Guide
The Production and Treatment of Sacred Texts in Jewish Antiquity
3rd Century BCE–6th Century CE
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By Carol Bakhos
In keeping with the general principle that the more sacred a thing is, the more ritual legislation there is surrounding it, ancient Jewish authors spent considerable time discussing the production and preservation of sacred texts and of Torah scrolls in particular.
Related Primary Sources
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Storing Scrolls in Earthenware Jars
Testament of Moses 1:15–18
Therefore, I shall speak plainly to you. The years of my life have come to an end and, in the presence of the entire community, I am going to sleep with my fathers. But [you] take this writing so…
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Genesis Apocryphon Scroll
This scroll, found in Cave 1 at Qumran, contains the text of the Genesis Apocryphon, an Aramaic retelling of narratives from Genesis. The genre of rewritten Bible was popular among Jewish authors in…
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Rescuing Sacred Writings
m. Shabbat 16:1
All sacred writings may be saved from a fire, whether we read from them or not [on the Sabbath]. And even if they are written in any language, they must be stored. And why do we not…
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Who May Serve as a Scribe
b. Gittin 45b
And that which is taught [in a baraita, which said that] it should be interred, is [the opinion] of this tanna, as [R. Hamnuna,] son of [Rava] of Pashronya, taught: A Torah scroll…
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Sifre Deuteronomy on Spelling in a Torah Scroll
Sifre Deuteronomy 36:1
And inscribe them [ketavtam] (Deuteronomy 6:9)—with perfectly formed letters [ktav shalem]. On this basis they taught: If the copyist of a Torah-scroll wrote alephs as ayins or ayins as alephs; or bet…
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The Talmud on Spelling in a Torah Scroll
b. Shabbat 103b
[Similarly, one should not write] bent [letters like kaf and nun found in the middle of a word as] straight [letters like kaf and nun found at the end of a word, nor should one write] straight…
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Dividing, Combining, and Binding Scrolls
b. Bava Batra 13b–14a
Abaye said to R. Joseph: That [statement] of R. Judah is [actually the opinion] of Samuel, [his teacher,] as we learned [in the Mishnah]: But [in the case of] sacred writings, [i.e., a scroll of any…
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Incomplete and Separate Scrolls
b. Gittin 60a
The people of the Galilee sent [a question] to R. Ḥelbo: What is [the halakhah with regard] to reading from ḥumashim, [i.e., scrolls containing only one of the five books of the Torah,] in the…
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Torah Scroll Production
y. Megillah 1:11, 71c
It was stated: Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel says: Even Torah scrolls they only permitted to be written in Greek [and not in other languages]. They investigated and found that the Torah may be correctly…
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Torah from Memory
b. Megillah 18b
[It was related that] R. Ḥisda [once] found R. Ḥananel writing [Torah] scrolls, [but he was] not [copying them] from a written text, [as he knew it all by heart]. He said to him: It is fitting [for]…