JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Members of the Jacksonville Jewish community gathered Sunday afternoon to honor Rabbi Yaakov Fisch with one of Judaism’s most sacred gifts: a newly written Sefer Torah.
Hundreds of families and congregants from Etz Chaim Synagogue took part in a procession through the streets of Mandarin, celebrating the completion of the handwritten Torah scroll -- a painstaking process that took 18 months to complete.
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The scroll was commissioned in honor of Rabbi Fisch’s decades of leadership, service, and support of the Jewish community, both locally and around the world.
Writing a Sefer Torah is considered the final and one of the most demanding of the 613 mitzvot [good deeds] in the Torah. Each scroll must be written letter by letter and word by word by a trained scribe, totaling 304,805 letters.
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In a message shared with the community, Rabbi Fisch reflected on the significance of the moment, calling it “an honor of a lifetime.”
“At a time when handwritten books are nearly non-existent, the Sefer Torah represents something central to who we are as a people,” Rabbi Fisch wrote. “The notion of a kehilah - a community - collaborating for such a sacred cause represents the very best in Judaism.”
The Torah scroll will be used during weekly Shabbat services and holidays, continuing a tradition Rabbi Fisch said connects generations.
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