Jewish community marks unveiling of Torah scroll

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer

•	Torah scroll Daniel Levey's memorial Torah scroll dedication by Chabad of Hawai'i Ala Moana Hotel Ballroom 5 p.m. Monday 735-8161 Also: "Daniel's Views," a book of Levey's last photographs and inspirational thoughts, is expected to be in bookstores by July 22.

A new sefer Torah, the sacred text read during weekly services, will be unveiled Monday by Gov. Linda Lingle for the Chabad of Hawai'i.

A scribe will be coming in from California to conclude the final letters in the Torah scroll as part of the celebration.

"It's a great honor to conclude a Torah and inaugurate a Torah into the community," said Rabbi Itchel Krasnjansky, who added that the Torah scroll has been about nine months in the making.

Creating a Torah scroll is a complex undertaking: Transcribed by hand by a writer, called a "sofer," who prepares himself spiritually beforehand, it's the result of a painstaking job of recording by hand the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, said to be revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai.

According to an informational pamphlet by Chabad, special durable black ink is used in writing the scroll, as is a kulmus, or quill made from a reed or feather from a kosher bird. The words are written on specially treated parchment made from the skin of a kosher animal. It is attached to two wooden handles, Eitz Chaim (tree of life).

No skins are large enough to accommodate the writing of a whole Torah, so yeriot, or sections, are sewn together with special thread made from animal tendons. There are more than 80 yeriot in a Torah.

The new scroll is dedicated to the memory of Daniel Levey, one of Chabad's first Sunday school students, who died nearly a year ago while hiking in the Ko'olau Mountains at age 19.

"His loss is very devastating to us as a community, and this is a way we're memorializing him, with a Torah in his name, the Torah being the most central, holy thing in Jewish life," Krasnjansky said.

Chabad, which is an orthodox Jewish group, commissioned the writing of the new scroll through Rabbi Motti Schnerson of Israel, who has scribes working for him. This will be the synagogue's third Torah scroll, joining one given to them by the Chabad headquarters when the community first came to Hawai'i 17 years ago, and another recently donated.

"It was Rabbi Itchel's idea," explained Dr. Joyce Cassen Levey, Daniel's mother and a member of Chabad. "They do it especially for young people; it's like a living tribute to their life. It's giving life to their mana. ... He really felt it was a good idea."

A Torah scroll has 52 sections; each week, another portion is chanted.

While Levey's memorial scroll will be the newest in Hawai'i, it's interesting to note that Temple Emanu-El has what's considered the oldest Torah scroll in Hawai'i, said to date to the time of Kalakaua.

Reach Mary Kaye Ritz at 525-8035 or mritz@honoluluadvertiser.com.