Rabbi Kevin Hale joyfully practices the sacred craft of Torah restoration, bringing new life to scrolls saved in Czechoslovakia during the Shoah.
As Rabbi Hale’s scribal work takes him to communities now entrusted with the scrolls, he reflects on his own path to faith and practice – and the many ways to fulfill the final commandment in the Torah: to write the scroll itself.
Interviewees include Rabbi Kevin Hale, Sofer STaM; Jeffrey Ohrenstein, Chairman of the Memorial Scrolls Trust in London; concentration camp survivor Frieda Hoffman; and 10-year old Carolyn E.
23 minutes, 2020
Produced and Directed by Miriam Lewin
Camera and Editing by Randi Cecchine
“Commandment 613 is a beautiful and moving film, a tender tribute to the labor of preserving not only Torah scrolls, but all the lives and all the history they embody.”
Rachel Kadish, author of "The Weight of Ink,"
National Jewish Book Award winner
"The film and Q&A made a perfect hour-long program." Rabbi Juliana Karol, New York City
“I learned a lot, and it didn’t tell me how to think.” Frina Warman Diamant, retired doctor
