Torah Scroll with carved wooden rollers

A FRENCH TORAH SCROLL WITH MANY UNIQUE FEATURES Written in a beautiful Sephardic Velish script, the particular significance of this Scroll lies in the fact that it contains many aspects and details unique to the customary style in which Aschkenazic Torah Scrolls were written. For example: the word Patzua “Daka” (Deuteronomy, 23:2) is spelled in all Sephardic Torah Scrolls with a final “Hei.” Only certain Aschkenazic scribes spelled it with an “Aleph”. In this Sephardic scroll it is in fact spelled with an “Aleph.” Furthermore, the scribe of this Scroll left a small blank space between verses. This is usually found only in old Aschkenazic Torah Scrolls (see R. Moshe Isserles Orach Chaim 32: 32 and Shach 32: 45). In addition, this Scroll contains a number of unusually shaped letters with various loops, flourshes, hooks, ringlets and other irregularities which are usually found in the old Aschkenazi traditon only. For example, it contains an “Ayin’ with one head elongated and with flourishes underneath and above (see Exodus 23:33). This tradition is cited in Kiryat Sepher by R. Menachem Ha-Meiri (b. ca. 1249 d. ca. 1306), who lived in Perpignan, Provence - close to Cavaillon. This combination of Aschkenazic influences in a Sephardic Scroll is no doubt due to the fact that Cavaillon, in southeastern France, is geographically close to Spain. As a result of the Inquisition, many Spanish Jews fled to France, thus the mixing of various traditons in the area. The earlist souce for unusual Tagim and letters is the manual known as “Sepher Tagim” (published by S. Sachs, Paris, 1866, with a variant edition included in the Machzor Vitry by the outstanding disciple of Rashi, R. Simchah of Vitry, France, pp. 674-83). Other discussions of these letters are found in the above mentioned Kiryat Sepher (Smyrna, 1881) and M. Hirschler (ed. Jerusalem, 1956) p. 36. The most comprehensive study of these unusual letters is “Ha’otiyot Hameshunot BaTorah” by Yitzhak Razhabi in: Torah Shleimah, M. Kasher, ed. Vol. 29 (Jerusalem, 1978) pp. 72-234 and more recently by D. Y. Greenfeld, in Kedushath Sepher Torah p. 102. Moses Gaster, in his work The Tittled Bible (London, 1929) p. 16 cites a work by Maimonides who states that these type of letters are “according to tradition...for they all contain wonderful secrets...” The Torah Scroll offered here therefore provides an insight into determining the esoteric aspects of the lettering “a secret which has been lost amidst the trials and tribulations of the Exile” (Gaster). Accompanied By: A description of this Scroll by Rabbi David Yehudah Greenfeld of The Vaad Mishmereth STa”M, New York