EXHIBITS
100 Years of Congregation Brith Sholem: Honoring the Jewish Community in Ogden, Utah: The Torah
The Torah
The Torah is the most important component of the Jewish faith. It is invaluable to Jews as it offers them guidance and connects them to their faith and God. The Jewish community understands that every instruction written in the Torah was provided by God through the prophet Moses. Moses transcribed these messages, which resulted in the Torah that exists today.
The Torah consist of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Creating a Torah follows very strict rules that require intense skills and takes months to complete. These books must be written in Hebrew, read left to right, and hand printed on parchment paper that has been processed from a koshered animal. The books are written on the parchment paper using a quill and an ink made with natural ingredients.
The Torah is so important and meaningful to the Jewish faith that only about one hundred Hebrew scribes in the world know how to create and repair a Torah, with Moses being the first Hebrew scribe. In 2014 Congregation Brith Sholem hired Rabbi Moshe Druin, a Hebrew Scribe from Florida, to repair on of their Torahs. Rabbi Moshe checked every Hebrew letter and symbol written in the Torah and went over any that were fading using a quill and natural ink. Rabbi Moshe also resewed the parchment paper together.[1]
In 2010 Student Rabbi Aron Klein brought the Yanov Torah to share with the congregation for a weekend. The Yanov Torah was owned by Jews of Lvov, Poland, and buried when the city was occupied by Nazis. The Jewish men of Lvov were sent to Yanov as slave laborers. Although persecuted for their religious beliefs, the Lvovs Jews secretly practiced their Jewish faith in the camp. The prisoners had permission to leave the grounds and were not seen as threats as they would bring gifts back for the guards. The Jews planned one by one to return to Lvov and bring back one of the buried Torah’s into the labor camp. Piece by piece, the Yanov Torah was torn by the Jewish prisoners, hidden in their clothes, and returned to the camp where the Jews meticulously pieced back the Torah. Most of the men who did this brave accomplishment died during the Holocaust. The last survivor of the Yanov camp entrusted a fellow Jew who was allowed to immigrate to the United States to take care of the Yanov Torah. The Yanov Torah traveled to many places and landed in the hands of Rabbi Erwin Herman of Los Angeles. The Jew who immigrated to the United States attempted to sell the Torah to Rabbi Herman since he did not have enough money for him and his family to survive in the United States. Rabbi Herman temporarily took the Yanov Torah and told the story to fellow members of his congregation. The members were extremely moved and wrote a note to the rabbi stating:
Dear Rabbi, we have purchased this Torah for you, It must not be given to a museum for that would limit its purpose. We ask you to carry it from temple to temple, from place to place, from synagogue to synagogue, wherever you travel in this world. Tell its story to Jews and non-Jews alike; let it be understood by all that although millions of Jews have been murdered, our Torah will live forever. The Yanov Torah testifies to that truth.
Since then, Rabbi Herman traveled with the Yanov Torah and told its story wherever it went. Today the Yanov Torah rests at the Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles.[2]
This story emulates the importance of the Torah to the people of the Jewish faith.