After traveling across the world and landing in its final destination last week, a painstakingly produced text is prompting celebration in Longmont.

In a dedication party this weekend complete with live music, food and activities, the Chabad Jewish Center in Longmont will reveal its new Torah to the world.

And, according to Rabbi Yakov Borenstein, the occasion is so momentous because for the first time, the center will have a Torah that was made from scratch just for it.

“It was … started over a year ago, hand-written in Israel, went through New York, computer checked, and then it made it here last week,” Borenstein said. “It’s incredible.”

The immense amount of work put into the text isn’t just to be careful either. Borenstein said the words in the Torah are direct from Moses, and “you can’t just go ahead and press print.”

Made using klaf, a special kind of skin from a kosher animal, as paper, Chabad Jewish Center’s new Torah was written using a feather and ink.

“That’s why this is such a huge undertaking,” Borenstein said. “And when this is finally done, we are super excited.”

This undertaking doesn’t come without significant cost, though. A Torah can cost tens of thousands of dollars, even when it’s used.

The person that footed the bill for the Chabad Jewish Center’s new one, Ed Buchman, said he had been raising money for years.

A long-time friend of Borenstein and his wife, Shaina, after his mother passed Buchman wanted to dedicate a scroll to her and give it to Borenstein.

“I suggested to my brother, you know, why don’t we start a fund, this man does not own a scroll,” he said. “He’s got one that someone in his family loaned him, he’s been using it all of these years, but he doesn’t own a Torah scroll. And that’s a critical item for a synagogue to actually possess.”

And for more than five years, Buchman called on his family to donate and put aside his own money to eventually buy a Torah.

During that time, his brother, who started the fund with him, also passed. Now, the Torah is dedicated to his mother, his father and his brother.

He said seeing his family’s names on the Torah’s cover, or mantel, is “very significant.”

“Because it is in their memory,” he said. “And this way, when people see the cover, it’ll remind them that this was dedicated in memory of my family.”

On the mantel, which was donated by Buchman’s niece, in striking embroidery, is what Borenstein and Buchman call an “eternal flame,” something Buchman’s mother designed for his father’s tombstone. And on top, stitched in white, the mantel reads, “Our memories are an eternal flame from generation to generation.”

To Buchman, the Torah is a “guide to life” that teaches people how to act and “conduct ourselves in business and in personal relationships.” To Borenstein, it’s a “marriage with God.”

Which is why, he said, this weekend’s celebration will be like a wedding, where people dance and sing.

“It’s a joyous occasion,” Borenstein said.

In addition to music by Hasidic rock band 8th Day, food by the East Side Kosher Deli’s food truck and activities for kids, attendees of all faiths this Sunday can donate $18 to have one of the remaining Hebraic letters in the Torah filled in by a scribe and dedicated to the person of their choice.

The festivities begin Sunday at 2 p.m. at Prospect Park, 1940 Ionosphere St., with music by 8th Day, and will finish at around 5 p.m. after a “grand Torah procession” from the park to the Chabad Jewish Center.

For more information on the event, visit tinyurl.com/y3qocc2m.