05/10/04 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom

'Honor thy father and mother'
New Torah scroll gets final letters

By Zenaida Mendez, Daily Record

From left to right, Rabbi Shalom Lubin of the Congreation Shaya Ahavat Torah, Fannie Brothman, andRabbi Chaim Miller look at the Torah during its dedication. John Bell / Daily Record

PARSIPPANY -- It was a once-in-a-lifetime event that was five years in the making.

Bernard Brothman and Marsha Hoch decided to dedicate a Torah scroll in honor of their parents, but various events over the last five years prevented them from following through.

"We were going to take the profits from our Lucent stock to do one in 2000. Then the stock market went down," Brothman explained.

"My wife started a new business, and we had 9/11."

Amid friends and family members Sunday morning, the couple fulfilled their goal. They dedicated a Torah scroll to Bernard Brothman's parents, Sydney and Fannie Brothman, and to Marsha Hoch's parents, Ruth and Joseph Hoch. The Hochs and Sydney Brothman are deceased.

Witnessing the completion of the 300,000-letter written Torah scroll, which contains the five Books of Moses -- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy-- is considered a rare event in most people's lives.

On the back porch of the Condit House on North Beverwyck Road, the new Torah scroll, written mostly in Israel, was rolled out on a white cloth with black and silver stripes. Sofer, or scribe, Rabbi Chaim Miller of Rockland County, N.Y., dipped a beige-colored quill pen in black, natural ink and carefully filled in the last few words outlined on the parchment.

With his mother standing behind him and looking on, Brothman sat in Miller's chair, steadied his hand, and filled in a letter.

"In life, there are a certain number of things you want to do once -- like this year we went to the Super Bowl -- and another once-in-a-lifetime event is to actually do one of these," Brothman said afterward.

"I never thought in my life, growing up, that I would write a Torah."

Rabbi Shalom Lubin of Congregation Shaya Ahavat Torah called the event a "truly momentous occasion."

"The Fifth Commandment is honor your father and mother, and there's no greater honor that one can give to a parent than to commission a sacred Torah in their memory or in their honor," he told the crowd of about 50 gathered around the porch.

Representatives from each of the 30 families that make up Congregation Shaya Ahavat Torah each had an opportunity to sit with Miller and have a letter filled in by him in honor of their families.

The community collected about $25,000 from members to acquire a new Torah scroll, Lubin said.

That event was followed by a festive procession from the Condit House, down Hawkins Avenue, to the Congregation Shaya Ahavat Torah synagogue, where the Torah scroll was introduced to two others believed to be between 70 and 80 years old. All three will be kept in a cabinet at the synagogue.

As she walked in that procession, Fannie Brothman was moved to tears. For her, there was no better Mother's Day gift than this one.

"It's the biggest honor of my life," she said, adding that she couldn't adequately express how proud she was of her son, her daughter-in-law and their children, Alex and Sara.

"It was the most moving thing," she added. "More than when I got married!"

For Marsha Hoch, the event signified a new beginning.

"My father was a Holocaust survivor, and so many things were destroyed," she said. "It's important to have new things to replace what was destroyed to show that there is continuity."

Brothman and Hoch also acknowledged the importance of honoring their community.

"The Torah is now donated. We might move on, who knows? But the Torah will always be here," Brothman said. "It'll be in a Jewish institution, and it's a nice way to carry on."

Philip Bardash, who began Congregation Shaya Ahavat Torah as Congregation Ahavat Torah in 1974 with Stanley Kaplan, Irv Gavrin and George Kace, called the Brothman family's act a noble one.

"It's giving of themselves beyond the call of duty for most people," he said, "and it will enable many more people to enjoy reading from this beautiful sacred Torah that was written in Israel."

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Zenaida Mendez can be reached at zmendez@gannett.com or (973) 989-0652.
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