Kennesaw Jewish Community Begins Writing its Torah

A Jewish community center in Kennesaw will soon have its very own copy of the Torah, Judaism’s holy book, the Marietta Daily Journal reports.

The MDJ says that a ceremony was held at the Chabad Jewish Center on Sunday, at which Rabbi Yochanan Klein inscribed the first few letters of the Torah on parchment paper. Gathered around Klein as he wrote were members of the community and their children, the MDJ says; one of Moses’ 613 commandments to the Hebrews was to watch a scribe create a copy of the Torah.

Klein will not write all 300,000-plus words of the Torah himself, the MDJ says. The unfinished scroll will be sent to Israel, where a professional scribe called a sofer will complete the rest of the document over the course of the next year. The Torah consists of the Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Attorney General Sam Olens, who is Jewish, was present at the ceremony and expressed delight at the prospect of having a Torah for Cobb’s Jewish community, the MDJ says.