New Torah scroll installed by Western Wall (archives)
Photo: AP
Torah scroll donated for the people
Four men of Ukrainian origin fulfill great religious mitzvah, ensuring that ordinary people write letters in Torah instead of rabbis
VIDEO – In the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, right by the Western Wall, a special Torah scroll was donated by four men of Ukrainian origin who took it upon themselves to fulfill this great religious mitzvah in Judaism and to make sure that people wrote the letters in this Torah – ordinary people, as opposed to the many traditional Torah scrolls rabbis and writers put together, hence making this a Torah of the people, the Jewish people.
Video courtesy of jn1.tv (Reporter: Sivan Raviv)
As the festivities began, the donors from abroad, the distinguished guests along with the locals, all marched towards the Wailing Wall, dancing along to traditional Jewish songs and celebrating the new Torah inscribed.
The donors of the new Torah scroll dedicated it to the future Third Temple, but in the meantime have installed it by the Western Wall.
The 613th mitzvah mentioned in the Torah is the obligation to write or contribute to at least one handwritten Torah scroll in a Jew's lifetime. Out here by the Hurva Synagogue of the Old City of Jerusalem, one such religious act has been fulfilled.
