Torah Scroll Research Articles

Cecil Roth’s Torah scroll shoe soles: collecting Holocaust relics in Greece

ABSTRACT This essay examines two shoe soles cut from a Torah scroll which British historian and collector of Judaica Cecil Roth collected in Greece in 1946. As Holocaust relics, the Torah scroll shoe soles are, in turn, sacred and sacrilegious, texts and objects, Greek Jewish and non-Jewish Greek artifacts. Roth’s recovery of the shoe soles is compromised by occurring under the auspices of the British Army during the Greek Civil War and in the controversial climate of collecting Judaica displaced by the Holocaust. I discuss the ongoing story of the shoe soles: their separation, their use, and their best location.

Reading Material: Textual Objects as Ritual Artifacts in Tannaitic Literature

Abstract: This article examines tannaitic depictions of textual objects as effective ritual artifacts. Through case studies of tefillin, marriage and divorce documents, and descriptions of material texts used in the sotah ritual, this article shows that the Tannaim highlighted the effectiveness of these textual objects through reference to the material spaces they inhabited and indexed the effectiveness of these objects through their conceptual proximity to the Torah scroll. Viewing textual objects in this manner reveals both a broader tannaitic set of ideas about texts and shows how rabbinic ideas were reflected in their understanding of a wide variety of nonrabbinic textual artifacts. This comports with developments we see across Mediterranean religion in late antiquity, where discourse about texts, and texts themselves, seem to gain wider prominence and use.

Rediscovered Fragments Shed New Light on a Proto-Masoretic Torah Scroll

After Edna Engel and Mordechay Mishor had discovered that two fragments with excerpts from the book of Exodus belonged to a single Torah scroll dating from the seventh or eighth century CE, Mordechai Veintrob identified thirteen additional fragments of the same scroll, most of them coming from the Cairo Genizah. This article shows that in the preserved fragments no orthographic differences occur with the (partially reconstructed) text of the more recent Aleppo Codex, while there are such orthographic differences with the other ancient Bible codices. The relationship between the ancient scroll and the Aleppo Codex is looser as far as the sectional division by means of petuḥot and setumot is concerned. However, the tradition according to which five specific lines must be written above the text of the Song of the Sea (Exod 15:1–19) seems to have this very scroll as its source. This tradition was followed in the Aleppo Codex and other ancient codices.

The Hebrew Bible in Ancient Jewish Education

After the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the end of the sacrificial service in 70 CE rabbis made Torah study and observance the basis of Jewish identity. Since no organised Jewish school system existed in Roman Palestine, only a very small proportion of the mostly male Jewish population would have been able to read, and few people had access to Torah scrolls. Rabbinic Torah experts set themselves up as intermediaries and advisers who helped ordinary people solve their daily life problems. In late antiquity, when urban rabbis served as role models and synagogues required Torah readers, Torah-reading skills may have slightly increased. At that time, rabbis’ Scripture-based public sermons and the depiction of biblical scenes on synagogue mosaic floors familiarised ordinary Jews, including women, with biblical rules and narratives. Rabbinic study and discussion would have largely depended on memorization of the biblical text rather than access to written scrolls. This phenomenon led to a creative use of the Bible, which enabled innovation, change, and adaptation to new circumstances.

“Holy to the Lord”: The Material Conversion of the Cammarata Finials

This article sets out to trace the trans-religious journey of two objects in the western Mediterranean at the end of the fifteenth century. The expulsion of Jews from all Spanish territories in 1492–1493 instigated the movement of objects from Jewish to Christian hands. Among these were a pair of Torah finials that belonged to the Jewish community of Cammarata, Sicily, where they were set on top of the rods around which the Torah scroll was rolled. These two finials were sold in Sicily and, through a chain of merchants and ecclesiastics, arrived at the Cathedral of Palma and were incorporated into the local Christian liturgy, a process that continued well into the twentieth century. This article analyzes the use and performance of the finials in their different liturgical settings and examines their conversion from Jewish ceremonial objects to ecclesiastical implements. It concludes with a discussion of temporality in studying converted objects, a factor that played a key role in the finials’ migration between socio-religious contexts and resulted in the creation of multifaceted objects.

