Eleven-year-old Joshua Keihl-Field watched in fascination as the bearded scribe applied the last verses of the Torah on a new parchment scroll.

Nearly 100 adults and other children shared his avid interest as Rabbi Moshe Druin put the finishing touches on the scroll, letter by letter in Hebrew calligraphy. People from three other Jewish congregations on Oahu joined the Sunday celebration at the Aloha Jewish Chapel at Pearl Harbor.

“;There is a commandment that each Jew shall write a Torah in his lifetime,”; said Daniel Bender, lay leader of the synagogue for all military services on Oahu.

According to tradition, writing one letter on a new scroll fulfills the commandment, Bender said.

So chapel members and other contributors lined up in family groups to do their letter to complete the final verses of the book of Deuteronomy, the last of five books that are the law God gave to Moses.

Druin has taken a year to finish the scroll and, in reality, he didn't turn over the quill pen to the devout but possibly clumsy amateurs. Participants touched the feather of the quill while Druin executed each letter with a firm touch.

Druin, of Miami, has been making Torah scrolls for 26 years, one of a small band of scribes who produce the parchment scrolls central to Jewish worship in congregations around the globe.

There is a rigid format, and each scroll today is the same as those used over the centuries, said Robert Littman of Congregation Sof Maarav. “;The same number of columns, the same number of words per column. The ink formula, with gall nut and Arabic gum, is the same that is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.”;

The parchment is the skin of animals—usually a cow or a deer—slaughtered according to kosher rules and, Druin said, the birds whose feathers are used are also kosher.

If just one letter of a scroll is faded or scraped away, the Torah is not kosher. That is what happened to the 85-year-old scroll that has been in use by the military congregation since Aloha Jewish Chapel was opened in 1975, the first chapel for exclusive Jewish use on a U.S. military base.

“;As a Jew, we know the feeling of being welcomed in any synagogue around the world, where the Torah is like welcoming an old friend who we know very well,”; said Rabbi Peter Schaktman of Temple Emanu-El.

“;God gave Moses a written scroll so he wouldn't have to memorize it. I like to imagine what it was like when our ancestors first heard it spoken aloud in the divine voice,”; Schaktman said.

“;The Torah's holiness comes from what it contains ... as we are learning and internalizing it.

“;God's voice neither began nor stopped at Sinai,”; he said. “;God speaks to us every day. We need to quiet our lives so we can hear God's voice.

“;For all who study from it, may it slake their thirst for knowledge and their hunger for divine connection,”; Schaktman said.

Rabbi Itchel Krasnjansky of Chabad of Hawaii pointed to the significant timing for dedicating a new Torah: “;On Simchat Torah last week, we concluded reading the Torah. And last Shabbat, we began again by reading the beginning of Genesis.”; Portions of the Torah are read aloud at each Shabbat service and the entire five books of Moses are completed in a year.

Speaking of timing, Druin said, the story of Noah is in the portion being read this week—the “;only portion that has to do with boats”; and, thus, significant to the Pearl Harbor launch.

“;God told me to do this,”; said Harriet Weissman. The widow of a Navy pilot and a member of the military synagogue for 30 years was credited with raising the $45,000 to pay for the scroll. She tapped her connections among active-duty and retired military personnel and the appeal for donations spread like ripples in a worldwide pond. “;A Sunday school in Virginia made it their project and sent us $24.60. How did they hear about it?”; she told the crowd.

Weissman is among “;a group of indigenous members, about 15 or 20, who have been in the congregation for years,”; Bender said. “;They become surrogate grandparents for the constantly changing membership of young military families.”;

Bender added: “;What I think is significant is that there has never been a Torah dedicated inside a military base. For this congregation, it is their way of saying we want this place to stay a synagogue, not be turned into a commissary site or ammo dump. This older generation, the last of the pioneers who opened the chapel, have a mission to keep this in existence.”; Bender said that is what unites all the Jewish congregations in town—Reform, Conservative and Orthodox—who support it.

The rabbi scribe told people as they sat down to write their letter on the scroll that “;you are part of a miracle.”; He asked each family group to “;make a commitment, think of a mitzvah you will take on yourself, and share it with me.”;

The ranking officer at the festivities, Capt. Donald Hodge, chief of staff for the commander of Navy Region Hawaii, got into the spirit of the day. With his wife, Susan, and Cmdr. Timothy Koester, a Catholic priest and commander of the chaplain corps in Hawaii, Hodge pinched the quill pen while the scribe crafted a letter. His commitment, he said, was to spend more time with his wife.

Meanwhile, back to young Joshua, who lingered at the table to watch the scroll be completed. He's studying the Hebrew language, he said. “;This is interesting and fun.”;

“;It's historical,”; said his father, Army 1st Sgt. Brian Field of Schofield Barracks. “;It makes us a permanent part of Jewish life in the islands. It's a very rare thing for my kids to see this.”;

Field struggled to contain rambunctious 4-year-old son Zachary while his wife, Lisa Keihl, brought their infant son Nathan for the family turn with the quill.

The scribe got the boys' attention by calling for a cheer for their letter, “;lamed”; in Hebrew.

Druin, who admitted to having 10 children of his own, assessed the harried parents and prescribed their commitment to relax at their next Sabbath meal by offering a kiddush, a ritual blessing on the wine.