A young girl has shown she has indeed become a daughter of the commandments by donating a Torah scroll to her synagogue in honor of her bat mitzva.

Samantha Morris beamed with pleasure Sept. 10 as she was called to sit next to Rabbi David Bassous, who inscribed the last of 43 letters in her honor at Congregation Etz Ahaim in Highland Park.

The scroll was commissioned by a family friend to honor Samantha when she became a bat mitzva at Etz Ahaim in September 2006. The young girl, in turn, decided to give it to her synagogue.

The Torah scroll was written by a sofer, or ritual scribe, in Israel. It was completed by Bassous, who is also a sofer.

Jackie Cenci of South Brunswick, a cousin of Samantha Morris,
watches as Rabbi David Bassous inscribes a letter in her own honor.

"I'm really excited," said Samantha. "It's really a special honor because not many people get to have that special gift. I'm happy I could do this."

The Morris family has deep roots in Etz Ahaim, a 78-year-old Orthodox Sephardi synagogue. Her grandparents, Gloria and Ray Morris, have been active for many years, and her grandfather is currently synagogue president.

Bassous called the donation "a beautiful mitzva."

He said the donated scroll would be the synagogue's seventh. However, because three Iraqi scrolls are approximately 150 years old and delicate, they are rarely used.

However, the new scroll will not stay permanently in Etz Ahaim, but will eventually find a home at a synagogue in Israel that the Morris family is in the process of building. The Israeli synagogue will honor Ray Morris' late mother, Rachel, and father, Shilo, a respected rabbi in London where the family immigrated after leaving Aden, a former British colony that is now part of Yemen.

Samantha is the daughter of Sheryl and Jack Morris, who looked on joyously as Ray Morris called up a series of friends, family members, and supporters. All repeated a blessing prior to having a letter inscribed in the scroll in their honor.

"It makes me feel very honored," said Sheryl Morris as she stood snapping photos.

Bassous explained that the scroll itself was parchment, made of calfskin, and cost approximately $8,000 even before it was written upon. A handwritten Torah scroll can cost anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000.

As the inscriptions were made, completing the scroll, the crowd gathered around the table burst into song and clapping. The scroll was placed in an ornate silver cover in accordance with Sephardi custom and was brought under a huppa — symbolizing the marriage of the Jewish people to the Torah. At the entrance to the sanctuary, it was greeted by the other Torah scrolls held by congregants before it was placed in the ark.

Jackie Cenci of South Brunswick, a cousin of the bat mitzva, said she wanted to participate because it is "a big mitzva to write a sefer Torah."

"I've never done it before," she added, "and God willing, I'll be able to do it again."