Have you ever been at a ceremony to dedicate a new Sefer Torah to a community? We call it "hachnasas Sefer Torah" - the bringing in of a new Torah scroll. It is a poignant and emotional occasion. People gather at the home of the person who is dedicating the new Sefer Torah, and the Sofer (scribe) writes in the last few lines of the Torah. Sometimes people from the community write a letter of the Torah with the quill of the scribe. The Sofer has written the outline of the letter - and the honoree fills it in.

When someone writes even one letter of the Torah, they are fulfilling the mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah, which is found in this week's Sedra. It says:

"So, now, write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the Children of Israel - place it in their mouth, so that this song shall be for me a witness against the Children of Israel."

Even if you write only one letter of the Torah it is counted as if you have written the whole Torah. Can you think of a reason why? The reason is because if one letter is missing, the whole Torah is "pasul" - invalid. Put back that one letter, and it is a kosher Torah scroll. So when you write that one single letter, you actually complete the Torah, making it whole and kosher.

That is why Hashem describes the Torah as a song. If there were a note missing in a piece of music, it wouldn't sound right. The Torah has 300,000 letters in it. If you count the white spaces around the letters as part of the letter, then there are 600,000 letters in the Torah, which correspond to the 600,000 souls who were at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah. If one person was missing, there would have been a gap in the Jewish people. If one letter is missing in the song of the Torah, the Torah is not kosher. If one person fails to make his/her contribution to the Torah and the Jewish people, then the Jewish "symphony" does not sound right.

You can make the Torah and the Jewish people whole, complete, and kosher. Yes, you! You are important to Hashem and to the Jewish people. As we say every day at the end of the Amidah: "V'sen chelkenu b'Torasecho" - give us our portion in your Torah. This means that when you study Torah, ask a question to your parents or teachers about Judaism, or say a dvar Torah at the Shabbat table, you are making a contribution to the Jewish people. Only you can make that contribution, because you have unique genes (both physical and spiritual genes). There is no one in the world exactly like you. You are truly special. And so Hashem wants you to make your special contribution to the Jewish people - the Jewish people need you!