Scroll survivor
The good news is a water leak last winter inside Butler County's only synagogue didn't cause as much damage to its Torah scrolls as originally thought.
But the bad news is the scrolls were in need of restoration work anyway — long before a steam pipe burst in the ceiling of the sanctuary at Congregation B'nai Abraham.
Just how badly the restoration is needed will be in a forthcoming report from Rabbi Levi Selwyn, an expert on scroll restoration, who spent all Thursday giving the scrolls a thorough physical examination, meticulously mapping the blemishes, stains, rips, wrinkles and fading letters on each.
Selwyn's detailed report should be completed in about a week — in time for a congregational council to review and consider options when it meets later this month, said Cantor Michal Gray-Schaffer, spiritual leader of Congregation B'nai Abraham, 519 N. Main St.
The plan will include simple maintenance that members of the congregation can be trained to do, as well as the more complex repairs best left to the professionals.
“It will be good for us to have a recommended plan of action. I'm glad we'll now have an expert opinion of what needs to be done and what it will take to do it,” Gray-Schaffer said.
Selwyn of Miami is a sofer — a Jewish scholar and scribe specially trained to repair and restore the scrolls in accordance with long-standing rules and traditions. He is one of seven associates of the Miami-based business Sofer On Site, who travel throughout the United States to inspect and maintain Torah scrolls for synagogues.
“But we're always home for the Friday night sabbath,” added Selwyn, a 36-year-old husband and father of four children.
Watching Selwyn at work gives a glimmer of the love and reverence Jewish congregations have for their Torah scrolls.
The words, laws and promises of a living God written on the skins of once-living animals, the Torah is deeply symbolic of Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses and other patriarchs whose stories are contained in the Torah text.
Christians would recognize the Torah as the Pentateuch, the first five chapters of their own Bible — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. While tradition holds that God dictated the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai, scholars believe the actual written Torah was developed about 2,600 years ago during the Babylonian Exile.
Torah scrolls are the work of specially trained rabbis, called scribes, who use all kosher methods and materials.
The parchment must come from the skins of kosher animals, usually cattle. The scribe mixes ink, cuts his own quills from turkey feathers and uses a reed instrument to scratch lines in the parchment to make sure his letters are consistent in shape and evenly spaced.
No metal is used in the making of a Torah because metal is used to make implements of war.
Once all the lettering is completed, the sheets of parchment are sewn together with thread made from the tendons of kosher animals and attached to wooden rollers.
A completed Torah scroll is about 150 feet long.
“Look at this — every column begins with the same letter — vav,” Selwyn said. “That's a custom among many scribes, to begin each column with a vav.”
Scrolls typically have a standard 42 lines per column, but there are exceptions, and B'nai Abraham has one: a scroll with 48 lines per column. That's most likely because the cow skin parchment was larger than usual and the scribe who created this particular Torah wanted to make the most of the parchment, Selwyn said. It's rare but not unheard of.
The circumstances that led to Selwyn's visit began Jan. 10 when Gray-Schaffer discovered the damage during shabbat — the sabbath service, as she pulled one of five scrolls from the ark to read a passage from Exodus.The fabric covering was damp. So was the parchment rolled up inside it. Beads of moisture covered the floor of the ark, the focal point of the sanctuary where the scrolls are stored.A steam pipe had burst at the other end of the 58-year-old structure during an intensely cold period. The water vapor condensed inside the ark. The heating pipes have since been repaired.Friends from another house of worship — First United Methodist Church — stepped in with an offer of help. The church provided a secure area with room to unroll the wet scrolls and allow them to dry out. Two of the scrolls went to the Methodist church. The remaining three were set out to dry in the synagogue's library.Selwyn said that was the exact thing to do when a scroll gets wet.Help came from within the greater Jewish community, too, said Gray-Schaffer, a member of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association. Selwyn's firm was recommended by several by other association members.While the water damage turned out to be minimal, other signs of wear became apparent during the inspection.Some, such as pencil marks probably inserted long ago to help a younger reader, could be easy fixes with the correct application of the correct rubber eraser. Others, such as the ink letters fading and separating from the parchment, are more complex.Once the plan is in place, it's likely the congregation will opt to restore one or two of the scrolls and wait to restore the others later, depending on the cost of the restoration and the success of a fundraising drive to pay for it.On very rare occasions when a damaged scroll is deemed no longer usable, it is given a funeral and burial in a Jewish cemetery, Selwyn said.
Much of the history behind the local scrolls was never written down, but Selwyn estimated several of the scrolls' ages at between 60 and 80 years. The smallest of the scrolls, affectionately called “The Baby,” might be a little older, about 100 years old. All five scrolls likely were given as gifts to the congregation.“Some of these may have come through the Holocaust, or were hidden away for several years during the war,” Selwyn said. “But without written records, there's no way of knowing for sure.”However, there are clues, found mostly in the details of the handwritten Hebrew lettering.All five scrolls appear to be Ashkenazic, originating from Eastern Europe, rather than from Sephardic Jews of the Middle East and Mediterranean. That's not surprising. Most of the Jews in Butler County descended from Eastern European immigrants.“This is most likely Polish in origin,” Selwyn said while inspecting one of the scrolls. “You can tell by looking at the tails on the letters. It's all in the lettering.”One of the scrolls is heavier than the others. Its parchment is glazed with a coating intended to provide a protective finish and sheen, similar to the clay-based coating that gives modern magazine pages their shiny finish.Selwyn said he encounters glazed scrolls from time to time, but the method fell out of favor nearly as soon as it was introduced more than 50 years ago. The glazing turns out to be harmful to the parchment over time.
While the customs and standards assure a similarity among all Torah scrolls, each also is remarkably unique, the offspring of the scribe who created it. The letters vary in style from one scroll to the other, each bearing slight clues about the rabbi's hand that shaped them.“I do sometimes wonder about the scribes, what they were like, their personality and devotion,” Selwyn said. Sofers study the individual styles of scribes because knowledge about each scroll helps them make a more authentic restoration.Sewlyn grew up within the Jewish community of London. He discovered his aptitude for scribe work while studying Hebrew as a young man.“I liked writing the letters,” he said. “And several of my rabbis noticed I had a knack for it.”While there's something almost prayerful in his work, Selwyn said it's important to concentrate on his tasks. Errors can be costly, even irreversible.“You do have to keep your head in the game,” he said.
