A completed Torah scroll has 304,805 letters. That’s how many acts of kindness the Afikim Foundation and Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs hope to generate for a Global Unity Torah.
The Afikim Foundation in cooperation with the ministry aims to encourage people around the world to perform an act of chesed, or kindness, for each letter in the Torah.
The project is aimed for completion next year, on the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification in the Six Day War. Plans are for the Torah to remain in Jerusalem, but specifics are undecided at this point.
“Despite living in scores of different countries and speaking a multitude of languages, what unites all Jews as a people is the Torah,” according to the project’s website.
“In the same way, Jerusalem has united all Jews as their heart, their soul and their home, so in honor of the 50th anniversary of its 1967 reunification, Jews worldwide can celebrate by buying a letter of a Global Unity Torah, not with money, but rather with an act of kindness/chesed — a deed that will positively impact the lives of others.”
Participants can sign up and reserve letters, either as individuals or as groups, on Jerusalem50.org, where they also detail their acts of kindness. The Torah was commissioned several months ago and is being written by a scribe in Israel, according to the Afikim Foundation, which implements Jewish educational, cultural and values-oriented programs around the globe.
Plans call for dedicating the Torah on Yom Yerushalayim, May 24, 2017. By press time this week, more than 850 letters were reserved, according to the project’s website.
