Make your mark in Chabad’s New Torah.

Right now Chabad of Clinton has just one Torah. A community really needs a second: on many days of the year the service calls for reading from two scrolls, and a second Torah means we are never left short if one needs repair. Your letter helps bring that Torah home to Hamilton College and the Clinton community.

Both are fully kosher and equally holy. A restored scroll is a pre-owned Torah that a scribe carefully checks and repairs so it can be used again, which keeps the cost down. But its parchment and ink are older, so it fades and cracks more easily and needs inspection and repair far more often. A brand-new Torah is written from scratch on fresh parchment, letter by letter, entirely for our community: it is far more reliable, needs repairs far less often, and stays kosher for far longer. It costs significantly more, but it is an investment that serves the community for generations. We have already raised enough to secure a beautiful restored scroll for Clinton, and now our goal is to commission a brand-new one, written from scratch for our community.

Entirely by hand. A trained scribe (a sofer) writes all 304,805 letters with a quill and special ink on parchment, following laws that are thousands of years old. Every letter must be perfect: if even one is missing or broken, the scroll is not kosher until it is fixed.

Constantly. It is read aloud every Shabbat, on Mondays and Thursdays, on Rosh Chodesh, and on every holiday, as well as at many joyous occasions. That is why having a second scroll matters so much.

The moment you dedicate, you can have our system assign you a specific letter inside a meaningful verse and tell you the verse, its place in the Torah, and what it is about. Or you can choose your own spot, or refresh for a different one.

Yes. Every letter, verse, and portion is one of a kind and is recorded to you the moment you dedicate it, so no one else can be given the same one.

Absolutely. Verses and larger portions can honor several people at once, and each honoree can receive their own certificate by email.

Yes. Chabad at Hamilton Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3). EIN 47-1647905. You will receive a tax receipt by email, and by mail on request.

Yes! We will hold a joyous welcome celebration when the scroll is completed, and every donor will be invited. We will keep you posted as the date gets closer.

As soon as we reach our goal. Every donor is invited to the celebration when the final letters are written.