Is it time to go to modern printed Torahs? Errors are bound to slip into the copying process, which is not only slow, but an extremely expensive way to reproduce copies of the same text. In the age of computer printing, we could insure an accurate, readable copy at a tiny fraction of the price instead of engaging in a process that preceded the invention of the printing press by thousands of years. The symbolism of using the same old fashioned form is nice, but no one I know uses them for serious study anymore. Now we have computer editions of the Torah and the rest of the Bible which are searched electronically, with excerpts printed easily, and sections compared on the same monitor for study. Its a much more powerful way to read and a much more effective way to study.

Those of us who live in the real world have already encountered modern printed Torahs, and many of us who study Torah on our own use even more modern cyber-Torahs and on-line commentaries. But we undertand that these formats lack the magic and the mystery of hand calligraphy on parchment.

When we see ultra-sophisticated moderns pressing to the aisle during the Hakafa (Torah procession) to touch the scroll with siddurim or tallitot, we undertand that the ultra-rationality of yesterday's Reform -- which shunned the Hakafa and often the scroll itself --doesn't meet the needs of today's Reform Jews.

MB is no doubt correct about errors slipping into the copying process. (Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.) Those scribal errors have been lovingly preserved over the generations, and are now part of the standard, including being transferred into our modern printed Chumashim.

MB is equally correct that the Torah scroll is not the normative device for Jews studying the Torah text. For over thirty years, I have remembered the reminiscence of a distinguished rabbi -- when I was a boy, we didn't study Chumash, we studied Chumash with Rashi.

Rashi is in the room with us whenever we chant Torah or study Torah. Bringing in a sofer (scribe) to create a new scroll has been a tremendously effective fund-raising device for countless Reform congregations -- and has lit up the eyes of countless youngsters whose parents have "ponied up" for the privilege of their filling in one or more characters.

Whoever tampers with the role of the scroll tampers equally with the soul of the Jewish people. The symbolism is not just "nice:" it's integral.

A beautifully written post that vividly captures the way the sefer Torah brings our story alive.

Chanting from the sefer Torah is no substitute for studying a Humash, but neither can Humash study replace the powerful tactile experience of encountering our history and values through seeing and hearing the traditional chanting from a hand-lettered parchment scroll.

But can I raise a dissenting voice about this practice of passing the Torah scroll around the room?

I know that when the Torah scroll is passed around from hand to hand, no disrespect is intended, but it looks like the scroll is being handled like a cheap theater prop. I see a lot of people who don’t know how to hold a Torah scroll – instead of holding it upright, they cradle it in their arms as if they were toting a bundle of firewood. And, yes, it’s a nice bit of symbolism to receive the Torah, but then what about the symbolism of relinquishing the Torah? If anything, it suggests that possession of Torah is transient.

And what about the person with an arthritic back? At a traditional service, she could discreetly decline the honor of carrying the Torah, whispering to the gabbai, “Sorry, I have a bad back”. But, where the scroll is passed around, she’s in the position of having to look like she’s “rejecting” the Torah.

Then there’s the bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah service: the scroll is passed from Grandpa to mom and dad and then to little Adam or Lauren to symbolize the passing of the Torah from one generation to the next. Except that handing off a scroll like a relay baton isn’t how we pass the Torah from one generation to the next. And, do we want to symbolize that, on this particular morning, the Torah belongs to the bar/bat mitzvah family rather than to the entire congregation?

There’s a dignified pageantry to the traditional Torah service – with the sefer Torah carried to a stately chant of “L’cha Adonai ha-g’dulah …” (“Your’s, Adonai, is the greatness, might, splendor triumph, and majesty …”). If you’re designated to carry the Torah, it feels like an honor. The procession is effective at conveying the sense that the scroll contains something very important, and that the congregation is about to hear something of great significance.

Am I the only one who’s less than enthusiastic about passing the scroll from hand to hand around the room?

The hakafot has an additional emotional connection for me (to borrow from Deuteronomy) that the Torah is not on top of the mountain or beyond the sea or held exclusively on the Bimah for Rabbi and those few who are honored. It is with us and among us (who don't read it) and part of us (in larry's pews).