:Bibliophobia: The End and the Beginning of the Book

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The Words of the Righteous: The Death of Text and the Eternity of Stone

Abstract: This essay examines examples of the Oral Torah as a concrete, material phenomenon in late ancient rabbinic sources. The oral nature of oral Torah, both as an ideology and as a description of rabbinic textual practices, can elide some of the more evocative discussions of the nature of oral Torah. Previous discussions, such as Wollenberg (2019), have shown that the nature of the written Torah was often understood as unstable, changing, and mutable. This essay explores the other side of that equation, exploring discussions of oral Text as concrete, enduring, and unchanging. Two main examples are studied: the first from a passage in the Palestinian Talmud, and the second in a passage from the Babylonian Talmud. The Palestinian Talmud draws a dense network of connections between Torah scrolls, oral teachings, rabbinic sages, and the imagery of death and memorialization. The Babylonian Talmud similarly extends the value of rabbinic oral teaching into the World to Come, showing that while the associations between teaching, death, and eternal life manifest differently, they are still present in different rabbinic contexts. Taken together, these inscriptions of a concrete and material Oral Torah are fully realized in the body of the rabbinic sage. Other scholars have also shown that rabbinic sages become an embodiment of Torah: this essay examines the nature of rabbinic Torah, as discussed in rabbinic literature, to understand how that embodiment comes about.

Unrolling the Scroll, Revealing God: Esther Scrolls as Symbols and Ritual Objects

Abstract: Like the Torah scroll, the Esther scroll in Jewish life serves as not only a technology of text, but a symbolically charged ritual object for the liturgical theater of Purim ritual. This paper argues that in late antique Purim liturgy, the symbolic act of unrolling the scroll for the megillah reading hints at God's presence in the Book of Esther itself. Three clusters of evidence support this thesis. First, rabbinic texts describing liturgy assign symbolic value to the act of unrolling and rolling up scrolls. Second, the rabbis' choice to call Esther a 'megillah' allows them to midrashically conflate the megillat Esther with heavenly books described in Ezekiel, Malachi, Zechariah, and Jeremiah, thus making Esther into a book of life or book of fate. Third, synagogue liturgy connects the megillah with pivotal moments of writing, reading, and unveiling in the Book of Esther itself. The act of unrolling and reading the Book of Esther at Purim thus ritualizes a deeper metaphor: unrolling the scroll is unveiling God's hidden presence.

"Allí se puso este Libro de la Ley": breve reflexión sobre una glosa exegética al Deuteronomio 31 en la Biblia romanceada de Moshe Arragel

This study focuses on an exegetical gloss in the Old Spanish Bible of rabbi Moshe Arragel (1 st half of the 15 th century), specifically on Deuteronomy 31, and its historical significance for the intellectual history of Jewish-Christian relations in late medieval Spain. This gloss, addressed to the Christian sponsor of this Bible translation, centers on an intra-biblical reference to the Jewish canon of the Bible itself as a book, that is the Torah scroll as both written literature and a physical object of synagogal worship. We analyze in some detail Arragel&rsquo;s recourse to the rabbinical Bible commentaries ad locum in order to educate his Christian addressee on the divergent views of Christians and Jews about the Scriptural canon and its material textualization.

Distinguishing between seemingly identical inks using scanning µXRF and heat maps

• Stages of writing and correction can be identified thanks to material analysis. • Seemingly identical inks can be distinguished with use of imaging µXRF. • The application of XRF heat maps allows identification of altered portions of text. • Stratigraphy of seemingly identical materials can be unveiled by µXRF and heat maps. This study will present a new approach to distinguishing writing inks that have the same elemental compositions and visual appearances. The approach is based on displaying the intensity of elemental distributions as heat maps that represent data recorded with a scanning µX-ray fluorescence spectrometer. The heat maps present the data so as to facilitate digitally identifying and distinguishing between inks used to produce, correct, and reink two medieval Torah scrolls. As ritual objects, Torah scrolls had to be written in accordance with exacting standards that evolved over time. This requirement led to successive stages of modifications, sometimes over centuries. Both vitriolic and non-vitriolic inks used to modify Torah scrolls can be visually identical to each other. Furthermore, different non-vitriolic inks usually have an identical elemental composition. The solid material analysis evidence and its presentation as heat maps made it possible to discriminate between original and altered portions of text that in some cases would have been impossible. Our interdisciplinary work brought together conservation, material science, paleography, and philology to enable the identification of complex stratigraphy in multiple stages of production, correction, and reinking.

The Rise of Judaic Calligraphy in the Twentieth Century

:Excluding religiously required safrut (e.g., handwritten Torah scrolls, mezuzot, tefillin, gittin), artistic aspects of Judaic calligraphy declined after moveable type was invented in the fifteenth century. Rediscovery of medieval calligraphic techniques in late nineteenth-century Britain, plus contemporaneous typographical studies in Germany, spurred revival of artistic calligraphy. The first Arts and Crafts movement, pre-World War I German research into aesthetic letterforms, and the Bezalel Academy sparked a rise of secularized Judaic calligraphy. Growth of folk arts and ethnic pride in the 1960s and accessible photocopiers in the 1970s allowed nonspecialists to become expert calligraphers.

