AKRON, Ohio — Doodling in class can be a good thing. Just ask Rabbi Menachem Bialo.
"One summer, when I was 18 years old and in rabbinical school in South Beach (Fla.), I was doodling Hebrew letters and one of my classmates walked by and said 'oh, so you're a scribe?' I said 'no.' He said that I should be and that he wanted to introduce me to a torah scribe who lived around the block from him," said Bialo, 26.
And so began the Beachwood native's journey on the road to becoming a sofer, a Jewish scribe who can transcribe torah scrolls and other religious writings.
Bialo, who works for North Miami Beach-based Sofer On Site, spent last week at Beth El Congregation, restoring three torah scrolls. His work at the west Akron synagogue began more than six months ago, when he evaluated 10 scrolls, carefully inspecting the 304,805 handwritten Hebrew letters in each of them.
The local congregation hired Bialo to restore three of the scrolls so that they can be used once again at the synagogue.
"The torah is our most precious possession, and we treat it with the deepest sense of holiness," said Rabbi Stephen Grundfast of Beth El. "It's the centerpiece of the synagogue, but if one letter is missing, if there is one little defect, it's not kosher and it can't be used."
Grundfast said torah scrolls are checked periodically to make sure the wear and tear of regular use hasn't rendered them unusable. If a defect is detected while a torah is being read, the service must be stopped, the torah rolled up, put away and replaced with a new one, he said.
Torah scrolls, which contain the five books of Moses, are kept in a cabinet called an ark. They are always handwritten in Hebrew calligraphy with "crowns" on many of the letters. The crowns are crows-foot-like marks coming from the upper points of the letters.
The scrolls can cost $20,000 to $60,000 and more, depending on the quality. Repair costs can range from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the amount of work that has to be done.
Bialo spent an average of 12 hours a day at Beth El, using a turkey feather dipped in kosher ink to restore the faded, flaking, chipped and cracked letters on the parchment made of cow skin.
Every four or five letters, he dipped the quill into the ink. Every 30 minutes, he looked up from his task and out the window to limit the strain on his eyes.
As a scribe, his task is to replicate the exact, distinct writing of the original writer of the torah. Bialo can tell the origin of the scrolls he repairs by the style of script. He said that torahs written in Czechoslovakia have rounder letters than those from Germany or Poland. Although each nation had its own style, each scribe had his own handwriting.
Two of the three scrolls that he worked on last week at Beth El were written in Poland. The third was written in Germany. Bialo also conducted educational classes at the local synagogue and plans to return in the future to work on the other seven scrolls that he evaluated.
"It is my responsibility to make sure each letter is perfect. It's an awesome responsibility because the Torah is the holiest book," Bialo said. "This work is a spiritual work. I'm doing it for God and helping this community at the same time. When I'm working, I have incredible peace."
The family-owned business that Bialo works for is headed by the scribe who trained him, Rabbi Moshe Druin, and his father, Rabbi Gedaliah Druin. In addition to traveling to communities to repair torahs, Sofer On Site offers educational programs, including a Torah Project.
The project provides an opportunity for the entire community to get involved in the process of writing or repairing a torah. Members of the community can observe the working scribe and participate in hands-on educational classes.
The Torah Project is also a way for the Jewish faithful to fulfill the last of the 613 commandments in the holy book. That commandment is for every Jew to write a torah. The project allows community members to touch the feather as the scribe inks in a letter, symbolically fulfilling the requirement.
"If you write one letter, it is as if you write the whole torah. God wants us to care. He wants action. He wants us to try," Bialo said. "People are compared to the letters in the Torah. At first, they are shiny and new and over time, they fade. You fix it and try to do better."
The certified scribe has trained for eight years under Rabbi Moshe Druin, who is also his father-in-law of more than two years. He also has a graduate degree in rabbinical studies and was ordained a rabbi in 2006.
"I'm an artist," Bialo said. "The first time I knew that I wanted to be a scribe was when I was 13 years old and became bar mitzvahed. I looked at the Torah and was fascinated by the perfection of every letter."
Online:
http://www.SoferOnSite.comInformation from: Akron Beacon Journal, http://www.ohio.com