Solid color Torah mantle with silk lining. The decoration on the front is of twisted wire and it is hand-sewn with yellow thread to the velvet. The wood oblong piece at the top with holes for the Torah scroll is attached to the velvet with staples. The velvet has the appearance of a re-purposed drapery panel. The piece has elements of both Ashkenazi (solid color with single design, opens from back).
Many protective practices evolved to carefully store and handle the Torah scroll (in Hebrew, Sefer Torah, פר תורה). Written by hand by Jewish scribes (sofer), the Torah scroll incudes the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, which contains the law and stories about the Jews. Stored in the Torah ark, the holiest place in the synagogue, the scroll is brought out for ritual Torah readings and Jewish prayers. In most traditions, a cloth cover called “Mantle of Life” is wrapped around the Torah scroll.
This Torah cover is blue velvet lined with satin, hand-stitched, in a trapezoidal shape with an overlapping opening at its rear. At its top is a wood surface with two holes to go over the top of the scroll rolls. On its front is a raised beaded and embroidered image of the Eternal Light (Ner Tamid). The Ner Tamid symbolizes the lamp that burns perpetually near the Ark in each synagogue, a reminder of the presence of God and of the lamp that burned in the Temple of Jerusalem.
Review of the object in a conversation with Dr. Deena Aranoff of the GTU Center for Judaic Studies
The fabrication and appearance of the piece are not extraordinary. It is a common custom for tailors or others in the synagogue community with particular sills to fabricate ritual objects.
The fabric appears to be a repurposed curtain and could even have been one from a Torah ark that was repurposed. The Torah ark curtain would have been handled constantly and may have worn unevenly on one side so that the remaining fabric was repurposed.
The symbol on the front of the piece might have many meanings. The letter shin, ש in Hebrew, is significant because it begins the Shema Israel prayer, and it evokes the Torah and God.
The shape of the symbol on the front of the piece might also evoke ner tamid, and indicate the burning bush of Moses or the always-burning flame of the menorah.
The piece would have been lifted from the holes at its top (the heaviest wear) and carried at the front of the body, then occasionally lifted above the head by the bottom ends of the scroll.
The Torah is not an object for human touching, and as the Torah was carried from its ark, members of the synagogue congregation customarily stand and might offer a show of respect, often a kiss of the finger then touching the mantle with the finger, or touching a book to the mantle. The Torah is read with a pointer to avoid touching it.
The most remarkable thing about the piece is its current location in the GTU library. Many ritual objects are burned when they are decommissioned from ritual use. Nevertheless, this could be a found object, an object that survived from a synagogue that moved or closed.
- Subject Matter: Cover for Torah Scroll
- Inventory Number: 2016.21
- Collections: Sacred World Art Collection