Last weekend brought the first severe thunderstorms of the season to Northern Virginia, but you would never have known it from the scene at St. John's Episcopal Church in Centreville Sunday.
The sun poured down on nearly 200 people from three Jewish congregations as they paraded around the church, singing and shaking tambourines.
At the front of the procession was the honored guest of this rare celebration, a Torah—a nearly 180-foot, handwritten sacred scroll that contains the five books of Moses and embodies the religious traditions of the Jewish people.
This particular Torah traveled halfway around the world to be dedicated to Temple Beth Torah, a 10-year-old Jewish congregation that worships at space provided by St. John's.
“This is huge for our congregation,” said Jeffrey Horner, the group's president. “A Torah turns you from a bunch of people who meet and worship into a congregation with a grounding in the traditions of our religion.”
In the past, Horner said, Temple Beth Torah has had to rent a Torah from other synagogues to use during services.
The dedication of a new Torah is such a rare event, Horner said, that many practicing Jews observe only one or two of these ceremonies in a lifetime.
Heidi Hirsch, a member of the congregation, said the new Torah will be especially valuable to the group's younger members, pointing out that children in large congregations rarely get the chance to touch or read from the scroll.
“It's precious to us symbolically because the Torah represents our traditions and teachings, which we pass on to our children,” Hirsch said.
As worshipers marched with their new Torah, wrapped in a rich navy-blue covering and embroidered with a gold Star of David, they also carried a “chuppah,” the white cloth canopy traditionally used in Jewish weddings.
According to Temple Beth Torah Rabbi Kenneth Block, the use of the wedding cloth symbolizes the marriage between the congregation and the new Torah.
“We do not idolize the Torah, but we honor it as our tangible link to God,” Block said. “You can't touch things like 'love' or 'spirituality.' But with the Torah you can bridge that gap between the material world and the spiritual one.”
According to Block, the “Siyum HaTorah” ceremony used to dedicate a new Torah originates from the ancient story of Moses receiving the laws of God at Mount Sinai.
The high point of Sunday's celebration came after nearly two hours of music and readings when Rabbi Menachem Youlus arrived to formally dedicate the Torah. A near-legendary figure in the Jewish community, Youlus has spent the last 20 years rescuing and restoring Torahs from Eastern Europe and placing them in Jewish communities.
As an expert "sofer," or Jewish scribe, Youlus detailed the painstaking process needed to create a "kosher" Torah.
Not only must the entire scroll be handwritten in traditional Hebrew by a qualified sofer, but it must also be 100-percent accurate. If the scroll contains even one mistake, such as a missing letter or an extra word, it cannot be used.
Youlus told the congregation that he had recovered their new Torah from a monastery in southern Russia. When he was first given the scroll by a Catholic priest there, Youlus said he was not sure if it could be restored. But, after six months of work that required rewriting 45 percent of the text, Youlus was able to renew the fire-damaged scroll.
The rabbi mentioned that two other groups had placed bids on the scroll, but he decided it belonged with Temple Beth Torah.
“I can't imagine God is ever going to say to me, 'You had the chance to sell a Torah for $5 million, and you didn't do it?'” Youlus said. “But I think God would ask me, 'You had the chance to give a great Torah to a Centreville community; why didn't you do it?'”
As with many of the Torahs he rescues, Youlus said the original owners of the scroll were probably wiped out in the Holocaust.
“My goal is to breathe new life into that community that was and this new community that will be,” Youlus said.
After making his speech, the 43-year-old rabbi rolled up his sleeves, took out a goose-quill pen and prepared to fill in the final letters on the aged parchment. One by one, the families of Temple Beth Torah approached Youlus, touching the top of his quill as he inscribed a letter in the family's name.
Youlus told the congregation this was their special opportunity to ask God for something they deeply wanted in life.
“But I suggest whatever you ask for, that you do it in the form of a prayer,” Youlus said. “Because sometimes God listens to a wish, and other times he doesn't. But he always hears a prayer.”
As the afternoon turned into evening and the sun began to set over Centreville, Youlus filled in the last letters of the Torah with ink he said “would last 100 years.”
©Times Community Newspapers 2005