What do the bells symbolise on the Torah?

Answer 1

Wow this is a great question. Let's start with the idea that the Torah is so essential to Judaism. Bells are associated with joy, with bells worn by high priests in antiquity, weddings, with brides, music, you name it. It told you the Torah was approaching. Torahs from antiquity have been adorned in many ways, through the process of dressing them. In western adornments, there is usually a rich cloak called a mantle typically of velvet in red or blue. One of the earliest adornments were the addition of finials to the tops of the Torah handles. Sometimes the finials became so complex they actually became crowns. Crowns for a book? That's how important it is. There are breastplates, and yads (the pointers used to read Torah as one is not supposed to touch the parchment with one's fingers) are hung from the handles. The cloaks themselves may be richly adorned with embroidery, sometimes in silver and gold threads. In eastern tradition, torahs were kept in beautiful cases that looked like small cylindrical taj mahals with domes that are richly adorned with tooled silver and gold handwork on the outside and a velvet liner that cradles the Torah scrolls inside. It all adds reverence to this holiest of holy books for the Jews. And because Jews do not believe in idols, these are not representations of God, but art associated with a book that otherwise has no illustrations whatsoever.