The last mitzvah commanded by the Torah is to participate in the writing of a Torah scroll.

In this spirit, a new Torah scroll was commissioned for the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, the first scroll the school has owned since its opening in 1946. Donated by Margot and Tom Pritzker, it was dedicated this January to honor Tzivia Garfinkel for her 25 years of service at Bernard Zell, most recently as the school’s Head of Jewish Studies. She retired at the end of the previous school year.

“My love of Torah came from my association with Ms. Garfinkel over 25 years ago, when I was part of the search committee that brought her to our school,” said Margot Pritzker. “Her genuine and authentic love for Torah has been communicated to so many of us; it is entirely fitting that the first ever Torah Scroll that this school has be dedicated to her.”

Gary Weisserman, Bernard Zell’s Head of School, welcomed attendees to the Hachnasat Sefer Torah (“Welcoming the Torah Scroll”) ceremony in January, which was attended by 500 students and local rabbis of all denominations. Also in attendance were JUF President Lonnie Nasatir, himself a Bernard Zell parent, and Aviv Ezra, Consul General of Israel to the Midwest.

“It is our hope that you as a school will use the Torah scroll, really use it, for reading whatever you are learning. It is in its use that it becomes familiar.” Pritzker told the students. “You are part of a tradition that has been doing this for thousands of years.”

In accepting the honor, Garfinkel said, “This day is a celebration of 25 years of Jewish learning that began when Margot Pritzker became Chair of the Board of Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School and I became the Head of Jewish Studies. It is a celebration of a lifetime of Jewish learning.

“While the Torah was given to the Jewish people only once, [it] is received by the Jewish people every time we learn Torah,” Garfinkel said. “With today’s dedication, the Bernard Zell Day School community stands at its own Sinai.”

The sofer, Yochanan Nathan, then inscribed one letter in each of the last four words of the scroll. Video of the writing was projected onto a screen, so attendees could watch the process.

One letter was for the students, represented by eighth-grader Eli Kamins, head of the student council. One was for the faculty, represented by teacher Rina Jacobius, the longest-serving current member of the school’s Jewish Studies teaching staff, with 23 years at the school. The last two letters were for Margot Pritzker and Garfinkel herself.

“Margot, your love of Torah has brought us to this occasion,” Garfinkel said as Pritzker’s letter was being inked, “as we fulfill the mitzvah of writing a Torah scroll.”

As in a Jewish wedding, a new Torah scroll is welcomed into a community with singing and dancing under a chuppah; after its completion, the Torah was paraded around the school, escorted by the band and chuppah, as students lined the halls. The procession ended at the Makom Rina, the school’s new sacred space. There, it was read from, then placed in its newly built Ark.

The Hebrew word for school is beit sefer- literally, “a house of scrolls.” And now, this beit sefer will, after more than 70 years, finally have a Torah scroll of its own.