YAHUDİ GELENEĞİNİN KUTSAL METNİ: SEFER TORA

The Sefer Torah is the Torah scroll on which the books of Bereshit, Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar and Devarim, believed to have been revealed to the Prophet Moses by God, are written on leather parchments.The characteristics of the sofers who write the scripture according to the Jewish tradition, the materials to be used in writing, the writing of the scripture, the preservation and use of the completed parchment, the elimination of the Sefer Torah, which has become unusable, are the topics covered in almost all legal sources closely related to relgious law. Therefore, Jewish religious law reveals the structural features that show how the Sefer Torah has been transmitted from the time it was first written until today. According to this, the sacred scripture of Judaism is not a "book" called humash, but a Torah scroll consisting of leather parchments called Sefer Torah. During the historical process, Jews used the humash for research and investigation, and they placed the Sefer Torah at the center of worship and religious practices. In addition, it is seen that the most sacred object of Judaism is the Sefer Torah. This characteristic of Judaism, which has been preserved since ancient times, has enabled Judaismto gain a different direction from other religions that have holy books. In addition, tJews were called 'Am ha-Sefer', that is, "the people of the book" because of their relationship with the Sefer Torah. The Tanakh's teachings have been interpreted as commanding that every Jew compose a Sefer Torah, which is declared as a command that must be fulfilled within 613 mitzvot. The breaking periods of Jewish History, such as the destruction of the Temple, the disappearance of the sacrificial worship, and the exiles that occurred, caused the central position of the Sefer Torah to increase even more. Due to the destruction of the temple, many worships such as the sacrifice performed in the temple have become impossible. This has led to the emergence of a new understanding of religion in which the text and religious education shaped through the text are at the forefront. The Jews, who were dispersed to different parts of the world, have tried to establish the ties they have with God only via the Sefer Torah, due to the loss of the Temple and the promised land. Therefore, the Sefer Torah has become a sacred object, which is preserved by increasing its value compared to many other elements in Judaism and has a function in different aspects of religious life. In addition, this holiness of Sefer Torah have enabled many other objects such as Aron ha-Kodesh, Teva, etz hayim, keter, rimonim, yad and Sefer Torah sheath to gain holiness. Another important point about Sefer Torah is the symbolic meaning it has had since ancient times. In all religions, which have an abstract understanding of one God, where depictions are rejected, sacred scriptures have been the only indication of God's act of creation and the resulting right to legislate and sovereignty . In Judaism,as well, the Sefer Torah has become a metaphor that connects the Israelites with the sacred, and gives identity to Jews throughout the entire historical process. It has also become a symbolic metaphor referring to the first moment when God descended into Mount Sinai in a fog and the boundaries between the divine realm and the earth disappeared.&#x0D; Thus, the Sefer Torah became the common link between God, the Israelites, and the law. So much so that in The Zohar, all the letters of the Torah are associated with all the individuals of the Israelites, and the Sefer Torah and the Jewish nation are shown as the same, complementary and identical elements. The theological ground that allowed all this symbolic expression carried by the parchments enabled the Sefer Torah to become an object used for certain purposes not only by those who adopted the traditional Jewish understanding, but also by the communities that left the tradition in modern Jewish thought. This article provides information about the Sefer Torah as the sacred scripture of Judaism , and then it seeks to reveal how the Torah scrolls and related issues are handled in Jewish religious law, which is called halakha. Then, the symbolic meanings of the Sefer Torah arising from being a "sacred" scripture, emerging in the historical process are discussed. The article also aims to show the structural meaning of Sefer Torah, which is accepted as the most important and most sacred text by all Jewish communities, through rabbinic interpretations and religious law rules. Another aim of the study is to show the symbolic meaning of Sefer Torah through mystical interpretations and religious practices and rituals. The data is obtained through the method ofdocumentation and transcribed using the descriptive method.

A Piece of a Torah Scroll in my Basement

The Association for Canadian Jewish Studies encourages research on the Canadian Jewish experience through the disciplines of political science, sociology, economics, geography, history, demography, education, religion, linguistics, literature, architecture, performing and fine arts, among others.

The sacred scroll and the researcher’s body: an autoethnography of Reform Jewish ritual

ABSTRACT This article examines the relationship between the researcher’s body and the Torah scroll (Sefer Torah) during participant observation of a Jewish holiday ritual in an Israeli Reform congregation. Using an autoethnographic approach, I show how the Reform Jewish ritual demonstrates that the body is a charged religious symbol and the bearer of family traditions and unconscious understandings of the social order. Through this encounter, I discovered how my position in fieldwork on religion is located at the intersection of my ethnographic discipline, my religious habitus, and my identity as a gay man. Reflexive analysis of my active and passive behavior during the observation offered an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the differences between myself and the congregation. Thus, I suggest that anthropologists, even when researching their culture, must be aware of the elements that make up their own identities.

