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Torah Writing Begins with Tikvat Israel Congregants.........posted Oct 30, 2006

Members of Congregation Tikvat Israel overlook the work of Rabbi Menachem Youlus, who has been hired to create a new scroll over the next seven months. He holds a feather ink quill pen with Jim Hendler, co-president of Tikvat Israel.

Members of Tikvat Israel representing a wide range of constituencies applied indelible ink to parchment as the congregation celebrated the commencement of the creation of its new Torah during a spirited program on Oct. 29.

The TI members, ranging from the teen-age president of USY to some of the synagogue's longest-serving members, each penned a letter in the opening verse of the sefer Torah that will be crafted over the next seven months by Rabbi Menachem Youlus of Wheaton, Md. He said he would be working up to 10 hours a day to apply the more than 300,000 Hebrew letters that comprise a completed Torah.

Rabbi Youlus presided over the joyous morning event, which nearly packed the sanctuary with congregants young and old, including students in all grade levels of TI's religious school. Cantor Rochelle Helzner led the attendees in song while representatives of 10 key segments of synagogue life moved into the social hall to affix one letter apiece with a pair of goose and turkey feather quill pens to kosher parchment imported from Israel.

The rabbi, who has been a Torah scribe for 21 years, is affiliated with Save a Torah Inc. (www.saveatorah.org), a Rockville-based organization. The executive director of the Torah preservation group, Stuart Levy, said Rabbi Youlus has personally been involved in creating more than 500 Torah scrolls and the "resettlement" of several thousand others that have been rescued and repaired.

Youlus is a co-owner of The Jewish Bookstore of Greater Washington. He trained as a sofer, or scribe, in Israel in the mid-1980s. He has since earned the status of master sofer.

TI's new Torah will replace an aging scroll that Rabbi Youlus said had a remaining life of under five years. He said several of TI's scrolls were created for original use in Russia, a much colder environment than the climate-controlled sanctuary in Rockville.

Rabbi Menachem Youlus (right), who has been commissioned as a master scribe to create the new Torah for Congregation Tikvat Israel, helps synagogue congregant Mike Berman write a letter on the parchment.

The sefer Torah will be formally accepted by TI on May 20, just before the holiday of Shavuot, with a siyyum celebration. Though two major gifts, accounting for $25,000, already have been received, a formal fund-raising campaign will be launched shortly to solicit support for the creation and maintenance of the new scroll.

Danny Bachman, chair of a TI committee responsible for the commissioning of the new Torah, said 10 representatives were chosen for the initial letters to symbolize the makeup of a minyan.

Robbie and Larry Cohen, joint chairs of the Social Action Committee and the first contributers to the new Torah fund; Jim Hendler, synagogue co-president; David Gantz and Harold Diamond, chair and assistant chair of the Bereavement Committee; Mike Berman, representing the Religious Practices Committee; Tony Freedman, chair of the Israeli Affairs Committee; Brenda Brooks and Jonathan Solomon, co-chairs of the Religious School; Susan Apter, co-chair of the Adult Education Committee; Lynne Benzion, chair of the Youth Commission; Hannah Bachman, president of the USY chapter; and Bobbi Gorban, chair of the Women's Network (successor to the Sisterhood).

Rabbi Youlus said opportunities would be available for other congregants to add characters to the new scroll in the coming months. "It is important for every man, woman and child to be involved," he told the congregation during the ceremony. "Starting today, you can consider this a local connection to G-d."

At a reception that followed, attendees were given chocolate candy bars resembling a Torah scroll.