Muslim writes Hebrew letter in German community’s new Torah
In a first for Germany, and perhaps the world, a Muslim wrote one of the Hebrew letters in a new Torah scroll.
On November 29, the small Jewish community of Marburg, Germany, celebrated the completion of the new scroll by holding a special ceremony and inviting dignitaries from the city to each write one of the 15 final letters of the Pentateuch. Among them was Dr. Bilal El-Zayat, an orthopedist at the University of Marburg and the leader of the city’s 5,000-strong Muslim community.
“This was our second new Torah scroll after the Holocaust, and it was also the 10th anniversary of our synagogue building, so we were celebrating everything together,” said Monika Bunk, vice president of the Jüdische Gemeinde Marburg.
Bunk said that the idea to honor Marburg’s civic and religious leaders by asking them to write one of the final letters in the new Torah came naturally to the Jewish community. ''We have very good interfaith relations in our city. We have an interfaith roundtable and we sort things out with dialogue,” she explained. “Of course, having non-Jews finish the Torah scroll is taking things one step further, but when our board discussed it, it really wasn’t a question,” she added.
Congregants welcome the new Torah into their synagogue in Marburg, Germany, November 29, 2015. (Rainer Waldinger/Jüdische Gemeinde Marburg) Bunk reported that questions related to Jewish law were investigated, and that it was concluded that there was no impediment to having non-Jews participate in the finishing of the Torah scroll. With the letters actually being written by Belgian ritual scribe Josef Chranovsky and the non-Jews just putting their hand on his, it was really a symbolic act.
“We also consulted with a professor of Judaism about it, and he said it was fine, and that what was important was the higher purpose of what we were doing in terms of the unity of the Marburg community,” Bunk said.
El-Zayat, the Marburg Muslim leader, told The Times of Israel he sought counsel from the high council of Muslim scholars in Germany about his helping to write a Torah scroll.
“They answered me with one sentence that there is no problem at all,” he reported. Regardless, El-Zayat felt that responding positively to the Jewish community’s invitation, which he called “a big honor and huge opportunity,” was the right thing to do.
“Especially in a time in which the firebrands are gaining, in which the firebrands are getting loud and are very present, it’s important to find balanced statements and show what connects us all. I wish that Marburg will inspire the entire world; maybe that’s a bit foolhardy, but hope dies last,” he said in a German television news report on the event.
Complete story www.timesofisrael.com
