Preface

Summary

THIS VOLUME is the outcome of a study I conducted on how the Torah scroll is wrapped and kept in various Jewish communities. The results of that study in relation to the Torah case in the East and the Mediterranean basin were published in 1997, in Hebrew, as The Torah Case: Its History and Design. This was followed by a second book in Hebrew, Ma’aseh rokem, which to some degree is a continuation of the first one. The present volume is an updated translation of Ma’aseh rokem. It deals with the wrapping of the Torah scroll in Europe and the countries of the Sephardi diaspora, which comprises three items: the Torah wrapper, the Torah binder, and the Torah mantle. However, I soon came to realize that analysis of the development of the mantle could not be done without discussing the cover for the reading desk, the Torah ark curtain (the parokhet), and the Torah ark valance (the kaporet). It became obvious that there is an iconographic link between the design of the parokhet, the kaporet, and the mantles and the evolving shape and design of the synagogue and the ark. What influenced the design of these items was a conception of the synagogue as a mikdash me’at—a little sanctuary substituting for the Temple—implying that the Holy Ark is a substitute for the biblical Ark of the Covenant.

The primary objective of this study is to construct a comprehensive picture of the items used to wrap the Torah scroll, parokhot, and kaporot in all communities in which it was customary to use them. This overall picture is intended to act as a basis for research focusing on specific objects or communities. To this end it was necessary to have a wide research infrastructure and database covering all the Jewish communities under study, with information continually updated as comprehensively as possible. However, the current research infrastructure is very limited, and only a few random ceremonial textiles have survived.

The paucity of these survivors stems primarily from the halakhic rule that worn-out religious items are subject to genizah (storage in a synagogue, and ultimately burial). But another major reason is of course the destruction in the twentieth century of many Jewish communities during the Holocaust, which led to the loss of the majority of religious objects in Europe.