INDEED, WE ARE PART OF ALL THAT’S BEEN...... AND ALL THAT WILL BE, WILL BE PART OF US...

Imagine life three thousand years ago... Compare it to how we live today... How different it is, at least in the concrete, day-to-day aspects. Yet, at our core, we are still so much the same as the people who have lived before us. Specifically, the passage of knowledge and values from one generation to the next.

Although, the process of transmission is vastly different, the idea that knowledge builds upon prior reservoirs of knowledge remains the same. And, it remains consistent that it is our responsibility to connect our present to the past, and pass that on to our children, the future.

This Sunday, September 28th, 2007, our Chabad Center will begin the process of writing our own Torah scroll. The Torah has been the primary document in which Jewish tradition and moral codes have been passed down for millennia. Yet, even the process of writing the Torah is still the same today as it always has been. Today, we still employ the identical process as when the first Torah was written, transcribed by Moses, 3,320 years ago! Just as it has always been, a highly-trained scribe puts quill to parchment and painstakingly handwrites each letter on an animal skin that has been prepped to become parchment. He etches markings into the parchment to form the lines and margins, so that the columns are straight. He uses ink that is made from an assortment of berries, and his writing instrument is a hand-hewn quill. An ancient art in our relevant present.

Even from an anthropological perspective, the process of transcribing a Torah scroll fascinates me. The past and present coalesce; I feel the continuum of humanity and the comfort that it brings to be part that.

Typically, when a synagogue commissions the writing of a new Torah scroll, the celebration is at its completion. When the Kissel family volunteered to sponsor the writing of our new Torah scroll, we saw the opportunity to create an educational event from this experience. We wanted to give our children and our community the gift of context, the gift of continuity. At this event, participants will have the opportunity to see this age-old art at work. We will hold our own quill and handwrite our own letters. And, amidst good friends, food and lively music, we will celebrate our part in the link of eternity!