For the Simchat Torah holiday today, when we dance and sing with the Torah scrolls and rewind them back to Genesis 1, here is a very old scroll with a dramatic history.
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The deerskin on which it is written is unusually dark. Normally a Torah is a light tan color.
The Jewish museum at Hechal Shlomo in Jerusalem, where it is now housed, tells this story:This Torah scroll was written in Spanish script, probably before 1492, by an excellent scribe on deerskin.
It wandered to Germany. There the Jewish congregation of Krautheim repaired it and added a piece of parchment with the missing chapter, written in Ashkenazic script.
The scroll survived a flood, the Gestapo, and bombings of the house in whose attic is was hidden during World War II.
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The middle photo on the right shows the old Jewish hospital in Karlsruhe where it was hidden.
If you enlarge this photo you can see where the two pieces were stitched together..
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This post is especially for my good friend Angelika, a teacher in Karlsruhe.
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Thank you for this interesting post and piece of history! Fortunately this Torah scroll was saved during the war the flood and bombings.
ReplyDeleteThey have an exhibit of ancient scrolls in the Twin Cities right now - I just haven't gotten there yet to see them!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely fascinating, Dina.
ReplyDeleteThe letters are so beautiful! And the history is an amazing story....
ReplyDeleteA great survival story, honor to whoever had a part in saving this scroll!
ReplyDeletevery kind of you .. tks
ReplyDeleteBeautiful scroll and fascinating history. The Reform temple I attend sometimes (in Redlands, California) also owns a very old Sephardic Torah scroll. I don't know if it's quite as old as the one in your picture, but it's one of the oldest in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteSometimes a historically important book or torah survives for hundreds of years, against all the odds. What a find in Karlsruhe.
ReplyDeleteSothebys just sold a French machzor dated back to 1300 AD. Once again its survival seemed improbable.
What are the chances of an important torah or book surviving 500 years of wars, floods, fires and looting. The find in Karlsruhe was amazing.
ReplyDeleteSothebys just sold a French machzor dated 1300 AD. Ditto amazing.