There are 304,805 letters in a Torah scroll
What is your very first memory of Torah? Do you remember sticking an apple on top of a flag for Simchat Torah? Maybe a Sunday school teacher telling you the story of Noah? Perhaps that time when you came with your friend or that person you were dating to synagogue and was surprised when they opened the doors in the middle of the stage to reveal a closet with these things in them? Most people don’t remember their first memory of Torah. For those of us who grew up in a Jewish family and community and synagogue, there may not even be a “first memory” of Torah because Torah simply was always there. It was named and paraded and celebrated and debated around us and with us from the beginning. So, consider, if you will, that you have 304,805 memories of Torah; one for each letter expertly and painstakingly written by hand by the scribe. Some of these memories are boldly etched into your conscience: reading from the scroll as your 13-year-old voice cracked or seeing the parchment completely unfurled all around you or being given the torah to hold for the first time in your life and despite the pain of arthritis in your hands you grasped as tightly as you could to those rollers that held your past your present and your future. Of course, most of your Torah memories have faded. Then again, many of your Torah memories have yet to be made.
There are 79,847 words in a Torah scroll
We read in Torah that God spoke the world into existence, as it says in Genesis 1:3 “And God said: 'Let there be light.' And there was light.” In fact, the very Hebrew word for “to say” is the most common verb in the Torah (with 5317 occurrences!). More than anything else we speak. Moses speaks, Aaron speaks, Abraham & Sarah, Isaac & Rebecca, Jacob, Rachel and Leah - they all speak, Joseph & Pharoah speak, Noah speaks, Adam and Eve and even the snake speak. But more than anyone else, God speaks about floods and blessings and laws and holidays and sanctuaries and consequences. In Torah, God commands us and warns us, promises us and implores us. God relates to us through words, human language. But lest you think these words are just in the past and of the past, God still speaks to us - today. According to Jewish tradition, God speaks to each and everyone of us in our own voice. The trick is in figuring out when that voice we hear is God’s and when it is actually just our own voice echoing within our mind. And, God still speaks to us through Torah. Those words that were written 3000 years ago still reverberate today.
There are 5,645 verses in a Torah scroll
Hear O Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal is one ◆ Love your neighbor as yourself ◆ And God rested on the seventh day ◆ Do not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds ◆ Love the stranger as yourself for you were strangers in the land of Egypt ◆ When you eat and are satisfied, bless the Eternal your God for the good land that you have been given ◆ Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Eternal your God is giving you ◆ Choose life, so that you and your children may live ◆ Justice, justice you shall pursue ◆ Teach this faithfully to your children ◆ Do not murder ◆ God saw all that God had made, and it was very good ◆ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you ◆ God defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigners residing among you, giving them food and clothing ◆ May Adonai’s face shine upon you and bring you peace.
But according to one tradition from the 17th century, the most important verse in all of Torah is, “And you shall say to them: This is the fire offering which you shall offer to the Lord: two unblemished lambs in their first year each day as a continual burnt offering” (Numbers 28:3). By the 17th century, there had not been a burnt offering in the Jewish community for over 1500 years. So, I think it is reasonable to assume that the rabbis who chose this verse as the very most important were not focusing on the burnt offering or the lambs or even ritual sacrifice at all. Rather, the two words of this verse that they offer to us as their ultimate blessing are each day. Each day, may you find your Judaism in your life. Each day, may the words of our ancestors bring you peace and understanding. Each day, may the light of Torah shine from within you for all the world to see.
There are 185 chapters in a Torah scroll
For more than 3000 years, we have come together to read from the Torah scroll. Moses assembled the people to hear the words of this sacred text every shabbat and on each holiday. When Moses died, Joshua took on the mantle of bringing Torah to the people. As he was near death, Joshua transmitted this obligation to the Elders. The Elders, in turn, passed the reading on to the Prophets; and as prophecy waned in Israel, the Prophets turned to the Sages to carry forth the tradition of reading and teaching Torah to the people. Transmitting and teaching Torah was so central to the Sages that, in time, they were titled: my teacher - rabbi - my teacher. And still the community would gather together on shabbat and holidays, as well as on the market days, to hear from the scroll that had been passed down for over 150 generations - nearly 185 generations. The sacred drama of bringing forth the scroll from the ark, carrying it into the heart of the congregation for all to touch and kiss and feel connected - physically connected to it - of reading and chanting and blessing and teaching and discussing and feeling the words of Torah has been a part of who we are for over 3000 years - nearly 185 generations. It connects us to our grandparents and to their grandparents. We share this scroll with the Jews of 17th century Poland, 14th century Spain, 8th Century Babylonia, 3rd century Roman Empire, 2nd century BCE Greek Empire, 9th Century BCE Israel, and 13th century BCE, to those Jews wandering through the desert with little to nothing other than this scroll.
There are 54 weekly portions in a Torah scroll
Just as Torah connects us to every Jew that has come before us, so too does it connect us to every Jew today. On Shabbat, Jewish communities around the world gather together to read and learn from the Torah scroll. More often than not, the community is reading from the same Torah portion as the community down the street, or down the hill, or even across the ocean. On Simchat Torah when we all celebrate the Torah and sing and dance with it, thousands of synagogues around the world will all read from the very end of Deuteronomy: Lo kam navi od bYisrael k’Moshe - Never again in Israel would there be a prophet like Moses AND from Genesis: Breishit barah Elohim et hashamayim v’et ha-aretz - In the beginning the God created the heavens and the earth. Just imagine the Jew in India, Argentina, South Africa, France, Australia, Jamaica rejoicing with the Torah forming a circle with us as we all dance and sing and listen to our story together.
There are 5 books in a Torah scroll
The very last commandment in the Torah is spoken to Moses and Joshua in the book of Deuteronomy 31:19: “Therefore, write down this song and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths, in order that this song may be my witness for the people of Israel.” And so all these years later, we are still writing down this song, these teachings, these stories just as God commanded of Moses and Joshua. We are still hoping that through the writing of a Torah scroll, the song of Judaism will be in our mouths and in our hearts - knowing that this song can only be witness to us and our lives if we sing it and we can only sing it if we have the words. Some say that it is upon every individual Jew to write a Torah scroll her or himself during his or her lifetime. Most agree that rather than each individual write their own, it is upon US as a community to support the work of the scribe in creating a kosher scroll, a suitable scroll that we can read and hear and study and own together. And so we did. We supported the work of a scribe who brought the letters and the words and the verses and the chapters and the portions and the books to life for us. The scroll we dedicate today is but one of thousands of Torah scrolls around the world. But this scroll is different, special. This scroll is ours. And we will read from this scroll. And we will hear the voices of our ancestors in this scroll. And we will study from this scroll and learn, not only about the Judaism of yesterday, but about our Judaism today. And this scroll will be ours. It will be in our mouths and in our hearts. It will be witness to each and every one of our lives. It will be witness to us as a congregation.
There is 1 Torah
There are thousands of Torah scrolls in the world but they all carry the same sacred text. Each one tells the same story of our ancestors. Each one is filled with the same commandments that are both inspiring and vexing. Each one sings the same songs of hope and prayer. Each scroll invites us into our stories and traditions and songs. Each scroll is a door, an entryway to our past, our present, and our future. Come, let us open our door together.
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