Bringing God’s Written Word to the Blind

Rabbi Shares Braille Torah with Temple Beth David Congregation

By Brudah Hank

What if you couldn’t see? Ask Rabbi Lenny Sarko, who delivered an inspiring presentation at Temple Beth David last Sunday. We are fortunate to live in a country that tried to take care of those in our society who were born with deficits. Some can be addressed through medical intervention, and other conditions can be mitigated, but imagine being born blind or losing your vision at an exceedingly early age.

Western society does a decent job of helping the blind overcome and manage their disability. We have a lovely school for the blind here in Florida in St. Augustine, where the blind are trained to function as normally as possible in society. There are aids for the visually impaired, and braille was developed as a medium by which, by feeling a series of bumps on a page, a blind person can read any material available in braille.

There are many books printed in braille, including the Christian Bible. I’ve been to many Christian services, where part of the ceremony is to open a giant Bible and read from it. In Jewish Synagogues, the Torah Service, where one of five scrolls, representing the first five books of the Old Testament are pulled from a special chamber called an “ark,” unwrapped from its special coverings (undressed) and a portion is read. All Torahs are hand-written Hebrew, and you can’t just read it; you must sing the words you read. I get goosebumps just thinking about how beautiful God’s word is when sung, even if, too often, I don’t understand what’s being said during the reading. Whether it’s being read in a Church or Synagogue, reading from the book of God in public is considered a great honor.

Now, imagine never being able to participate because you’re blind.

For too long, a Jewish person who could read braille and wished to participate in a Torah service was excluded because there was no such thing as a Torah in braille that they could access during the service, until recently.

When Rabbi Lenny Sarko lost some of his vision due to diabetes, he found himself excluded from being able to participate in Torah Services. As a man dedicated to reading holy texts and understanding kosher laws regarding the use of holy texts, he addressed those issues and created a Hebrew Braille Sefer Torah. He didn’t just create a Hebrew Braille Sefer Torah; he created an ENTIRE process for encoding Hebrew into braille and pressing them onto a scroll in a way that would be considered an acceptable medium to use during religious services. Practically by himself, he created a Torah scroll, written entirely in braille and even created lessons whereby students with experience reading braille can learn Hebrew in braille as well.

Rabbi Lenny Sarko brought a braille Torah for us to touch and encouraged the blind to participate in Torah Services. His not-for-profit institute has a Torah lease program available at a very reasonable cost, considering there are only a few copies available. I was fortunate to have met a man who singlehandedly brought light into the world of the blind. In a way, he is a modern Moses, bringing people to God. His website can be accessed at https://devarim.org/