1. The word Torah means teaching or instruction in Hebrew. The Torah itself is a scrolled parchment that contains the following 5 books from the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
2. Jews read the Torah from beginning to end each year, one section every week, and then start afresh after the Jewish New Year.
3. It takes a scribe about a year to pen the 304,805 letters found in each and every Torah, the exact same way it’s been written since the time of Moses.
4. There are over 4,000 laws that dictate the writing. Even the slightest slip of the pen, the smallest mistake, can be reason to burn the scroll and start over, especially if a mistake is found in the word God. Indeed, God’s name is so holy, a scribe must bathe in a mikvah (ritual pool) before writing the Lord’s four-letter (Hebrew) name.
5. Torahs are made up of between 62 and 84 sheets of parchment produced from the skin of a kosher animal. The pen used to write one is actually a quill from a kosher bird, usually a goose feather, and only special, permanent black ink is acceptable.
6. Using thread made from the leg sinews of a kosher cow, the scribe sews the backs of the parchment together so the stitches aren’t visible from the front. Each end of the scroll is sewn onto the two wooden shafts, called atzei chaim, or “trees of life.”
7. Torahs are quite heavy, weighing around 25 pounds. If you don’t know how to lift one and are given that honor in a synagogue, ask for instruction; dropping a Torah is a serious matter. Tradition holds that every person in the room must fast for 40 days in atonement. And while not eating for 40 days isn’t as bad as wandering the desert for 40 years, certainly it’s no picnic either… unless, of course, you prefer your picnics without food.
Number Two is not accurate. The torah starts again on a holiday called simchas torah, where the last paragraph of Devarim and the first of Bereshit are read together–not on the new year, but about a month after, seperated by Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret.
posted by Sohpia on 5-7-2008 at 7:22 am
Ignorant question from a midwestern agnostic who was raised to play for the Lutherans:
How common are Torahs? i.e. does every synagogue have one? Do many/any families/individuals have them (if such a thing is allowed)?
I’m fascinated by the amount of effort and detail that goes into making them. It would seem that they would be very rare, though I know that’s not always the case.
posted by EV on 5-7-2008 at 8:13 am
Torahs are common in synagogues, but cost quite alot (labor costs, as with all things). It is one of the first things that a synagogue will acquire, even before there is a permanent home. Many synagogues have more than one; after WWII torahs that had been hidden away from synagogues that no longer existed in Europe were sent around the world and now are in synagogues as a reminder that “we will not forget” what happened.
posted by kcz on 5-7-2008 at 8:20 am
Every synagogue needs to have a Torah; most have multiple Torahs, either from donation or inheritance from an earlier synagogue that closed. Some families also have their own Torahs which they have sponsored; often, those Torahs are donated to the family’s synagogue with the caveat that it would be returned to the family on demand or need.
posted by AS on 5-7-2008 at 8:34 am
I was wondering the same thing. Is it the type of thing that you receive as a gift at your bar/bat mitzvah or are they more difficult to acquire? If all Jews must read the Torah all the way through each year, there must be some hardcore scribe sweatshops.
posted by nikki on 5-7-2008 at 8:35 am
@nikki - Nope, you don’t get one @ your bar mitzvah - they cost upwards of $50,000 each, new, and are given to synagogues as major donations. There are many sofrim (scribes) out there writing, especially in Israel. Note that they can also be restored, which makes the cost substantially cheaper - closer to the 10-20k range, depending on the Torah.
posted by Aaron on 5-7-2008 at 8:42 am
Every synagogue/temple has at least one Torah, since it is essential to public worship (see #2, above). In many cases the Torah comes to represent the community to which it belongs, and becomes their most treasured possession. It’s rare for an individual family to have their own Torah scroll, since they are so expensive and time-consuming to make. However, it is traditional to give a Bar/Bat Mitzvah their own bound copy of the Torah, since they are now responsible to live by its commands. This is just a normal book, though it is usually printed right to left since that is the way that Hebrew is read. For an example, go to Amazon and search for “Torah Modern Commentary.”
posted by Jason on 5-7-2008 at 8:52 am
from what i remember every Synagogue has to have one. you can even buy one that is all writen except for the last couple words which you write in and are given credit for writing the whole thing.
posted by k on 5-7-2008 at 9:01 am
Another interesting fact is that the greatest ‘collector’ of torah scrolls was a man named Adolf Hitler. Torah’s from burned and destroyed synagogues were collected and saved, as part of an attempt to build a historical record of how the Nazi’s wiped the Jews off the map. Many modern synagogues now have one of these damaged scrolls in their possession.
posted by Rich on 5-7-2008 at 9:59 am
There is no way I would hold a Torah… As the self-proclaimed clumsiest person on the planet I would somehow manage to drop the thing several times and would have the entire congregation fasting for a year…
posted by GTT on 5-7-2008 at 12:14 pm
This post adds weight to my thesis that religions are silly.
posted by Vorple on 5-7-2008 at 2:42 pm
Vorple - even if you believe that religions are silly, why would come to a board like this to assert that belief? Is it necessary for everyone to agree with you? Do you care if you greatly offend people that have a long standing beliefs and traditions? What exactly is your point? Do you think your POV is unique and you just need to enlighten the rest of us?
Additionally, even if you find it silly, you might find it interesting. I do and I’m not Jewish.
I’m hoping that you are just immature and that you’ll grow up and recognize how “silly” your comment is. This is a defiantely a case where you might abide by the “if you have nothing nice to say” rule of thumb.
posted by karen on 5-7-2008 at 3:46 pm
Hi Karen,
Geez, I don’t like your hope that I’m immature. The post is interesting and I did learn stuff I didn’t know. Didn’t mean to give offense but was making a statement based on my observations. I think it’s silly and tragic that people are spending so much time on making others feel guilty over breaking a rule that seems rather arbitrary. At some point I’ll bet some radical said it was ok to have a metal rail, steps, blue tiles, and faucets in the mikvah. How did that change come about while other rules are maddeningly fixed? Why are people starving themselves over a document that’s self contradictory. The order of the creation in two books of Genesis, for one example. It’s not just self-starvation. People are killing over cartoons and over the right to eat flesh and drink blood. I think there would be close to zero suicide-killers if people didn’t believe silly thoughts born from religions. I like fairy tales, if that makes me immature. But at least I recognize them for what they are.
posted by Vorple on 5-7-2008 at 10:13 pm
Vorple,
Please respect the fact that what you see as “fairy tales” are the foundations on which many people choose to live their lives. Why anyone would choose to mock that - whether they are agnostic, atheist, or have a different set of beliefs - says more about you and less about the point you’re trying to make.
posted by Angel H. on 5-21-2008 at 12:32 pm