Medieval scribal procedures for writing the Tetragrammaton

Some medieval scribes left blank spaces for the Tetragrammaton in Torah scrolls, to be filled in during a second stage of writing. Medieval rabbinic literature gives various reasons for delaying the writing of the divine name: the scribe was distracted or needed ritual immersion, or the absence of a prayer quorum. An early antecedent to this practice is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The practice is then anticipated in a baraita , which refers to writing multiple divine names. The Jerusalem Talmud, or an interpolation therein, interprets the baraita as referring to writing multiple divine appellations in a row . However, the Tosefta and Babylonian version of Soperim interpret the baraita as referring to the filling in of God’s name in noncontiguous blank spaces during a second stage of writing, attesting to this procedure during the silent years between the Dead Sea Scrolls and medieval Torah scrolls.

Moroccan Torah Scrolls: Theorizing a Diasporic Afterlife

Torah scrolls are more than ritual objects; when used in a congregation, they take on semi-human characteristics and are given special agency. For Sephardic communities, some scrolls bear witness to the history of migration and trade that has uprooted them over five centuries. This article examines Torah scrolls originating in Morocco or used today by Moroccan communities, arguing that they take on a different meaning for the community depending on whether they are used, displayed, or guarded. We consider the difference in social meaning between chanting from a scroll and venerating it, and how Moroccan Jewry is impacted by efforts in Morocco, Israel, and the diaspora to ascribe ownership of the Torah via networks of patrimony and belonging. Offering an ethnographically informed analysis of Torah scrolls in London, Essaouira, and Tel Aviv, this article demonstrates that Torah scrolls serve as productive members of the communities that own them when they facilitate a thorough understanding of the migration networks that create communities.

On the Yehi Raẓon Formula in the Blessing for the New Month in the Ashkenazic Rite

In the early custom of Ashkenaz, on the Shabbat preceding the beginning of the month, the coming of the new month (Rosh Ḥodesh) would be announced after the reading from the Torah and before the Torah scroll was returned to the synagogue's Holy Ark. The ritual included reciting the paragraph beginning with the words mi she-‘asah nissim (may He who performed miracles) and continuing with an announcement of the timing of Rosh Ḥodesh. In the second half of the eighteenth century, an addition to the liturgy appeared before the Mi She-‘asah Nissim section: a passage beginning yehi raẓon (may it be Your will) that the Babylonian Talmud relates was recited daily by the sage Rav following the Amidah prayer. This article suggests some reasons for the addition of the passage, traces the spread of the practice of its recitation among Ashkenazic communities, and concludes with an examination and explanation of two apparently erroneous additions to the Yehi Raẓon formula.

On the Yehi Raẓon Formula in the Blessing for the New Month in the Ashkenazic Rite

In the early custom of Ashkenaz, on the Shabbat preceding the beginning of the month, the coming of the new month (Rosh Ḥodesh) would be announced after the reading from the Torah and before the Torah scroll was returned to the synagogue's Holy Ark. The ritual included reciting the paragraph beginning with the words mi she-'asah nissim (may He who performed miracles) and continuing with an announcement of the timing of Rosh Ḥodesh. In the second half of the eighteenth century, an addition to the liturgy appeared before the Mi She-'asah Nissim section: a passage beginning yehi raẓon (may it be Your will) that the Babylonian Talmud relates was recited daily by the sage Rav following the Amidah prayer. This article suggests some reasons for the addition of the passage, traces the spread of the practice of its recitation among Ashkenazic communities, and concludes with an examination and explanation of two apparently erroneous additions to the Yehi Raẓon formula.

The “Magdala stone table”: its function and role in determining the liturgical furniture in the ancient synagogue

AbstractThe discovery of low stone tables at Magdala and a few other sites in the Galilee and Golan allows us to examine, for the first time, this liturgical piece of furniture used by several communities in the late Second Temple period and the first centuries of the Common Era. This article defines the purpose of these stone tables based on analysis of the archaeological finds and examination of the literary sources associated with the Torah-reading ceremony conducted in the synagogues of ancient Palestine. The reading of the Torah throughout this long period was conducted standing with the open Torah scroll held in raised hands. Our study demonstrates that this table was not intended to be used for reading the Torah, but rather functioned as a low stand upon which the scroll was placed before the Torah-reading ceremony, during the breaks between the readers, and after completion of the ceremony.

Paleographical Analysis: Torah Scroll NTS.25.15

The present report represents a commissioned paleographical analysis (short paper) performed by the MIKRA Research Laboratory paleography team on a Torah scroll labeled NTS.25.15. The scroll&#39;s dimensions are provided as well as its paleography