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M AY T H E E A RT H H E A R T H E WO R D S O F M Y M O U TH
October 9th, 2009 | 21 Tishrei 5770
The Worlds Smallest Torah for Simchat Torah
Vol. 10, Iss. 37
www.JewishVoiceNY.com
BIRKAT HA COHANIM BLESSING AT THE KOTEL
BY SHMUEL BEN ELIEZER
Michael Morocco, a sofer (scribe) in Jerusalem, has just finished an amazing feat. Working for about two years he painstakingly wrote all 304,805 letters using a quill. It is not so amazing that he was able to complete this Herculean task but that he wrote it on klaf (parchment) that is only 9 centimeters (3 1/2 inches) tall. n a special ceremony that took place in Jerusalem’s David’s Tower Hotel, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yonah Metzger, wrote the final letters in the beautiful Torah. The scroll was completed in time to be used for the Simchat Torah holiday that begins in Israel on Friday night. Even though the words are so small that the average person cannot read them with out a magnifying glass, the Torah has been thoroughly checked and declared kosher for use. All the miniature letters written on 42 lines, 248 columns 5 centimeters (2 inches) high, on approximately 80 skins sewn together, are exactly the same configuration as a full size Torah scroll. Writing a small Torah is nothing new in the world of ST”AM. In Europe when Rabbis would travel from town to town officiating over a large area, they would also carry a Torah made especially small for convince. When there were Kings in Israel, the King was commanded to write two Torah scrolls. One Torah was put into the archives and never used and another he was commanded to carry with him at all times so that the words of the Torah were with him at all times. Michael Morocco, who wrote the Torah, said that he had sent information regarding the scroll to Guinness’s World Records, and is waiting for confirmation that his Torah is the smallest on record. The Torah was sold to Jay Schottenstien, a major Jewish philanthropist from Cleveland Ohio, known for funding the famed Schottenstien Talmud. The sale price of the amazing miniature Torah was reported to have been $150,000 dollars.
CHOSEN PEOPLE, CHOOSING LEFT WHY DO JEWS BLINDLY VOTE DEMOCRAT?
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BY RICHARD BAEHR
On Monday, the second day of Chol Ha Moed in Israel, 33,000 Jews gathered at the Kotel for the Birkat Ha Cohanim. BY JEWISH VOICE STAFF
Some 33,000 Jews streamed into the Western Wall plaza Monday morning for the traditional Priestly Blessing of the People of Israel. he special blessing is performed during each of three festivals in which Jews are enjoined to make a pilgrimage "up to" Jerusalem, the Holy City. The ceremony was performed in the presence of Chief Rabbis, past and present, including Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, and the Rabbi of the Western Wall, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch. Rabbi Rabinovitch said that the massive flood of people that packed the site proved that Jews feel a sense of belonging, a deep connection to the site, regardless of whether they are observant or secular. The Wall, he emphasized, is at its core the spiritual home of every Jew.
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Police closed the Old City to vehicular traffic throughout the week the of Sukkot, and that the Western Wall could be reached only through public transportation. The Jerusalem municipality provided special shuttles to and from main parking lots around the city and the Western Wall Plaza in order to minimize the traffic congestion in the area. The US Consulate issued a warning that US citizens should stay away from the Old City due to threat of Arab riots. It was reported that an Israeli soldier had been stabbed and moderately wounded at the Shuafat Checkpoint in the northern part of Jerusalem. On Sunday Arabs rioted on Har Habayit (the Temple Mount) causing Israeli authorities to close the area to Jews and all Arab worshippers under the age of 50. Jews visit the Western Wall and other parts of the Old City during the holiday week of Sukkot, including many tourists for whom attendance at these holiday events in Jerusalem, are the culmination of the dream of a lifetime.
In a conference call with more than 1,000 rabbis before Rosh Hashanah, President Barack Obama encouraged the religious leaders to use their sermons on the Jewish New Year to promote health-care reform. It is more than ironic that liberal Jews, who call for a complete separation of church and state, saw nothing wrong with the president scripting their sermons. The reason may be that the script came from a modern sort of Jewish holy book, what Norman Podhoretz calls the "Torah of liberalism." hy Are Jews Liberals?" is a f ine and bracing examination of a question that has vexed Mr. Podhoretz for decades. He displays, along the way, the skill for supple reasoning and pugnacious argument that was the hallmark of his long editorship of Commentary magazine. Mr. Podhoretz grew up on the political left and remained there until the late 1960s, when he moved to the right. In "Why Are Jews Liberals?" he ponders, with a sense of deep frustration, why so few other Jews have made his journey. Acknowledging that the allegiance of
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