7th July 2004

Gordon,

Just to let you know that I have now finished correcting the sefer torah.  I have been back through it again just to check I didn't miss anything and I'm fairly confident that all is well.  I was able to get some good solid time in and D'varim as you know from the report was in fairly good shape.

Attached are two photos.  One is of the last words where I have scrapped out the insides of the last two letters which we can fill at the siyyum.  The other is the scroll in its cover.  As you can see the cover is in fairly good condition and fairly standard but it is a bit too wide and certainly too long as it nearly reaches the bottom of the handles.

However I'm sure it will do for the siyum and then the community can have another celebration of a new cover and silverware!  At that point I am happy to help with design work for cover and can organise a seamstress if needed. I have also made contact with a silversmith recently who if he does well on the first project (for a school torah I checked a while back) could be worth thinking about.

This has probably been my biggest and most time consuming repair job to date but very worthwhile and you have a really lovely light, managable torah (I am working on one at the moment I can barely lift! and actualy have another that is absolutely packed with errors to follow on) written by one scribe (though at some points his writing does get a bit bigger (which I originally mistook for a different hand) which is rare for a second hand torah in very nice legible writing for a scroll so small and light.  I am certainly very happy to have been able to restore this one for congregational use and I'm very grateful to you and your congregation for another chance to perform the 613th commandment.

All the best,

Marc