Monday, September 24, 2012

Scrolls Show

This past Sunday evening our church had the opportunity to host a Christian non-profit organization that has one of the only full sets of the Tanakh scrolls. The Tanakh is the Jewish way of referring to the Hebrew Bible Bible or what the Christians would call the Old Testament. (There are very few full sets for various reasons.)
Rabbi Marty Cohen joined us to explain what goes into the making of a Hebrew scroll. One of the larger scrolls on display was over 600 years old! One of the lasting aspects that stuck with me is just how tedious and labarious a process that goes into making a Hebrew scroll. All the letters are the same sizes, the space between the letters are the same sizes, the space between words are the same sizes, just to name a few of the intracaces of the process.
More emotionally impactful was the story he related about one of the scrolls the group has purchased that survived the Holocaust. Nazi's would unroll scrolls and drive large trucks (weighed down with Jewish leaders) over them. Or even play catch with their bayonets.
Rabbi Cohen reiterate through recounting the processes of making a scroll and their survival just how precious a book the Bible really is and how too often we take it for granted. While we might not worship the Bible, hopefully such an event can inspire us to get a Bible off the shelf and read it as the God inspired, transforming book that it is. Because as I've repeatedly quoted another's wise words, "For some people, the only Bible they might read is you!"