Feature

To Comment on this article Click Here

Shel Bassel is writing a Torah scroll that will contain 300,000 letters in the Hebrew language. It will consist of 245 columns of words, 42 lines per column, on 40 sheets sewn together, and will be 28 metres long.

The project will take him about six months and he hopes to have it completed by this summer.

An American immigrant to Israel, Bassel is a ritual Jewish scribe whose primary job for the past 30 years has been to write Torah scrolls.

He was at Bean's Bistro in downtown Kincardine Sunday night to explain this ritual art and the tradition behind it. The presentation was hosted by Cheryl MacDonald of Kincardine who has invested in the Torah scroll project.

Bassel and MacDonald met while playing Internet Scrabble and she learned of his venture to write a smaller-than-average Torah scroll.

The Torah is the Five Books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible, originally composed in Hebrew. According to Jewish tradition, a portion of the Torah is read each week in the synagogue. The reading must be done, however, not from a printed book but only from a specially-composed, hand-done scroll written on actual parchment (animal skin) using either a reed or a feather pen and jet black ink.

About 20 people were on hand in Kincardine to hear Bassel talk about the project.

He noted that Hebrew does not have vowels. The oral tradition of reading the Torah scroll helps preserve the pronunciation and the manner in which it is to be read. The reader must memorize all the words and verse breaks, and the Torah is sung, with a specific melody to it.

When he writes the Torah, he must ensure that no letter touches another letter, or it becomes a different word.

"In Hebrew, there are many different meanings on many different levels," he said. "You have to be aware of that when you're writing the Torah scroll."

The letters are written from right to left on the parchment scroll.

Each Jewish person has to write his/her own Torah, he said. The kings had an extra one that they carried with them at all times to ensure they were abiding by God's Word.

Bassel was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. He began studying in Israel when he was 16 and because he has Jewish parents and grandparents, was granted citizenship in that country.He now carries both American and Jewish citizenship.

While studying in Jerusalem, he learned the scribal rules and apprenticed to become a Torah scribe. He then went to Boston, Massachusetts, where he studied with a rabbi in Jewish law.

He returned to Israel in 1983, married and has eight children. The two eldest now live in the United States, while the rest remain in Israel.

"I have visited Canada before," said Bassel. "While I was in Boston, I was accepted into a graduate Biblical studies program at McGill University in Montreal, but I could not go. I have friends in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver."

He had never been to Kincardine until arriving Sunday and had to return home on Monday. However, he plans to come back to Kincardine when the weather is nicer.

^{for world news, books, sports, movies ...}

Tuesday, February 01, 2011