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Be Part of This Once-In-A-Lifetime Opportunity

Be part of this unique Torah Project that includes approximately 16 months of Torah learning activities and scribing opportunities for our Temple Emanu-El congregants and greater Westfield community. We are honored to have Linda Coppleson, one of the first female Torah scribes, guiding us and helping us fulfill the last of the 613 commandments – the writing of a Torah.

What is a Sefer Torah

The Hebrew words Sefer Torah literally mean “Book of the Torah” and refers to the Torah scroll with the five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). A Torah is made up of specially prepared parchment sheets, from the skins of a kosher animal. It is written by a scribe (sofer/soferet) who is specially trained to write according to very specific rules. The sofer/soferet writes the Torah by hand using specially prepared ink and a turkey feather quill.

It is what we read from every Shabbat morning, at B’nai Mitzvah services, on Rosh Chodesh (the start of each Hebrew month), Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah.

The last commandment of the Torah is to write one’s own Sefer Torah.

Torah Project Scribing Opportunity

With your sponsorship of the Torah Project you have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to sit with a Soferet (scribe) and write in the Torah. Meaningful sponsorship may include a particular part of the Torah like a Bar/Bat Mitzvah parsha, a Hebrew name of a child or grandchild, a favorite holiday, a letter, a word, an especially significant passage, or even a book. Your family has the opportunity to hold the wrist or shoulder of the Soferet, as she helps us fulfill the 613th commandment – the writing of a Torah. 

To support this project and/or participate in a future scribing event, please consider a sponsorship level that is right for you.

girls with scribe

Scribing on Yom HaShoah

Scribing with the Early Childhood

 

Coming soon! 

Scribing with YLE

Family Scribing

Coming soon! 

Rabbi Appell’s High Holy Days Sermon about the Torah Project

A Tour of the Torah from Union for Reform Judaism on Vimeo.