FACTS ABOUT TORAH SCROLLS
The Sefer Torah is written by a scribe, special trained for
this holy task, on sheets of parchment. The parchment must
derive from a kosher animal, usually a cow, and is
meticulously prepared by the scribe, who first soaks the
skin in lime water to remove hairs, and then stretches the
skin over a wooden frame to dry. The scribe scrapes the
skin while it is stretched over the wooden frame to remove
more hair and smoothes the surface of the skin in
preparation for writing on it with the use of a sanding
machine. When the skin is dry, the scribe cuts it into a
rectangle. The scribe must prepare many such skins because
a Sefer Torah usually contains 248 columns, and one
rectangle of parchment yields space for three or four
columns. Thus a Sefer Torah may require at more than 80
skins in all.
When the parchment sheets are ready, the scribe marks out
lines and columns using a stylus, which makes a mark in the
skin that has no color, much as if you ran your fingernail
across a sheet of paper. Each sheet must have at least
three columns, and there must be a margin of three inches
on the top, four inches at the bottom, and two inches
between columns.
The scribe prepares quills and ink. The scribe makes quills
for writing a Sefer Torah. The feathers must come from a
kosher bird, and the goose is the bird of choice for many
scribes. The scribe carefully and patiently carves a point
in the end of the feather and uses many quills in the
course of writing one Sefer Torah. The scribe also prepares
ink for writing the Sefer Torah by combining powdered gall
nuts, copper sulfate crystals, gum Arabic, and water,
preparing only a small amount at a time, so that the ink
will always be fresh. Fresh ink is a deep black, and only
this is acceptable for writing a Sefer Torah.
Scribed by hand on sections of goatskin, calfskin or
sheepskin parchment that could stretch half the length of a
football field, each Torah scroll has 300,000 letters that
must be perfectly reproduced each time a Torah is copied.
A Sefer Torah (Sifrei Torah, plural) is the object most
holy to the Jews. It contains the Five Books of Moses (the
Pentateuch), written in black ink on scored parchment by
religious scribes. Hundreds of laws govern the most minute
details of the materials and the writing. Today most Torah
scrolls are written in 245 columns of 42 lines each. Three
basic Hebrew Scripts are used today: Beit Yoseph is the
script generally used by Ashkenazi Jews; Ari is the script
generally used by Jews of Chassidic descent or influence;
Vellish is the script generally used by Sephardi Jews. The
Beit Yoseph and Ari scripts are similar, differing only in
the form of 5 or 6 letters. Vellish is generally a more
rounded hand than the Ashkenazi scripts, and it can be
written more quickly. Actually there is some variation also
within these three scripts, such that various Sephardi
communities write Vellish script differently in
characteristic ways and the Lubovitch Chassidim have their
own variant of the Ari script. After they are written, the
sheets of the Torah are sewn together with gut from a
kosher animal, but not before they are checked three times
for mistakes, and repaired if necessary.
We have many
Torah scrolls available for you, both new and used, Kosher
and non Kosher at reasonable prices. We sell to Museums and
Synagogues and private collectors. If you have any
questions you can Email us or call our
number is +972544282803 THANKS