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A Torah scroll which Chabad-Lubavitch of Western Monmouth County began writing on Feb. 21 will rotate for one year at a time among Chabad's Manalapan, Morganville, and Holmdel locations, making it a true "community Torah."

That's how Rabbi Avrohom Bernstein, Chabad's program director, described the Torah that Chabad hopes will be complete by Rosh Hashanah this year. Most of the Torah will be written in Israel before it returns to Chabad of Western Monmouth's headquarters in Manalapan, but scribe Yosef Schechter completed the beginning sections during a community celebration at Shalom Torah Academy in Morganville.

"[The Torah] is bringing a new life and a new enthusiasm to the community, and it's being written over here, so it has a special connection [locally]," Bernstein, who organized the celebration, said.

Chabad currently has four Torahs, including two in Manalapan, one in Morganville, and one in Holmdel, Bernstein said. Besides for rotating among those sites, the new Torah will be used when all three join together for Rosh Hashanah at services at the Radisson hotel in Freehold, he said. The fact that Chabad needs Torahs for three locations, with Holmdel opening a year-and-a-half ago and Morganville two-and-a-half years back, means the organization is "bringing yiddishkeit to every Jew in Monmouth County," Bernstein said.

At Shalom Torah, attendees who sponsored letters in the Torah received a printed certificate outlining the words and nature of their sponsorship, while other activities included a buffet lunch catered by Just Good Food of Manalapan as well as children's carnival including the creation of sand art Torahs and stuffed toy Torahs. Children also learned how to use quills and ink -- like scribes -- to write certificates that included their names and Hebrew birthdays.

Besides for the letters community members bought, the Torah is being sponsored by Aaron and Sharyn Goldstein of Manalapan, who suggested the project to Rabbi Boruch Chazanow, Chabad of Western Monmouth's director, a year-and-a-half ago.

"If anyone is to blame for procrastinating, it's me," Chazanow said. Aaron said he knew Chabad needed another Torah and approached Chazanow about it at a similar Torah celebration they attended.

"I wanted to be part of fulfilling that mitzvah," Aaron, one of the owners of Just Good Food at 356 Route 9 North, said.

"It's a great opportunity to bring the entire community together," Sharyn said.

Rabbi Moshe Bak, head of school at Shalom Torah, said when he heard that Chabad was planning a Torah celebration, he told them "you've got to do it here."

"In a place where we teach Torah to the community, it is the perfect place to launch this campaign," Bak said.

"It's extremely important that Chabad can offer spiritual leadership and we can offer an academic home for the community," he said.

The celebration took place on the 7th day of Adar, which is both the birthday and yahrzeit of Moses. Chazanow explained to the crowd that according to Maimonides, Moses wrote 13 Torah scrolls on the day he died -- one for each tribe and one for the Aron Kodesh (Holy Ark).

"Today is a day that is connected to the community writing of Torah," Chazanow said.