More than 6,000 men, women and children danced and sang their way through the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City Wednesday, celebrating the completion of a Torah scroll written in the name of peace and the merit of Jewish children the world over.
The fifth in a series of holy scrolls commissioned by the Chabad-Lubavitch run Children’s Torah Scroll project in Kfar Chabad, Israel, the newest Torah scroll brought out rabbinical and political leaders in a mass demonstration of unity harkening back to the first such celebration in 1981.
Three decades ago, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, spoke of the special power children have to make the world a better place. All over the globe, their “very breath free of sin,” they could fuel a dramatic demonstration of unity that could change the planet. In order to accomplish this, he urged that every Jewish child possess a letter in a Torah scroll written specifically for them. All it would cost is the symbolic amount of one dollar, ideally coming from the child’s own funds or sponsored by parents and family members. Each letter would link Jewish children the world over to the foundation of their heritage.
Following the completion of the newest scroll Wednesday at the historic Tzemach Tzedek Synagogue – project director Rabbi Shmuel Greisman filled in the scroll’s final letters – a throng of ecstatic participants danced through the narrow corridors of the Jewish Quarter and down scores of stone steps to the Western Wall, where the celebration continued with music, speeches and the recitation of biblical verses.
Citing Talmudic sages who compared the white spaces between the words of a Torah scroll to Jews with no scholarship and the letters of the scroll to scholars, Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger told those gathered that both groups are not only represented in, but united by the Torah.
“The Rebbe launched a Torah scroll campaign that would unite all the Jewish children of the world,” and thereby offer a measure of protection to the Jewish world, said Metzger, before citing a biblical verse. “From the mouths of children and babies, we gain our strength to quell our enemies.”
At a Chasidic gathering in 1981, weeks after he had called for the launch of a children’s Torah scroll, the Rebbe spoke about a frightening subject: A madman could theoretically single-handedly launch destruction upon the world. The Rebbe went on to emphasize that true peace in the world is accomplished through unity.
In his public address, the Rebbe stated that “we now live in a world rent with confusion and turmoil … Nowadays, even a single deranged, demented, or frustrated individual who has access to a destructive button or trigger can upset an entire region or country. … Such unprecedented chaos must be countered with unique measures.”
The Rebbe continued that this new campaign for Jewish unity, achieved through a communal children’s Torah and in addition to taking the natural steps necessary to achieve peace, would ensure peace in Israel and across the world.
People who witnessed the message saw spiritual importance to the Torah-writing campaign. For them, confirmation came several weeks later when, just before the holiday of Shavuot, the Rebbe suddenly directed all of his emissaries to sign up as many children as possible. It later emerged that on that 1981 afternoon, Israeli air force pilots launched an attack against the Iraqi nuclear facility at Osirak.
Unity and Protection
Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar stressed a similar theme as Metzger’s in his remarks.
“We should not be afraid of any enemy,” said Amar. “In the merit of this Torah scroll, we should learn what is in it and practice what it says. … When we follow in the ways of G‑d, the guardian of Israel never sleeps.”
Among the celebrants were Yisroel Ber and Chaya Kaplan of Safed, who since the Torah scroll project’s inception, have been steadfast in purchasing letters for each of their children. New immigrants to Israel, they escorted two of their grandchildren to the Jerusalem event.
“We missed [Hebrew class] to come today,” said Yisroel Ber Kaplan. “We wouldn’t miss this for the world considering what is going on in the world today.”
Officials estimated that the crowd of 6,000 was evenly split between youth and adults; many of the older children had already been represented in the project’s third and fourth Torah scrolls, while their parents were members of the generation represented in the first and second scrolls.
Naftali and Miriam Rosen attended with their four children.
“This is a sign of the redemption,” the father, 34, said about the project’s unifying nature. “The kids gave up camp trips to come.”
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