Minuscule Torah Scroll [Germany; 19th century]

Scroll (3 in. x 29 ft.; 76 mm x 8.84 m). Written in Hebrew STAM (Bet Yosef) script (height of text: 2.4 in.; 60 mm) in black ink on ultra-fine parchment (thickness: 0.002 in.; 0.05 mm). Comprising 264 columns (vavei ha-'amudim) of 42 lines on 54 membranes sewn with gidin. Mounted on silver turned finials with engraved floral motifs (height of finials: 5.25 in.; 134 mm). Silver yad; crimson satin ribbon tie, crimson and gold cloth mantle. Housed in a modern custom wood-and-silver traveling ark.

the smallest torah scroll offered for public sale in more than 35 years

The most sacred ritual artifact of the Jewish faith is the Torah Scroll.  Containing the text of the Pentateuch and written by hand on specially prepared parchment by a trained scribe according to traditions that date back thousands of years, Torah scrolls are most often used for public worship services in Jewish communities around the world. The scrolls used in most synagogues are typically large and heavy, and while most of these scrolls are communally owned, there is concurrently a long tradition of private ownership of scrolls as well. In fact, Judaism considers both the ownership and the writing of Torah scrolls to be obligatory positive commandments.

Torah scrolls of such minute dimensions are extremely rare. Naturally, the degree of proficiency required to produce such a small Torah Scroll was beyond the ability of all but the most skilled scribes. The tradition of creating such small and therefore easily portable scrolls doubtlessly emanates from the circumstances surrounding the Jews’ long peregrinations in exile and the all too frequent persecutions to which they were historically subjected. The small size and reduced weight of a miniature scroll meant that the Jewish people could always take the Torah with them, wherever they went.

The uniform extreme thinness of the parchment on this exquisite Torah means that unlike other less aesthetic attempts at producing truly minuscule scrolls, the width of this scroll in relation to its height is visually pleasing and in compliance with halakhic guidelines found in the Talmud (Bava Batra 14a) that call for a specific ratio of 3:2 between height and width. Other small scrolls, executed on less fine, and consequently thicker, parchment sheets, nearly always lack the appropriate proportionality. This is a rare and perhaps unique example of a minuscule scroll whose dimensions are halakhically appropriate.

No other scroll has ever been offered at public sale which so magnificently combines the quality of scribal artistry, incredibly small size, and pleasing proportionality, and which so seamlessly combines these qualities, as does the present lot. The present scroll is accompanied by a rabbinical certificate attesting to its ritual fitness for liturgical use.