Chabad of The Woodlands celebrates milestone with new Torah

"It's raining Torahs!" Rabbi Blecher said of obtaining three Torahs for his synagogue, Chabad of The Woodlands, in only eight years. "It's raining Torahs!" Rabbi Blecher said of obtaining three Torahs for his synagogue, Chabad of The Woodlands, in only eight years. Photo: Jamie Swinnerton Photo: Jamie Swinnerton Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Chabad of The Woodlands celebrates milestone with new Torah 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

In the Jewish faith, when God gave the Jewish people the Torah he asked them who would guarantee that the teachings of the holy text would be followed. The sky? No. The Earth? No. Our children? Yes, God said. The children of the Jewish faith would carry on the teachings of the Torah, preserving the faith.

When the Chabad of The Woodlands celebrates its new Torah on Sept. 15, this is the message that Rabbi Mendel Blecher wants to renew in his congregation. A new Torah is the perfect time to remember the text’s teachings and think about how to implement them in your daily life and faith to keep them alive.

“A central component of Jewish prayer service is the reading of the Torah,” Blecher explained. Every Saturday, the Torah is taken out and a prayer service is held, reading from a new portion of the text. Over the course of a year, the entire Torah is read. “You can’t really have a functioning synagogue without a Torah scroll, it’s a key component.”

Chabad of The Woodlands already has two Torah scrolls but this will be its first new one. Three scrolls, as Blecher explained, is a special number. Several times throughout the year special prayer ceremonies will read three different portions of the Torah. Now the synagogue has a Torah for each prayer.

Each Torah is carefully created, copying the 304,805 letters exactly from the original scroll. They can take around a year to make and can be very expensive. Because of this, it is not unusual that synagogues will share Torahs, and older scrolls are gifted to other synagogues. Such was the case with the Chabad of The Woodlands first Torah, donated by congregant Deborah Rips. The second Torah given to the synagogue was donated by congregant, Dorothy Rosenfeld.

Now comes the third Torah and the only new one, as far as Blecher knows, given to a synagogue in this area. It is being underwritten by Sol, Joel, and Arlene Sachs, members of Chabad of The Woodlands. On Sept. 15, the congregation will welcome the new Torah.

“God commands every Jew to write themselves a Torah,” Blecher said. “Now, this is a commandment that would involve either a lot of skill — and not everybody has the ability or the writing talent to do that — or, can they commission a scribe to write it on their behalf because of the expense involved.”

In order to complete this commandment, the scribe will leave the last few lines of the new Torah unfinished, stenciling in where the letters will be placed. Investors in the scroll will be able to fulfill this command by writing in the final letters.

After the ink has dried on the last lines the scroll will be carried from the synagogue down Budde Road, members taking turns raising the Torah high in celebration. As the procession returns to the synagogue the current Torahs will be removed from the Holy Ark to greet the new scroll as it passes between them.

A new Torah, Blecher said, is an exciting and special event for the community. Members of Blecher’s family will be flying in especially for the event.

“When we had our first Torah, people remarked after it about the special joy,” Blecher said. “A transcendent type of joy, shall I say. A transcendent type of joy, joy of the spirit, which everybody felt quite palpably.”

That joy of the spirit is reserved solely for Chabad of The Woodlands. On the day of welcoming the new Torah, synagogues across the area will have a special prayer to reflect the festive nature of the day.

The Jewish community in The Woodlands and surrounding areas isn’t very large, but it’s growing. Welcoming a brand new Torah is a milestone in this growth that Blecher said he feels blessed by. When he and his wife founded Chabad of The Woodlands they didn’t really know anyone. Now, the congregation has about 150 families involved. With an event like this, Blecher said people can see a future for the community.

“I would hope that what will come out of this event is that the special joy, and the uniqueness, and the historical significance of the moment, and the inspiration that I’m sure people will have, should endure in a way where we all as a community, as individuals, and as families, connect more with the traditions of our people,” Blecher said. “We take those messages of the Torah, and the traditions of Judaism and implement that in our lives more so than it’s been until now.”

jamie.swinnerton@chron.com