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Dear Friends,
Please join us at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 8, 2011, to celebrate Shavuot at the Chabad Jewish Community Center of Riverside. We will be reading the Ten Commandments for the first time from our new Community Torah!
Shavuot, which commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai, is possibly the greatest day in human history since the Creation. If not for that day, America as we know it would not exist. It forms the bedrock of a civilized society, representing monotheism and the moral and ethical values that are the basis of our culture.
Our new Community Torah, which is unchanged from the original in 3,323 years, is identical to those being used around the world today. Its dedication this past Sunday, celebrating G‑d’s great gift to us, was a joyous and festive occasion. Most of its 304,805 characters were hand-written in Israel, but supporters had the opportunity to join a scribe, Rabbi Israel Gabbai, to complete the last 98 letters of the scroll. The Orange County Klezmers and Cantor Levi Blesofsky provided music and led the attendees in a procession through the neighborhood. And, of course, there was plenty of delicious food.
The Torah is the soul of the world. While society often focuses on the physical, the Torah focuses on the soul, and that’s what we try to do here. By our action, we are showing what our values are. So please join us tomorrow at 6:30pm as we relive the moment the Torah was given to the world!
Our celebration will be followed by light refreshments.
Happy Shavuot!
Rabbi Shmuel Fuss
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