What is the Torah scroll made of?

Answer 1

The Torah is made with parchment of kosher animal skins.

1. The Torah-scroll must be written by a specially trained pious and knowledgeable scribe called a sofer.
2. The scroll is written on parchment by hand, in Hebrew calligraphy with precise shapes for the letters. This takes about six months to a year.
3. The ink is prepared in a traditional manner; and inexactly-written letters must be rewritten before the scroll may be read from.

Answer 2

There are three types of specially processed animal skin or parchment: gevil, Klaf (also Qlaf or K'laf), and duchsustos. These are Hebrew words to describe different types of parchment, although the term duchsustos is Greek. These are used for the production of a mezuzah, megillah, tefillin, and/or a Sefer Torah ("Torah scroll"). A kosher Sefer Torah should be written on gevil. If klaf is used in place of gevil, the Sefer Torah is still kosher, but this should not be done at the outset (bedieved). A Sefer Torah written on duchsustos is not kosher.

After preparation, the scribe must mark out the parchment using the sargel ("ruler") ensuring the guidelines are straight. Only the top guide is done and the letters suspended from it.

The use of gevil and certain types of parchment has allowed some sifrei Torah of antiquity to survive intact for over 800 years.

Answer 3

According to Jewish law, a sefer Torah (plural: Sifrei Torah) is a copy of the formal Hebrew text of the Five Books of Moses hand-written on gevil or qlaf (forms of parchment) by using a quill (or other permitted writing utensil) dipped in ink. Producing a sefer Torah fulfills one of the 613 mitzvot (Judaism's commandments).

"The k'laf/parchment on which the Torah scroll is written, the hair or sinew with which the panels of parchment are sewn together, and the quill pen with which the text is written all must come from ritually clean -that is, kosher- animals."

Written entirely in Hebrew, a sefer Torah contains 304,805 letters, all of which must be duplicated precisely by a trained sofer ("scribe"), an effort which may take as long as approximately one and a half years. An error during transcription may render the sefer Torah pasul ("invalid"). According to the Talmud (the oral law of the Jewish People), all scrolls must also be written on gevil parchment that is treated with salt, flour and m'afatsim (a residual of wasp enzyme and tree bark) in order to be valid. Scrolls not processed in this way are considered invalid (Hilkoth Tefillin 1:8 & 1:14, Maimonides). In addition, the Talmud (in tractate Bava Batra 14b & Gitten 54b) states that Moses used gevil for the Torah scroll he placed into the Holy Ark.

Most modern Sifrei Torah are written with forty-two lines of text per column (Yemenite Jews use fifty). Very strict rules about the position and appearance of the Hebrew letters are observed. See for example the Mishna Berura on the subject. Any of several Hebrew scripts may be used, most of which are fairly ornate and exacting. The fidelity of the Hebrew text of the Tanakh, and the Torah in particular, is considered paramount, down to the last letter: translations or transcriptions are frowned upon for formal service use, and transcribing is done with painstaking care.

Naturally, one wonders how a document with so many letters can be produced with no errors; of course, some errors are inevitable in the course of production. If the error involves a word other than the name of God, the mistaken letter may be obliterated from the scroll by scraping the letter off the scroll with a sharp object. If the name of God is written in error, the entire page must be cut from the scroll and a new page added, and the page written anew from the beginning. The new page is sewn into the scroll to maintain continuity of the document. The old page is treated with appropriate respect, and is buried with respect rather than otherwise destroyed or discarded.

Answer 4

According to Jewish law, a sefer Torah (plural: Sifrei Torah) is a copy of the formal Hebrew text of the Five Books of Moses hand-written on gevil or qlaf (forms of parchment) (see below) by using a quill (or other permitted writing utensil) dipped in ink. Producing a sefer Torah fulfills one of the 613 mitzvot (Judaism's commandments).

"The k'laf/parchment on which the Torah scroll is written, the hair or sinew with which the panels of parchment are sewn together, and the quill pen with which the text is written all must come from ritually clean -that is, kosher- animals."

Written entirely in Hebrew, a sefer Torah contains 304,805 letters, all of which must be duplicated precisely by a trained sofer ("scribe"), an effort which may take as long as approximately one and a half years. An error during transcription may render the sefer Torah pasul ("invalid"). According to the Talmud (the oral law of the Jewish People), all scrolls must also be written on gevil parchment that is treated with salt, flour and m'afatsim (a residual of wasp enzyme and tree bark) in order to be valid. Scrolls not processed in this way are considered invalid (Hilkoth Tefillin 1:8 & 1:14, Maimonides). In addition, the Talmud (in tractate Bava Batra 14b & Gitten 54b) states that Moses used gevil for the Torah scroll he placed into the Holy Ark.

Most modern Sifrei Torah are written with forty-two lines of text per column (Yemenite Jews use fifty). Very strict rules about the position and appearance of the Hebrew letters are observed. See for example the Mishna Berura on the subject. Any of several Hebrew scripts may be used, most of which are fairly ornate and exacting. The fidelity of the Hebrew text of the Tanakh, and the Torah in particular, is considered paramount, down to the last letter: translations or transcriptions are frowned upon for formal service use, and transcribing is done with painstaking care.

Naturally, one wonders how a document with so many letters can be produced with no errors; of course, some errors are inevitable in the course of production. If the error involves a word other than the name of God, the mistaken letter may be obliterated from the scroll by scraping the letter off the scroll with a sharp object. If the name of God is written in error, the entire page must be cut from the scroll and a new page added, and the page written anew from the beginning. The new page is sewn into the scroll to maintain continuity of the document. The old page is treated with appropriate respect, and is buried with respect rather than otherwise destroyed or discarded.

Answer 5

According to tradition, Moses wrote a scroll containing the narratives of Genesis, at God's command, before the formal Giving of the Torah (Rashi commentary, Exodus ch.24). It was this scroll which he read to the Israelites (Exodus 24:7) as an introduction to what God's covenant would entail. These narratives were not unknown to the Isralites, since they had carefully preserved the traditions of the events of the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (see Midrash, Shemot Rabbah 5:18 and 22).

The words of this scroll were soon incorporated in the complete Torah itself by God, including the ancient traditions of the Creation, the Flood etc. (These traditions had been known by mankind worldwide, except that among the other nations [the idolaters] they had become garbled with idolatrous drivel.)

When God gave the Ten Commandments (Exodus ch.19-20), He gave them in writing, inscribed on stone tablets (Exodus 31:18), while He taught the rest of the Torah to Moses orally, on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:12), without writing it.

At God's command and precise dictation (Deuteronomy 1:3), Moses penned the entire Torah (Deuteronomy 31:24) immediately before his death, so that it included events that had happened in the preceding months (such as Numbers ch.20).

No Hebrew copy of the Torah has ever been found to differ with the others, worldwide: the Torah we possess today contains the exact wording written by Moses.

Answer 6

Parchment prepared according to halakha (Torah law) from the skin of a kosher animal.

Answer 7

The Torah is hand-written with traditionally prepared ink on parchment.

Answer 8

with a pen