.  He even built a Chupah on wheels to encompass the Torah and its celebrants as it made the grand exit from his home and made its way up the streets of the city to the synagogue, with all the fanfare of a wedding.  See the beautfiul YouTube video uploaded by Eugene Rosenthal.

It was a heavenly day …