Temple Emanu-El received its new Linda Nadell Centennial Torah on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2010. The Siyyum (completion) ceremony, attended by more than 500 people from all over Southern Arizona, was the culmination of a year of learning and celebration during the writing of the Torah by Rabbi Shmuel Miller, the sofer (scribe).
The Siyyum began with a procession of celebrants carrying Temple Emanu-El’s current Torah scrolls. The Centennial Torah, carried by Alan Levenson, husband of the late Linda Nadell, was brought in under the chuppah in a symbolic union of the Torah with all of the Jewish people. Miller helped Temple members fill in the final letters of the scroll. “When we read these words we are entering a great tradition,” said Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon. “We are holding onto the Shalshelet HaKabbalah, the long chain of received learning. But we are doing much more. We are forging a new link, creating a new generation of sacred teaching.”
The event was preceded by a welcome breakfast and followed by a dessert reception provided by Temple’s Women of Reform Judaism.
