What an amazing discovery! I'd love to see it in person.
Although the Leningrad and the Aleppo bibles – both of them Hebrew codexes, or books – pre-date the Bologna scroll by more than 200 years, this is the oldest Torah scroll of the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, according to the Italian professor of Hebrew in the University of Bologna’s cultural heritage department.
Such scrolls – this one is 36 meters (40 yards) long and 64 centimeters (25 inches) high – are brought out in synagogues on the Sabbath and holidays, and portions are read aloud in public.
I wonder why this scroll resides in a dusty old library instead of a synagogue? Doesn't it belong to someone?
This is a fascinating story and it's making waves in Israel. No one knows yet where this Torah came from or how it got there. It's like a mystery story.
ReplyDeleteIt must have come from a synagogue originally. Perhaps it was looted, or perhaps it was taken to the university for safekeeping. Or perhaps it was left behind when the Jewish community fled, and some university scholars decided to take it for safekeeping. Any of these options are possible. I wonder if we'll ever find out the truth.
However, although it would be nice to think that this scroll could be placed back in a synagogue, it's probably much too fragile to be used. Although it looks in very good condition (and it's more or less identical to what we use in the synagogue nowadays) it's also probably not "kosher" for proper Torah reading. A Torah scroll has to have all its letters and words intact, and the chances are that over 850 years, some of the letters have faded or dropped off the parchment altogether.
It happens even nowadays, and then the scroll is taken to a scribe (Sofer) who fixes the lettering with a quill and special ink. My son-in-law is a sofer in his "spare time", when he's off duty (he's an IDF chaplain) so I've seen him in "action".
If the scroll were to be moved anywhere, it would be best in a Jewish museum, preferably one with climate control to protect it, like they do for the Dead Sea Scrolls.
I guess this scroll would be a bit...crackly...to be utilized in a synagogue, lol.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of keeping it somewhere climate controlled like a museum, as long as people can actually see it and it's not stuck in a drawer somewhere. :)
I found out a bit about the Torah scroll's provenance in Ynet:
ReplyDeleteThe professor said the scroll came to Bologna university from a Dominican monastery in the city, most likely after Napoleon disbanded religious orders in the country in the 19th century.
It was "completely normal" that Dominican friars would have an ancient Torah as there was close collaboration between Christian and Jewish scholars in the early Middle Ages, Perani said.
The city of Bologna has long had a large Jewish community and the university first began teaching Hebrew Studies in the 15th century.
Quite fascinating!