The word Torah literally means “teaching.” It is the foundation of all Jewish thought. It is a blueprint for living, a source code for answers and insights into daily questions, the essence of Jewish spirituality. The sacred Torah is what unites Jews around the world, connecting one generation to the next and providing the essential link to God. The Torah has also contributed to the formation of Christianity and Islam, and can be understood as one of Western civilization’s foundational texts.

A Torah scroll (Sefer Torah), a handwritten document of the Five Books of Moses, is a uniquely Jewish object. While the text has tremendous importance in Christianity and Islam, the Torah scroll itself is only considered sacred within the Jewish tradition. While other religions adapted their religious texts into book form, Jews held fast to the scroll. It is believed that the scroll’s “technology” (the parchment, ink, and quill used to make it) was frozen by rabbinic culture and the text “fixed” in the sixth century, Scribal practice has remained the same ever since, meaning that the appearance and content of the Torah scroll are an exact replica of a Torah that would have been read over a thousand years ago.

The Sefer Torah is the most sacred object in Jewish life and is at the center of worship in Jewish synagogues around the world.

Traditional rabbinic belief attributes the authorship of the Torah to Moses, who was said to have received the entire text from God through divine inspiration. Biblical scholars now believe that the Torah likely came from a variety of different sources, evidenced by the myriad of different literary genres it encompasses, including allegory, historical narrative, poetry, genealogy, and the exposition of various types of law.

The Jewish mystic tradition tells us that the Torah existed in heaven before the creation of the world and served as its blueprint. The text has also been compared to fire, water, wine, oil, milk, honey, and the tree of life. Traditional rabbinic belief suggests that the Torah itself sustains the world. As Rabbi Eleazer Ben Shammua (Alexandria, 2nd century CE) stated, “Were it not for the Torah, Heaven and Earth would not continue to exist.”

L’dor v’dor—from generation to generation—is a dictum that permeates all aspects of Jewish life. Each Torah scroll is made with the understanding that a Torah written today will be passed down to future generations, just as Torahs we use today were passed down to this generation. Torah scrolls, as sacred objects, are protected in every way possible—from the way they are “dressed,” to how they are stored, to how they are read. The materials used to make a Torah Scroll are durable.

Even with the advent of printing presses and new technologies, the rules, process, and intention of writing a Torah Scroll have been passed down from generation to generation, ensuring that a Torah written today is identical to one written centuries ago. The perpetuation of this tradition reinforces the centrality and importance of Torah in Jewish life and community.

Each kosher Torah—one that is suitable for ritual use—is handwritten by a sofer or soferet (scribe), a specially trained individual who is devout and knowledgeable in the laws governing the proper writing and assembling of a scroll. The word sofer is from the Hebrew root “to count.” According to the Talmud, the sofer would count each letter of the Torah to ensure that there are exactly 304,805 letters. The modern scribe is called a sofer STaM, an acronym for ­Sefer Torah (Torah Scroll), tefillin (phylacteries), and mezuzah. These three types of sacred scrolls must be written according to strict standards regarding size, lettering style, and layout.

According to ancient tradition, all copies of the Torah are considered to be derived from one master copy, received by Moses directly from God. While current mainstream consensus is that the text was derived from many different sources until it was “fixed” around the sixth century, the extensive rules and requirements governing a scribe who is qualified to write a Torah Scroll are designed to retain the sanctity of the text as God’s direct transmission. Scribes must be knowledgeable about these hundreds of laws, which were formalized in the Masechet Sofrim, an extensive essay in the Talmud. One of the most important laws is that scribes may not write a Torah scroll from memory; they must always copy from a written book called a tikkun (correction guide).

The work of a scribe is completely anonymous. Because there must be exactly 304,805 letters in each completed Torah, there is no opportunity for a colophon, a signature, a date, or the name of the congregation or family that commissioned the Torah.

The writing of a Sefer Torah must be done with strict adherence to the laws and traditions established by the Masoretes, scribes of the seventh through ninth centuries who standardized biblical text. Every aspect of the writing is dictated– from the type of ink, to the origins of the quill, to the width of the lines, to the margins on the parchment, to the formation of each letter, and to the intentionality of the scribe. Most of these laws are formalized in the Masechet Sofrim, an extensive essay in the Talmud. They govern how a Torah is written in order for the scroll to be “kosher” so it can be used in ritual practice.

