EAST COBB — A unique Torah scroll handwritten by a specially trained scribe at various holy sites in Israel is officially complete and home among Cobb’s Jewish population.
More than 200 people packed the Chabad of Cobb on Lower Roswell Road on Sunday morning to see the historic Torah scroll finished by Rabbi Moshe Klein, a fifth-generation scribe from Jerusalem.
Klein wrote more than 304,805 letters in the scroll, which contains the Five Books of Moses, and even helped some Cobb residents each write a letter inside at the end, as is customary.
“Cobb County’s Torah stands alone from the thousands of others written over the past 3,300 years, as for the first time, verses discussing specific locations in Israel were written at the hallowed and ancient places they talk about, symbolizing the everlasting and ancient connection between God, the Jewish people and the land of Israel,” a press release from the Chabad stated.
Rabbi Ephraim Silverman, who heads the Chabad of Cobb, said every Torah is special, but the one completed and inaugurated in east Cobb on Sunday is unique.
“This Torah has been part of a very, very special unprecedented journey. Today, we are culminating that journey,” he told those attending the ceremony. “The journey of this Torah is a journey that makes this Torah the first of its kind. The words, the ink, were written in those places, so when you open that Torah scroll and read about Abraham buying a burial pot for Sarah, those very words were written in that place.”
Sunday’s celebration included a parade of the completed scroll — escorted by Cobb County police and the Jewish Motorcycle Sabra Riders — ending at the synagogue on Lower Roswell Road, where a special midday meal was served.
Silverman said the Torah will be kept in the Cobb synagogue, where it will be read from in weekly services and special celebrations, and it will also be taken on trips to various communities around the world to inspire people in those places.
The scroll is the result of an idea by Atlanta businessman Eyal Postelnik, who was at the celebration in Cobb with his wife, Aviva. Almost two years ago, Eyal Postelnik decided to gift a Torah to the community, showing the connection between ancient Jewish tradition and the community living in Georgia.
“After traversing Israel, the Torah was flown to the United States and brought to the New York resting place of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, the most influential rabbi in modern history, who inspired the founding of the Cobb Jewish community,” the Chabad press release state
Cobb leaders at the Torah inauguration in east Cobb included Bob Ott, the county commissioner for the area, as well as Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, R-east Cobb, and Karen Handel, a Roswell Republican vying to win back Georgia’s 6th Congressional District from Democrat Lucy McBath.
