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[Mezuzah][Tefillin
][>Sefer-Torah<][Megillot]
Sefer Torah
Sefer Torah
Checking & Computer Checking
Repair & Preservation
Sifrei Torah (Torah Scrolls plural) are the objects most holy to the Jews. They
contain the Five Books of Moses (the Written Law), written in black ink on scored
parchment by religious scribes. Hundreds of laws govern the minutest details of
the materials and the writing. Today most Torah scrolls are written in 245 columns
of 42 lines each, whereas the height and size of scroll is determined by the size
of the letters. It takes an expert scribe on average about a year to complete a
single Torah scroll, although some scribes write significantly faster and others
much more slowly. The text is written in one of the three basic Hebrew scripts
that are commonly used today.
After they are written, the sheets of the Torah are sewn together with gut
from a kosher animal, but not before they are checked three times for mistakes, and
repaired if necessary.
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Checking & Computer Checking
Despite the best efforts of the expert scribe, checkers usually find a number of
mistakes and problems requiring improvement or correction. In our time it has become
common to substitute a check by computer for one of the human checks. The computer is
better than human checkers at locating mistakes in the consonantal text--missing,
garbled, or extra words--but it cannot substitute entirely for expert human inspectors,
who also locate fine breaks and joins between letters and various other problems which
the computer doesn't catch.
Jewish law does not require checking an old Torah scroll unless several
mistakes or problems are found in it. However, experience indicates that there are
unnoticed mistakes even in many Torah scrolls that have been read for long periods
of time. While the halacha (Jewish law) does not require rechecking an old Torah
which has presumably already been checked properly, a computer check is nonetheless
recommended if the owners of the Torah can afford the expense.
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Repair & Preservation
Often Torah scrolls deteriorate and need to be repaired. Even a single broken or
wrong letter in a Torah scroll renders it unfit for public reading. It is especially
common for the fine lines of the script to crack, for entire letters or parts of letters
to break off the parchment, or for the writing to fade until it no longer has any body.
All of these problems can be dealt with if they are not too severe. However, this does
call for specialized expertise in the are of repairing damaged and deteriorated scrolls.
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