TORAH in the Old West
Howdy from Texas! Hi, y’all! and Hey! Thank you to all the great authors at Petticoats and Pistols for the opportunity to share today. I’m quite excited about some research I recently completed before writing JO, my newest release, book 23 in the Prairie Roses Collection–and 2022 makes it the fourth annual multi-author project! (Get your copy here.)
When wondering about my heroine’s gifts—we all have gifts God gives us—I figured she’d be artistic and thought she should be a calligrapher. A dear friend of mine is going to teach me the Calligraphy strokes now which I’m very excited about. So . . . in the 1800s, who needed pretty writing? Fancy documents. Birth certificates and death certificates. So, my Jo needed parchment!
In my study of parchment, I discovered something I didn’t know, had never heard in all my years—that parchment is made from animal skins! All y’all probably knew that. Not sure how I missed it except ‘for such a time as this’! ?I guess I have a picture of it in my brain as a thick fancy paper, but proper parchment is made of tanned hides.
Then I discovered that Torah—the Jewish “Bible” which consist of the first five books of the Old Testament—is only recorded on the skins of kosher animals! It’s handwritten exclusively on parchment. So, I also incorporated that in my covered wagon story!
To create a proper parchment for Torah, calfskin is usually used, but also those of goats, deer, or sheep. Even giraffe hides could be since they chew their cud and have cloven hooves. I was amazed to learn that it takes an animal per page. That’s approximately sixty animals who provide their hides for each Torah (245 columns with 42 lines in each). In Hebrew, the parchment is called Klaf—a specially prepared, tanned, split skin (the inner layer, adjacent to the flesh) of a kosher animal.
During Talmudic times—from just after the destruction of the second temple, 70 CE until after the traditional date of the Babylonian Talmud’s completion at 500 CE—after salt water and flours (most often barley) are sprinkled on the skins, they were soaked in the juice of afatsim (gall nuts or oak apples).
Today however, most processors rarely follow the old Jewish customs and instead, speed up the steps, dipping the skins in water for two days then soaking them in limewater for nine more days to remove the hair. A Torah can fetch $20,000 to upwards of $120,000 in this time and age—a sky-high sum affected by one thing more than any other: good handwriting.
A scribe or sofer of the Torah doesn’t have to be a priest but religiously observant, knowledgeable about the laws concerning sofrut, and of good character. And, of course, in Hebrew script, he needs to have excellent handwriting skills, perfectly replicating every letter of Torah, and there are 304,805 of them.
Whatever method is used, when a hairless surface is attained, the scribe stretches the hide on a wooden drying frame and scrapes it until completely dry. If wrinkles persist, creases are pressed out, then finally, it is sanded until a flat, smooth sheet fit for writing is accomplished.
He uses a feather quill or reed and only black ink. Any mistake on a letter—one wrong jot or tittle—or even the letters being too close together, renders the work un-kosher, and he must go back to fix it. After double checking the work, the scribe sew the pages together with sinew to crate a scroll which can weigh up to twenty-five pounds and be two feet high. That is attached to wooden shafts called atzei chayim — trees of life—then packaged in a cloth cover, often embroidered.
This labor of love may take an entire year to finish. They are often commissioned by a synagogue congregation, or an individual who wants to donate one to a synagogue to honor an ancestor.
It amazed me that all this was done in America’s Old West just as in Jerusalem long before our Messiah walked the earth without sin and paid the price for all mankind. I was so pleased to have my family’s goats (in the story) be used for parchment for Torahs! My JO debuted May 3rd on my birthday, and my birthday present was two Nubian does, so I’m back in the goat business! (I fell in love with a beautiful buckling while at the goat farm choosing my girls, so I bought him for Ron’s birthday present!) tee hee hee
GIVEAWAY
I’d like to give away another of my Prairie Roses’ stories where a goat played a prominent part, or at least his untimely death does. ? How are you connected to goats (if you have been), or if not, then what you think of goats! Your comment will be your entry for a signed paperback copy of RUTH, book 11 o the collection and my 2021 contribution!
Also, my gift to you, for all of you reading this between May 27th and 31st, you may claim a free copy of LEAVIN’ TEXAS at Amazon! It’s book four in my Cross Timbers Family Saga and I know you’re going to love it! Here’s that link.
Award-winning author Caryl McAdoo prays her story brings God glory, and her best-selling stories—over sixty published—delight Christian readers around the world. The prolific writer also enjoys singing the new songs the Lord gives her; you may listen at YouTube. Sharing four children and twenty-four grandsugars (six are greats), Caryl and Ron, her high-school-sweetheart-husband of fifty-three years, live in the woods south of Clarksville, seat of Red River County in far Northeast Texas. The McAdoos wait expectantly for God to open the next door.
Find Caryl here: Amazon | BookBub | Website | Newsletter
Thanks again Petticoats & Pistols! I hope you thought all that was as interesting as I did! BLESSINGS!