Torah Scroll, ink on parchment. Ashkenazic script with a difference in several letters from the familiar Ashkenazic “Beit Yosef” script, such as the letter ש. In a number of places along the length of the scroll, a “wrapped פ” appears (see below). Despite the age of the scroll, the ink is strong and sharp, and in certain places, it even gleams!
The “wrapped פ” is mentioned for the first time by the Ramba”m (Hilchot Sefer Torah, 7:8) “The wrapped פs … as copied by the scribes one from another.” We find the wrapped פ primarily in Torah scrolls from Yemen, where the Ramba”m’s opinion was followed, along with tradition from Temple times. In the Ashkenazic Diaspora the wrapped ש is uncommon, but as is known, the scribes Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch and Rabbi Ephraim – the Ba’al Shem Tov’s scribes, would write using the wrapped פ. Many Kabbalistic reasons for this have been written. The scholar Yehoshua Twerski writes in Chatzar HaTzaddik , “Aside from the Kabbalistic, what is revealed in the Besh”t’s Torah scroll, that can be seen by anyone who looks in it? Several changes can be discerned in the shapes of a few of the letters … the פ is often different from the familiar, customary פ. In a regular פ, the part that drops down from the top bends from the left side, turning inwards. This bend inwards differentiates the פ from the כ, as is known. This tag in Rabbi Tzvi Sofer’s פ also makes something of a small פ. These types of פs are called “double פs” by scribes. I have seen this type of פ in tefillin portions written by Rabbi Ephraim Sofer, who preceded R’ Tzvi Sofer by several years.”
Thin, dark parchment. Parchment height: 67 cm. Script height: 57 cm. 50 lines per column. 45 sheets.
Moderate condition. Stains, corrections with pasted parchment from the back of the scroll. Devarim [5:24] contains parchment completions to three words, from the back of the scroll. In the middle of Bamidbar (in the portion “Balak”) there is completion of a sheet. Creases and wear. Not being sold as kosher. Without atzei chaim (handles).