When Rabbi Zemel took the temple's 300-year-old Czech Torah scroll out of the ark one Shabbat morning in February, he was surprised that it was completely dressed and even had the rimonim, the silver bell ornaments, on top. For many years he had not placed the rimonim on that particular Torah, for the top handles were too short to hold the ornaments securely, and that made it difficult to remove the Torah from the ark.

Temple member Marlyn S. had taken the cover of the Czech Torah to a seamstress she had found earlier when she commissioned the challah cover cart, which matches the Torah covers. The top holes of one of the Torah covers, where the spindles poke through, needed new binding, and there were remnants of the material left over. When she brought the cover back to the temple, she dressed the Torah and affixed the silver ornaments which, unbeknownst to her, were never used.

Rabbi Zemel hastened to tell the congregation about the problem that February Shabbat morning, and suggested that perhaps someone knew a woodworker who could lengthen the Torah handles. Three people offered to help, the first being Ruth S., who immediately volunteered her husband Frank. Rabbi Zemel asked Frank, an accomplished wood sculptor, to do the job.

He removed the handles from the Torah. He bought new wood, put it on a lathe and turned to make it the correct length. He stained the new handles to match the existing rollers and secured them to the Torah with glue.

Now all four of Micah's Torahs can be fully adorned.