CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — For the beginning years of Chabad Coastal Bend they’ve always had to borrow a Torah. Sunday they celebrated their own Torah, welcoming the holy scripture to it’s new home.
“Torah in judaism is life," said Nene Schmukler, co-director of Chabad Coastal Bend. "We compare Torah to water. Which is water, everyone needs life and we feel that everyone needs Torah. And to have a big celebration and the community coming out to welcome the Torah."
“It’s everything and having a kosher Torah delivered from Crown Heights, New York, from Rabbi Sebbeg is the top of the top, it’s a blessing,” Roslyn Josephs-Ferrell said, a congregation member.
“Overwhelming true joy," said Rabbi Naftoli Schmukler, co-director of Chabad Coastal Bend. "Not a joy of something materialistic, something really soulful. Something that has to do with the essence of our existence our identity of what kept us going throughout millennia as a Jewish People.”
Naftoli said it was a grassroots effort that was able to bring a Permanent Torah to their Chabad House. He said it took over a year for it to be written.
The Torah is the first five books of the Hebrew Bible also commonly known as the Old Testament. Chabad Coastal Bend is a place for those to learn of and celebrate Jewish Heritage in multiple facets.
All this much more easier in the new Chabad House located on Ocean Drive.
“We’re excited to plant roots here, make seeds and really grow with the community and expand, " Nene said. "And just have a beautiful open home to all. To the Jewish community, open to the whole community.”
"It's a home away from home," said Naftoli. "It could be someone who's traveling through, it could be a student, it could be someone who's at the base, it could be a local person in the community who needs a lift in their life. And it could just be a regular happy, healthy, stable person that is looking for more meaning and wants to understand more about their heritage, understand more about the meaning of life."
Chabad Coastal Bend is planning their annual Hanukkah Parade for the last night of Hanukkah, Dec. 6. It will begin outside the new Chabad House on Ocean Dive.
To get in contact with Chabad Coastal Bend you can visit their website here.
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