No Permission Needed
Rabbi Dr Andrew Goldstein explained that no permission is required to set up a Synagogue. Any ten men can set up a Synagogue and all they need is a room with a cupboard in which to house a Sefer Torah. A Sefer Torah is a Scroll of the Law on which are written the 5 books of Moses. Each Synagogue must have at least one Sefer Torah, and the cupboard (known as the Ark) is traditionally placed in the east wall of the room. It is usual to have a perpetual light burning in front of it.

NPLS’s first Torah Scroll
The doors of the Ark at NPLS are surrounded by a decorative arch which was transported from what was then communist Czechoslovakia around 20 years ago. It came from a town named Kolin and is where NPLS’s first Torah Scroll came from. The arch is decorated with symbols linking back to the Temple. There is a representation of the “Tree of Life”, which in Judaism is a common reference to the Torah itself.

Very often a Synagogue will have an additional Scroll which contains the book of Esther. The Sefer Torah is read on Saturday mornings and Festivals. NPLS have five Scrolls which are kept in the Arc, and a damaged half of a Scroll relating to the book of Numbers which is on permanent display in a glass case. The Scrolls are, when not being read, kept covered by decorative mantles. Each Scroll is rolled on to two wooden rollers. On the top of the rollers it is traditional to have crowns and bells. Sometimes these crowns can be very elaborate, being made of gold and incorporating semi-precious jewels.

Scheduled Readings
Although a Synagogue can function with one Scroll it is convenient to have more than one. Every Synagogue in every part of the world is reading the same part of the Scroll each week, ending up at the end of the yearly cycle with the last paragraph of the book of Deuteronomy. However when the Festivals come a different reading from the weekly cycle is required; something which relates to the particular Festival. So for these occasions it is convenient to have another Scroll which has been wound to the appropriate place before the service starts, and it obviates the necessity to wind back and forth the Scroll being used for the weekly cycle, thus reducing wear and tear.

A utilitarian object is a pointer which is usually in the form of a short rod which has a hand with an extended finger on the end – and this is to help the reader keep the place on the Scroll. Since the Scroll is considered God’s word the inside of the parchment should not be touched with the finger.

All the Scrolls at NPLS, except for one, come from Czechoslovakia and represent a collection that was made by the Nazis when they led the Jews away to the concentration camps. The Nazis sent Jewish ritual items to Prague with the intention of setting up a museum to a dead race after they had wiped out the Jews. In 1964 the Scrolls were brought to this country and given out to communities newly formed or communities which wanted some way of memorialising the people who died.

Written on Parchment
The Scroll itself is written on parchment that comes from the skin of a kosher animal - so it can't be a pig but it could be a goat, sheep, antelope or a cow, and the various stages in the preparation of the parchment were outlined. The Scribe writes the parchment as a number of single sheets and only when it is completed does he sew it up. The actual sewing is done with catgut. If there is a need to repair say a hole, a piece of parchment can be stuck on the other side to cover it.

The Scribe has to score lines to write on, and these are made with a ruler and a rose thorn, or some other thorn. The ink is made from an ancient formula using natural ingredients and the writing is done with reeds or birds’ feathers The idea is that everything in this process is natural - metal is not used except for the silver needle used for the sewing. The words have no vowels, they are just consonants. There are no chapter headings, no verse numbers, no punctuation, so a pointing finger is a great help to the reader in keeping the place.

God's Word
There are many rules about writing Scrolls because the tradition is that the words on the Scroll are the precise words given by God to Moses. Scholars understand that it is not quite like that, but once it is said that the words are different to the ones God gave us, then the question arises "Maybe the laws are different". The rather strange thing is that there are a number of mistakes in the Scroll, words which are misspelt and they now occur in every Scroll.

Clearly along the line one Scribe made a mistake, his pupils couldn’t believe that their master made a mistake, and therefore it was copied through. In the printed Bible the mistakes in the hand-written Scrolls are carried forward in the printed pages, but the real/correct words are given at the bottom of the pages to aid comprehension.

Rules & Procedures for Scribes
Normally before starting to write a Scribe will go to the ritual bath that morning, to make sure he is ready for writing. He would put on a white gown worn on the Day of Atonement and a prayer shawl. Before the advent of printed books there would be a Master Scroll from which he would copy. Nowadays we have the Torah in book form, and this book is used for teaching how to read the Scroll. It has how the Scroll looks reproduced on one side, and on the other how it is actually read, i.e. it's got the vowels put in.

So the Scribe has a book in front of him and he has to sing the word, then he has the say the letters one by one, and then write them. So he is fully conscious of what he is doing, and even if he knows the text by heart, every word has to be done with that amount of intent. If he were to make a mistake and it was the four letter name of God, then the whole sheet would have to be rejected, and it would be buried in a coffin in a grave. If he makes a mistake with another word, not the name of God, he can sometimes scratch it out and stick a bit of parchment underneath. So he will gradually work his way through writing the Scroll and eventually the parchment pages will be sewn together and put on the rollers. No decoration is allowed, although some Scribes will decorate some of the letters.

How Old are the NPLS Scrolls?
Experts are able to tell by the shape of the letters the age of a Scroll and characteristics of the Scribe such as whether he was left or right-handed, and his country of origin. An expert from America identified one of NPLS’s Scrolls as being 300 years old (1690 ), another as being 250 years old, and another 200 years old, and all are in use today.

Scribes do not normally sign Scrolls but it is known where the Scrolls originated because they have a certificate. The Nazis were very methodical and employed Jewish scholars in Prague to catalogue everything in preparation for display in the proposed museum mentioned earlier. Tragically the Jews who were employed in this task were sent to a concentration camp only a few months before the war ended. NPLS’s “non-Czechoslovakian” Scroll has a happier pedigree. Dr. Michael Harris is a congregant of NPLS, and at the end of the 19th century it was used by his great-grandfather, who was minister at Bayswater synagogue.

A Closer Look
As outlined above Rabbi Dr Andrew Goldstein covered the questions of how and why Scrolls are made, used and revered, and gave the audience the opportunity to have a “close-up” look at Scrolls which were displayed on tables for inspection. The audience found the talk very interesting and informative, as was evidenced by the number and nature of the questions which were asked.

- Bernard Tiley