Stories of Support
Recent Gifts to Bowdoin
News
- Campus News
- Summer Research at Bowdoin
- Academic Spotlight
- Sports Information
- Bowdoin in the News
- Campus Construction
- Classifieds
Events
Publications & Other Media
Profiles
Tazria, The Planting of Seeds: Bowdoin dedicates its Torah scroll
Story posted July 06, 2005
Joel Sherman '61 phoned Bowdoin librarian and Hillel faculty advisor Sherrie Bergman with exciting news—after a six-month search, he'd located a Torah for Bowdoin Hillel.Two congregations in Massachusetts were merging and their members had agreed to donate one of their Torahs to Bowdoin.
Unlike other religious texts, a Torah scroll, which contains the first five books of the Hebrew bible, is not mass-produced—it is hand-written from memory by a scribe, takes years to complete, and can cost nearly $50,000. The Torah scroll functions as the center of religious life for a Jewish congregation.
—That's why Bowdoin having a Torah is so special; it means there's a congregation here that needs a Torah," explains Hillel treasurer Justin Berger '05.
On April 2, over 120 community members attended an afternoon Shabbat service and dedication ceremony on campus for the Bowdoin Torah scroll and its new ark, led by Cantor and Hillel spiritual advisor Daniel Leeman. As part of the afternoon Shabbat service the new-to-Bowdoin Torah was read by three readers, student Mike Peiser '07, faculty member Jennifer Taback, and Rabbi Simeon Maslin, who has conducted High Holiday services for Bowdoin Hillel for the last three years. The portion read was the one prescribed for that Shabbat afternoon service, Tazria, which means,“You shall plant a seed."
"And isn't that exactly what we are doing here today" Rabbi Maslin asked during his remarks. "By dedicating a Torah scroll and an ark for the use of Jewish students here at Bowdoin College, we are planting the seeds of Jewish law, Jewish culture, and Jewish morality for the future."
"This is important for Bowdoin," says Sherman,“because a Torah signifies a degree of permanency, a sense of pride to be passed down from generation to generation of Bowdoin students. It will always be there as a symbol of Jewish life and Jewish tradition at Bowdoin. "When I first held this scroll, I thought of my father and how pleased he would have been to know there's a Torah at Bowdoin."