By Hillel ben David (Greg Killian)
I. Introduction[1]
What is The Torah?
Torah literally means "instruction". The Torah is THE central 'teaching' for Jews. The Torah consists of the 'Five Books of Moshe’s:
|
HEBREW |
ENGLISH |
|
Bereshit |
Genesis |
|
Shemot |
Exodus |
|
Vayikra |
Leviticus |
|
Bamidbar |
Numbers |
|
Devarim |
Deuteronomy |
A Torah scroll is a scroll that contains these five books of Moshe:
Sefardi Torah Scrolls
|
|
|
Ashkenaz Torah Scroll
The Torah scrolls
found in the ark of the local Jewish synagogue are a
powerfull testimony to the accuracy and integrity of The Word of HaShem, as delivered to Moshe ( Moshe).
A Torah scroll is
written on scored cow hide with special black ink and quill. Each page is then
sewn to the previous page using gut from a kosher animal.
However, it is not
the materials which are amazing, but the writing itself. This amazing text is
easily the most accurate in the world. It is also contains an amazing amount of
coded information beyond the text itself.
A Torah scroll
contains numerous letters which are non-standard in terms of size, placement,
and orientation. These unusual characters are exactly the same from one Torah
scroll to the next. These are not mistakes, but rather, they contain vast
amounts of information that is fereted out by our Sages and used to convey The Word of HaShem to His treasured people.
The letters of the
Torah come in three sizes: large, small, and the
standard letters with which most of the Torah is written. A large Alef
is known as an Alef Rabbasi, a small Alef as an Alef Zeira.
A medium-sized Alef is called an Alef Regila (a regular Alef).
There are about 100
abnormal letters
in the Torah, as the Talmud teaches.[2]
The Encyclopedia
Judaica tells us that there are seventeen places in the Torah where a letter is
written extra-large or extra-small: the scribal terminology is majuscule and miniscule. There are six miniscules and eleven majuscules. For example, the first letter in the
Torah, the bet in the word Bereshit, is a majuscule (this is probably the
origin of the illuminated capital of medieval manuscripts). The most famous
majuscules are certainly the ones from the Shema in Devarim (Deuteronomy) 6:4.
In this case, the letters are large to avoid confusion: a large ayin in the
word shema to avoid confusion with aleph: 'perhaps O Israel.' The large dalet
to avoid confusion with resh: 'the Lord is another'.
Scripts
Vellish, is
the script generally used by Sephardi Jews.
Ari is the
script generally used by Jews of Chassidic descent or influence.
