Torah Scroll

Torah Scroll interesting facts

“The Torah scroll is a handwritten gift from YHVH — a sacred & living document,” Dovid Zaklikowski

All kosher scrolls are handwritten — each letter is individually formed with a quill and apecially prepared ink.
- The ink formula is from a 2000-year-old tradition; proof Dead Sea Scrolls. It is to last thousands of years.
- Every part of Scroll (including ink and quill) must be from a Kosher animal
There are 304,805 letters in a Torah Scroll. [79,847 words in a Torah Scroll; 245 columns of text]
- Each page has 42 lines. [usually written on about 60-65 sheets of parchment]
The Torah Scroll must be written by a specially trained pious scribe called a sofer.
- A sofer must know more than 4,000 Judaic laws before he begins writing a Torah Scroll. The sofer is called Sofer ST”M: Sefer Torah, Tfillim, Mezuzah
- It takes about a year to write an entire Torah Scroll.
The Torah is made of many sheets of parchment that are sewn together to make one very long scroll. [When writing is finished for a book/ the sofer – scribe – sews the sheets together and sews the whole scroll to wooden holders -‘atzey chayim’ (ashkenazi pronunciation for 3ase Hayyim – ‘trees of life’)] The Torah we use today in your synagogue is written exactly the same way the Torah was written the very first time by Moses 3,300 years ago. [The Torah is read at least four times a week in synagogues around the world].