150th Anniversary Torah for Tomorrow

A NEW TORAH

We are very excited to initiate a key piece of our celebration that will serve Temple
Emanuel well into the future: the commissioning of a new Sefer Torah scroll.

In Deuteronomy 31:19, Moses speaks to the Israelites at the end of his life and tells them: “Now, write down these words and teach them to the Children of Israel – put them into their mouths.” From this, our sages concluded that every one of us is responsible to actually write a Sefer Torah. This is considered to be the 613th – or very last -commandment in the Torah. Most of us do not possess the skills to take pen to parchment and write. We can, however, participate in a communal effort to create a new scroll for our community.

Our new Torah will not only be beautiful, but it will also be a physical and spiritual reminder of the role of Torah in our lives – and that of our synagogue. Every member of Temple Emanuel will have an opportunity to sponsor a part of our new Sefer Torah – be it an entire book, chapter, parasha, verse or even a letter. We look forward to sharing in this exciting project together.

TORAH FOR TOMORROW:
ANCIENT RITUALS, NEW TRADITIONS

The Hebrew word for a scribe of Jewish sacred texts used in ritual life is sofer (masculine) or soferet (feminine). Soferim are specifically scribes who can create sacred scrolls, tefillin, mezuzot and other religious writings. Although these scribes have transcribed the same texts by hand over and over for thousands of years, they are not merely copyists. Rather, soferim are highly trained specialists who apprentice with senior scribes for years to learn the art and tradition of scribing Jewish texts. Their work is beautiful and ornate, with each scribe developing their own style of calligraphy – almost as unique as a textual fingerprint. However, the most complex part of becoming a Jewish scribe is not perfecting one’s calligraphy or mastering the use of a quill and ink, but rather learning the thousands of laws that apply to the many different types of texts written on parchment.

We have commissioned a new Torah scroll to be created by Jen Kamenetz, a member of the female-only Stam Scribes collective. Jen has studied Jewish texts for many years in a variety of settings, and scribing brings together her love of those texts and the rich, layered world of Hebrew letters and language. In 2014, she began studying sofrut with Jen Taylor, the first woman known to have completed a Torah scroll. We are honored that Jen Kamenetz will write her first full sefer Torah for Temple Emanuel Denver. The Torah we create together will embody our profound reverence for our religious traditions and texts with our deep commitment to building an inclusive and expansive Jewish community for the future – it is truly a Torah for Tomorrow.