By Roxana Kopetman, Orange County Register
Pushing his glasses up above the bridge of his nose, a rabbi leaned toward a table, took a white feather quill pen and carefully penned a Hebrew letter on a parchment scroll.
As Rabbi Leib Groner and other honored guests joined an expert scribe to write the last Hebrew letters that made the scroll official, some 100 members of the UC Irvine Jewish community on Monday applauded the completion of the first Torah created just for them – rare for a college campus.
“You have now on campus a special blessing,” Groner told some 100 students, alumni, staff members and others gathered at the campus Cross-Cultural Center.
Moments later, the group moved outside, singing and dancing to music to celebrate the completion of the scroll that calls for an expert scribe to write down 304,805 letters on parchment made from animal skin that is cured, tanned, scraped and prepared according to Jewish tradition. The process can take as long as a year and even one smudge or small error can void the entire 54-portion parchment.
The Sefer Torah, a handwritten scroll of the holiest book in Judaism, was dubbed the Unity Torah and will be stored in an ark at the Rohr Chabad affiliated with UCI, said Rabbi Zevi Tenenbaum.
Most college Jewish organizations have borrowed Torah scrolls and rarely commission their own, Tenenbaum said. The Torah that was completed Monday cost about $45,000, with money coming from donations by students, alumni and others.
True shluchim of the Rebbe!
Mazeltov to all involved. May you succeed in bringing kedusha
and peace to the university and your surroundings. Hatzlacha
rabba.
Words can never describe the Ibergegebenkeit of Rabbi Zevi and Miriam to their students. It’s literally unheard of!
May Hashem continue to provide the necessary strength and blessings for them to continue to represent our Rebbe at UCI.
Lchaim!
This couple serves as a true guiding light to Shluchim the world over. From strength to strength!