Turning a page

Scribe Neil Yurman, right, guided members of the Alterman family as they inscribed letters in the Torah scroll.

Susan Grieco/Herald

Yurman explained the significance of the Torah scroll to congregants at one of five restoration sessions held last Sunday.

Susan Grieco/Herald

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The planning of a weekend full of celebrations of community and faith at Temple Emanu-El of East Meadow all started with a few drops of rain.

Rabbi Daniel Bar-Nahum explained that several months ago, a small ceiling leak damaged one of the synagogue’s Torah scrolls — parchment containing the text of the Five Books of Moses, hand-written by a scribe in the original Hebrew. Religious leaders arranged for Scribe Neil Yurman to examine the sacred object, and through their conversations with him, they said, they realized that a blessing had come from an unexpected place.

“We determined that we had a really unique opportunity to engage the whole community by inviting them to physically participate in the completion of the restoration of a Torah scroll, making it ready for future generations to use,” Bar-Nahum said. “This hasn’t been done here in anyone’s memory … it’s a very different experience, as it connects us to our history in such an immediate way.”

Leaders held Torah restoration sessions at the temple, at 123 Merrick Ave., last weekend in conjunction with another major event: the dedication of its new sanctuary. They explained that by taking care of sacred objects and introducing congregants to their new and improved prayer space, they hoped to foster a sense of pride in the close-knit community and encourage others to see all that Temple Emanu-El has to offer.

Lane Rubin, the congregation’s president, said that the sanctuary was closed several months ago, because it needed heating and air conditioning repairs. When temple officials realized that they often used the social hall for High Holy Days services and other large-scale events, they decided to repurpose that space last fall.

“It’s bigger, more intimate, warmer … the new sanctuary can hold more than three times the amount of people that the original sanctuary was able to accommodate,” Rubin said. “It’s a space that we can repurpose for many different activities.”