At the start of every project, the scribe states the intention out loud: “I am writing for the sake of the sanctity of the Torah.”

There are a number of different books that scribes use for study and reference. The Likut Sifrei STaM is a compilation of Halachic sources. The most prominent section is Keset Ha’Sofer (translated to The Scribe’s Inkwell), which scribes reference to learn all of the laws associated with scribing, including proper letter formation and process. Some interesting laws are included below.

And now, write down this song and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths, in order that this song will be a witness against the Israelites.

—Deuteronomy 31:19

According to rabbinic tradition, the Five Books of Moses contain 613 mitzvoth (the plural of mitzvah) or commandments. There are 365 negative commandments, each describing a belief or action that is forbidden, and 248 positive commandments, describing actions that are to be taken. While many of these commandments are no longer applicable (for example, those governing sacrifices), there are several commandments—both positive and negative—that address the Torah. One of the most important of these is the last commandment found in the Torah—the 613th mitzvah, from the last chapter of Deuteronomy—directing every Jew to write a Torah Scroll: “And now write down this song for yourself, and teach it to the children of Israel, placing it in their mouths.” The intent of this commandment was to ensure that every Jew would own and study the foundational text of the Jewish people. Because of the difficulty of writing a complete Torah, over the centuries there have been many different interpretations of how to fulfill this mitzvah. Some believe that writing just one letter fulfills the commandment; others believe that it is fulfilled by proofreading the Torah, or by helping to pay for the writing of a new Torah. 

All components of a torah (ink, parchment, sinews, etc.) must come from a kosher animal or kosher source. The parchment must be made from the skin of a kosher animal. Scribes mix a special ink and prepare a quill to be used as a writing utensil. Once all the writing has been completed and corrected, the pieces of parchment are sewn together with thread made of animal sinew. The finished scroll is attached to wooden rollers or staves (known as Etz Chaim). Because metals are used to create instruments of war, no instrument containing iron or steel may be used in the creation of a Torah Scroll. 

Parchment is the processed skin of an animal, very often a calf, goat, or sheep, that has been soaked, de-haired, stretched, and scraped thin. It has been widely used for writing documents and sacred texts since around the first century CE, when it began to supersede papyrus.

To ensure that the Torah Scroll is kosher, only the skin of kosher animals can be used, with the most common hide coming from cows. Animals may not be killed just for this purpose, so the skin used comes from animals that have died of natural causes or been killed for food. The method of cleaning and preparing the hide has changed over the centuries. During Talmudic times, salt water and barley were sprinkled on the skins, which were then soaked in the juice of afatsa (gallnuts). Today, the animal hide is softened by soaking it in water. Then, to remove all the hairs, the skin is soaked in lime water, and finally it is stretched and made into sheets. The parchment must be complete without any tears or holes.

All the parchment sheets must be pre-scored with fine lines to guide the scribe’s writing. Traditionally, the scoring was done by the scribe with the thorn of a rose. Each sheet of parchment is scored with forty-three horizontal lines and two vertical ones at each end, allowing for a standard forty-two lines of writing.

Quills are made from the feather of a kosher bird, typically a turkey. The ideal quill comes from the longest feather in a bird’s wing tip. Each scribe cuts and shapes their own quill to create a point for writing, and continually sharpens the quill, sometimes after writing only five lines of text. 

Even the ink has a set of laws governing its role in writing a Torah. The main requirement is that the ink must be black. There are individuals who are known for making and selling this specialized ink, which has a vibrant and shiny quality. There are several ingredients used to achieve the proper color and texture, typically including gallnut powder, gum arabic crystals, copper sulphate, and black carbon powder. Here are a few of these ingredients.

All sixty-two sheets of parchment are hand-stitched together using a silver or, preferably, a gold-plated kosher needle. Kosher giddin, a thread made from the sinew of the leg of a kosher animal, is the only thread that is ever used. The stitching, while overseen by the scribe, can be done by other members of the Jewish community.

Kosher tools are only part of the requirements. In addition, a kosher Torah is one that contains no mistakes, has no missing or extra letters or words, and has been written in the correct frame of mind. Each letter and word must be formed in accordance with Jewish law, attaching special attention to God’s name.