Sofers in Tights

What is the oldest Sefer Torah in the world? A recent article in the Jewish Forwards says that the oldest Torah scroll was recently discovered in a library in Bologna, Italy, where it had been mislabeled as wrtitten in the 17th century. Recent analysis redated it to the 12th century.

Is this the oldest Torah scroll? From a library in Bologna, claimed to be written in the 12th century.

If you've been to the ancient synagogues in Sefad you may recall being shown Torah scrolls that are even older (at least so I recall.) Recently we spent Shavuot in the Old City of Jerusalem. After the holiday I was exploring and stumbled on the Karaite Synagogue in the Old City, which lays claim to being the oldest synagogue in that oldest of cities. Inside I was shown an even older Torah scroll that the guide, the Karaite Rabbi of the synagogue, said was written in the 7th century, making it 500 years older than the one in the Bologna library.

Is this the oldest Torah scroll in the world? Claimed as written in the 7th century and found in the Karaite Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is written on deer skin parchment.

I took the photo above of this Karaite Torah scroll. It was opened to the parsha of the Ten Commandments, read on the just ended holiday of Shavuot. The rabbi told me that this Torah was only taken out for dancing on Simchat Torah once a year and that it was written on deer skin. Indeed it had the soft look of very fine, worn deer skin gloves, not the stiff look of cow hide that most Torah parchment is made from.

But where would deer skin have come from in 7th century Jerusalem? Deer are not native to the Middle East. At least I don't think they are. Did some sofer in tights travel to Sherwood Forest, where joining Good King Axelrad the Vth and his band of Merry Men, capture a live deer, shecht it, and bring its hide back to Jerusalem to be used in making ritual scrolls? A mystery, no?

And why are there so few ancient Torah scrolls? The Torah dates back 3300 years. It is written on durable animal skin with special black ink. They are treasured as the word of G-d and kept in arks. Why would one ever perish, except in the ravages of anti-semitic mayhem over the millenia? But still, many more should have survived than perished. What became of them?

Another mystery, no?

Related articles

• Oldest known Torah scroll found in Italian library
• Expert discovers ancient Torah scroll in plain sight

A Thank You Note To All My Friends For Your Bark Mitzvah Presents - A Guest Post By Spot The Dog

 
I would like to take the occasion of Yom Yerushalaim to thank all of my friends for their good wishes and presents on my Bark Mitzvah. The pens - I can't write with them, but they do come in useful as a stylus to hunt and peck at the keyboard when held in my mouth. In fact, I am using a very nice Aurora pen to peck this note out right now. The money - Yes, keep it coming! Preferably in the form of State of Israel bonds of large denomination.

Yom Yerushalaim is the perfect day to report back on my special Bark Mitzvah project, marking every hydrant in Jerusalem, so-called "East" and "West", as mine all mine. Yom Yerushalaim celebrates the reunification of Jerusalem as a single, sovereign city of the Jewish people after the Six Day War. Before that, no Jew was allowed access, and the Jordanians, Muslims all, committed the most sacrilegious desecration of the most holy Jewish places. Under what possible misguided idea could the President of the United States think Jerusalem should be redivided and given into the hands of Muslims again, who continue to desecrate Jewish holy places wherever they come under their jurisdiction?

Spot the Dog warns President Obama: "Don't get into a pissing contest with me over Jerusalem!"

In any case, I have solved the problem for all time. My Bark Mitzvah project is complete. If the President of the United States will only visit Jerusalem and get down on all fours, he will smell for himself that the City of Jerusalem, the City of David -- all of it -- belongs to the Jewish people forever. I am warning you, Mr. President: Do not get into a pissing contest with me over Jerusalem!

My point of view, and welcome to it.
   

Thoughts on the Occasion of Turning 13 - a Guest Post by Spot the Dog

Today I turn 13 and become a Bark Mitzvah. I wish I could say the famously trite line, "Today I am a man." But, alas, today I am but yet a dog. It is true that I am the reincarnated soul of a Misnagid (I won't say whom, but you would know the name well), forced to return to an earthly existence to repent for my sins against the Chasidim. I sit below the Shabbos table and relish the challah and gefilte fish I am fed which elevate my soul and help atone for the sins of my past life. And I am even included in the brachos that master gives the members of the family on Friday night. He holds his hand above me and intones:

May Hashem make you like the dogs of Egypt,
Who barked not at the Jews,
In their flight from Egypt by night;
And to no Jew may you ever give a fright.

But still and all, I remain trapped in the body of a dog. It is a terrible thing to be on the wrong side of history.

I remember well the day I was brought to my new home in Palo Alto from my place of birth in San Jose. In the car I met my new family and my young step-sister, Chavie. She had always wanted a dog. "Wanna dog. Gonna call him Spot," she would say. She wanted a Dalmatian, all of the children do after seeing "101 Dalmations", but there was no way that was going to happen. Dalmations are too dumb to even come in from the rain (it's true), and they shed on everything. Ush, such goyishe cups.

My first afternoon at home in Palo Alto with step-sister Chavie. I love Israel, but I will always remain a California dog at heart.

They decided to finally get me after a prowler broke into the house one Friday night on Memorial Day weekend. My master beat the tall, thin prowler with a chair as he ran for the door that had been locked behind him, and he had to dive through the glass to escape. Such a commotion. Police everywhere. Now Chavie was going to call me Spot. "I always told you I wanted a dog and his name would be Spot." Why "Spot" people ask after seeing my all blond self. "Whatever he's on, that's the Spot!" became the answer.

As I got older I stared to put on a little weight. All the vets lectured master about my weight, and tried to get me to go on a diet. But, look, I've lived thirteen years, keinehura, already, so a little weight obviously isn't going to start hurting me now. Everyone's a Vet!

My Vet, Dr. Groskin, in Englewood, NJ. A good man, but w-a-y too fixated on weight.

Now I have made Aliyah and live in the desert in Israel. My bones will be laid to rest one day with the bones of my ancestors. It comforts me to know that. But they still won't allow me to go to the Western Wall to celebrate my Bark Mitzvah. I thought about forming a new group, "Dogs of the Wall", to protest. But you know what, the Jews have enough tsoris already. Let sleeping dogs lie.

Instead, my Bark Mitzvah project will be to visit every fire hydrant in so-called "East Jerusalem" and claim it as my own by marking there. What is this nonsense about dividing the eternal, unified capital of  Israel? Does the world not know that the Arabs used the Jewish grave stones from the Mount of Olives to line their latrines when they controlled that part of the city!? Not even a dog would do that!

Tombstones from the Mt. of Olives line a Jordanian army barracks latrine

After 13 years on this Earth, I still do not understand it. But that's just my opinion, and you are welcome to it.

My point of view, and welcome to it.