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Immanuel College celebrates the dedication of a new Sefer Torah

Monday, 16th November 2009

On Monday 16th November 2009, Immanuel College, Bushey, celebrated the acquisition of a new Sefer Torah, purchased as a result of a fundraising drive by the Parent Staff Association. The Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, Rabbi Salasnik, Rabbi Jeffrey, Cohen, Rabbi Zobin (Rosh of the Immanuel College Beit Midrash) and Rabbi David Riffkin, (Director of Judaism at Immanuel) all took part in a memorable Hachanassat Sefer Torah Ceremony.

The College’s senior prefects explained how a Sefer Torah is written as the school watched its completion by the sofer, (scribe), Rabbi Macmull, with parents, benefactors and guests, projected on to a large screen.

In an address to the school, the Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, described the unique and revolutionary role the Sefer Torah has played in the history of humanity. The Sefer Torah places study at the heart of our faith and of our endeavour as a people. Jewish survival was ensured because Jews chose to build schools for Torah study rather than pyramids, temples and amphitheatres. Immanuel College’s Sefer Torah affirms its commitment to an unbroken chain of tradition. In Lord Sacks’s words, “today we have witnessed the performance of a rare and precious mitzvah.”

Following leining (reading) from the new Sefer Torah, the celebrations continued with a procession of pupils and guests dancing and singing the new Sefer to its home in the school’s Beit Midrash.

Head Master, Philip Skelker comments: “No celebration is more fitting for a Jewish School than that of receiving a Sefer Torah. Today’s ceremony is a wonderful landmark in the College’s history.”