Tag Archives: torah repair

Another post from the Torah repair mines

January 18, 2011 – 16:06

Ever wonder what makes heavy Torahs so heavy? Size is part of it, of course. Before Good Electric Lighting and Universal Spectacles (in the eyecare sense, not in the entertainment sense), having bigger letters helped the reader. Line height these days is regularly 8mm, only two-thirds the size of the letters on older, bigger Torahs. […]

By jen | Posted in calligraphy, safrut | Also tagged , , | Comments (1)

From the Torah Repair Mines

January 17, 2011 – 16:03

Places where ink has popped off and only the shadows are left. Clicky to see bigger. The shadows don’t count, by the by, so if your letters look like this, they are pasul and need fixing. These kinds of pesulim are funny. They really do just pop off. Pop! and they’re gone. Sometimes if it’s […]

By jen | Posted in safrut | Also tagged | Comments (2)

Torahs and humidity

December 10, 2010 – 11:10

In my email: Hi Jen! I hope it’s okay if I ask you a quick question — the school I’m working at just paid a bunch to have our Torah repaired — lots of letter were flaking off. The sofer said this was due to humidity and…mentioned something about silicate powder, but we don’t know […]

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Field trip – Holocaust Torah-scroll

November 3, 2010 – 11:36

The Czech Memorial Scrolls were originally collected up by the Jews of Prague, in the wake of Nazi devastation. As the Jews of Bohemia disappeared, the Prague Jews collected up their scrolls to keep them safe, hoping to give them back to their owners after the war. But their owners were all murdered – and […]

By jen | Posted in safrut, torah | Also tagged | Comments (2)

Adhesive creep

October 22, 2010 – 11:39

Adhesive creep on a sefer Torah. The seam reinforcements are glued on; over time, the glue Creeps out from where it was originally put. Being sticky, the creepy glue sticks to a) other things b) dirt. Here, the glue from the reinforcement on the right-hand side of the picture has stained the Torah’s margin, on […]

By jen | Posted in safrut | Comments Off on Adhesive creep