This week I attended my first Sefer Torah celebration. The Jewish National Fund had a Torah written for the Alexander Muss High School. As a Jew in America I’ve never thought about the process of making a Torah. I’ve really only seen two Torah’s in real life. I just kind of accepted that they exist and didn’t realize the deeply spiritual and complicated Process of making Torahs. Nor did I realize how much writing Torah’s connect us to Jews around around the world in the diaspora and the Jews of the ancient world. 

The Sefer Torah that was commissioned for Alexander Muss was written on the top of Masada. After the extremely hard few hour long hike up to the top of Masada we saw the room where the scribe writes the Torah. This put into perspective how hard the Israelites fighting the Romans had to word to just survive and keep Judaism alive. After we learned the struggles of the Israelites faced fighting off the Romans and how they managed to continue to live rich Jewish lives, it made the setting way more impactful. The fact the scribe is continuing the Jewish learning in a former Bastion of Jewish hope is beautiful.

A few days later on July 4th the Torah was brought to campus and we celebrated the new Torah. I had no idea what to expect. I honestly thought that it would be like an average synagogue service where we would say a few prayers and leave. Every time I’ve seen a Torah for me it’s just been a scroll with the five Books of Moses on it, I’ve never celebrated one. We started off the celebration by lining up on the street outside the campus I had no idea why though. I thought we were going to the Beit Kenneset to read some prayers and leave, but right when I was about to ask I saw a van coming down the street. This van was playing David Melech Israel and was filled with colorful pictures of Jewish icons and large Hebrew writing, and behind it people were singing a long and doing the Horah. On the other side of the street a Chupah and the Torah under it came in. Suddenly everyone started dancing and singing along down the road. The energy in the celebration was completely new to me, never before had a Torah became fun. We danced and sang along the street for a while and it was extremely to the point where I didn’t want it to stop. Thanks to Alexander Muss High School and the Jewish National Fund I was able to experience the Torah in a new way and learn how Torah’s connect Jews across the world and Jews across time.