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A Dream Realized
Community rejoices with Broner family
at Kollel Torah dedication.
A celebratory circle dance
with the Torah scrolls at the
Kollel Institute.
Rabbi Shaul Broner looks
on as scribe Rabbi Avraham
Cohen completes the writin g
of the Sefer Tora
SUSAN TAWIL
Special to the Jewish News
I
is a once-in-a-lifetime occasion," said Rabbi
Shaul Broner of his family's donation of a
new Sefer Torah to Oak Park's Kollel
Institute of Greater Detroit.
Nearly 400 members of the local Jewish communi-
ty joined the Broners Oct. 27 to celebrate the
Hachnasat Sefer Torah, or Torah dedication.
The Broners are a middle-class family, who worked
hard to accomplish this dream, which Rabbi Broner
says is within reach of most people.
"You don't have to be rich to do this mitzvah," he
explained. "I really wanted to do it for a long time.
I've been setting aside money for it for years."
Formerly teachers at Southfield-based Yeshivat
Akiva, Shaul, 59, is now a machinery dealer in Livonia
and his wife, Chana, works as a JARC special educa-
tion teacher at Southfield-based Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah. They came to America from Israel in 1973
with their four daughters, and have since been active
at both the Kollel and Agudas Yisroel-Mogen
Abraham in Southfield, where Rabbi Broner often
leads services as chazzan (cantor).
The dedication day festivities began at the
Broners' Oak Park home with the siyum, completion
ceremony, wherein the final words of the new Torah
were written.
To benefit the Kollel, individuals and families
"bought" letters in the Torah that were written in
partnership with a local scribe, Southfield resident
Rabbi Avraham Cohen. In this manner, many were
able to share in the mitzvah (Deut. 31:19) of
K'tivat Sefer Torah , writing for oneself a Torah.
With its completion here, the Torah was then
paraded down the streets to the Kollel, a few
blocks away. The preceding days of gray, rainy
weather suddenly cleared and the sun shone
brightly on the crowd.
The scroll was carried beneath a chuppah (wedding
canopy) specially constructed by Rabbi Broner himself
for the occasion. It was set on wheels for easy mobility
A flatbed truck followed featuring music by Segulah
Orchestra's Rabbi Yerachmiel Stewart.
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah students marched ahead of
the chuppah, carrying flags and banners ascribing
honor and joy to the Torah. Men carried 12 torches,
symbolizing the tribes of Israel and the light of
Torah knowledge.
The Kollel Institute's other Sifi-ei Torah (Torah
scrolls) were danced out to meet the new scroll as the
crowd approached the building on Lincoln Road.
Amidst singing and dancing, the new Torah was
placed in the ark, the interior of which was designed
and produced by Rabbi Broner for the Kollel's recent
renovation.
Brought From Israel
Written in Israel over the last 2 1 /, years, the Torah was
brought over by the Broners' daughter and son-in-law,
Tamar and Rabbi Yitzchak Dvoretz, who live in
Jerusalem.
To add to the scroll's distinction, parts of it were
written by Gedolei Yisrae4 great Torah sages, includ-
ing Ray Shalom Yosef Elyashuv of Jerusalem and
Rav Chaim Kanievsky (son of the Steipler Ray) of
B'nei Brak.
The writing was done in an exceptionally beautiful
hand and the text was checked for accuracy by both
an expert scribe and a computer, a new innovation in
Torah certification.
Rabbi Broner dedicated the Torah in memory of his
father and his wife's parents. He also considers the
donation an expression of thanks to God for saving his
life from illness and in two wars he fought in Israel.
He expressed his wish that the new Torah would be
a zechut (merit) for the recovery of the sick of our
community and would bring shalom (peace) to the
world.
11/8
2002
63