Origin Ancient: the scroll is the form of the Torah from the Second Temple period, and its rules are fixed in the rabbinic period
A handwritten scroll of the Five Books of Moses, the most important physical object in a synagogue. It is written by a trained scribe, a sofer, with a quill on parchment from a kosher animal, in a fixed script, without vowels or punctuation, over roughly a year of work. A single incorrect letter renders the scroll unfit until repaired.
It is never touched with a bare hand. It is read from with a pointer, dressed in a mantle, crowned with silver, and stood for when it is carried. A scroll damaged beyond repair is not destroyed but buried, and so are worn-out prayer books and any paper carrying the divine name. When a congregation's scroll is completed, the last letters are left outline for members to fill in, and the scroll is brought into the synagogue with music and dancing.
Facts
Use
Who May Handle ItAdherents of the tradition 1 Carried and read by the congregation; it is not touched with the bare hand, which is what the pointer is for ConsecrationSanctified by the text it carries, not by a rite 1 Origins
Origin PeriodAncient: the scroll is the form of the Torah from the Second Temple period, and its rules are fixed in the rabbinic period 1 Learn More
The Scrolls That Outlived Their Congregations
A Torah scroll is a communal object. It is commissioned by a congregation, used by it for generations, and repaired rather than replaced. When a community ends, the scroll does not.
More than fifteen hundred scrolls from the Jewish communities of Bohemia and Moravia were gathered at the Michle synagogue in Prague during the Second World War, along with a vast quantity of other communal property, assembled by Jewish curators working under German authority as their communities were deported and murdered. What the assembly was intended for has been argued over since; what it produced was a warehouse of scrolls whose congregations no longer existed.
They passed to the postwar Czechoslovak state and in 1964 were bought and brought to Westminster Synagogue in London. From there they have been distributed on permanent loan to congregations worldwide, restored where restoration was possible. Many are used in services now. Some are beyond repair and are kept unrolled as they are, which is a decision about memory rather than about ritual fitness, since an unfit scroll cannot be read from.
A congregation holding one is generally aware of which town it came from. That is the point of the arrangement: the scroll is not a relic of a community but the continuation of its use, read from on a Saturday morning by people who are not its descendants and who know whose it was.
The Scribe Who Writes It, and What Happens When It Is No Longer Fit
A Torah scroll is written entirely by hand by a trained scribe, a sofer, using a quill and specially prepared ink on parchment called klaf that has itself been processed according to Jewish law from the hide of a kosher animal.
Who may write one, and how exacting the work is
Writing a kosher Torah scroll takes a sofer roughly a year of careful, uninterrupted work, since a single letter malformed or touching another can render the entire scroll unfit, posul, until corrected. In Orthodox practice a sofer is male and specifically trained and certified in this discipline, a restriction some non-Orthodox communities have begun to set aside by training women as scribes. Completed scrolls are increasingly checked against computer software as well as by a second human proofreader before being certified fit for use.
Contact, and what happens when a scroll fails
A scroll is never touched directly with bare skin during the reading, which is the entire reason the pointer called a yad exists, and a scroll that becomes torn, faded, or otherwise posul is not simply thrown away. It is stored, often for years, in a synagogue's genizah, a repository for worn out sacred texts, before eventual burial in a Jewish cemetery, the same respectful disposal given to any document bearing the Divine Name.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Maimonides based the rules for writing a Torah scroll on this codex.
Belongs to Tradition
Element Of
The scroll is read on the traditional cycle, and the movement permits a woman to be called up to it and to read from it.
The scroll of the law is read and is the sole authority, which is the whole of the Karaite position rather than one part of it.
Written by hand on parchment by a trained scribe, and disqualified for use by a single missing or malformed letter.
Held Differently
Humanistic congregations read the Torah as a human document of Jewish history and culture. The scroll is kept and read, and what is claimed for it is different.
Implement Of
Instances
Includes parchment Torah and other biblical scrolls of the classic form.
In the Other Atlases
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.