Torah scroll
handwritten copy of the Torah
A Torah scroll (Hebrew: סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה, romanized: Sefer Torah, lit. 'Book of Torah'; pl. סִפְרֵי תוֹרָה, Sifrei Torah) is a handwritten copy of the Torah, meaning the five books of Moses (the first books of the Hebrew Bible). The Torah scroll is mainly used in the ritual of Torah reading during Jewish prayers. At other times, it is stored in the holiest spot within a synagogue, the Torah ark, which is usually an ornate curtained-off cabinet or section of the synagogue built along the wall that most closely faces Jerusalem, the direction Jews face when praying.
The text of the Torah is also commonly printed and bound in book form for non-ritual functions, called a Chumash (plural Chumashim; "five-part", for the five books of Moses), and is often accompanied by commentaries or translations.
History
Findings from Qumran, Masada, and the Bar Kokhba refuge caves indicate that biblical scrolls were abundant and widely circulated in late Second Temple Judaea.
Single-scroll Pentateuch
The researchers working on the En-Gedi Scroll have concluded that by the fourth century CE, there was no halakhic rule yet prescribing that scrolls used for liturgical purposes must contain the entire Pentateuch. As of 2018, no other statements regarding when this rule came into being could be made with any degree of certainty. While the physically determined date for the scroll points to the 3rd or 4th centuries, its text has been palaeographically dated by Ada Yardeni to the first century CE or the early second at the latest, a discrepancy not uncommon in this field, which could push back in time the entire discussion.
En-Gedi Scroll
The En-Gedi Scroll is a Hebrew parchment radiocarbon-dated to the 3rd or 4th century CE (88.9% certainty for 210–390 CE), although paleographical considerations suggest that it may date back to the 1st or early 2nd century CE. The charred scroll, found in situ in the Torah niche of the ruined synagogue of the Jewish town of Ein Gedi (the town having been abandoned in the 7th century CE after a fire), was discovered to contain a portion of Leviticus, making it the earliest copy of a Pentateuchal book ever found in a Holy Ark. The deciphered text fragment is identical to what was to become during the Middle Ages the standard text of the Hebrew Bible, the Masoretic Text, which it precedes by several centuries; it thus constitutes the earliest evidence of this authoritative text version.
The public source identifies “Torah scroll” as handwritten copy of the Torah. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Torah, scroll and handwritten.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Torah scroll”, the useful work is to connect “handwritten copy of the Torah” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2350579. The Library of Congress control number is sh85136100. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2018.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Torah scroll”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Torah scroll primary sources, Torah scroll archive and Torah research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Torah scroll”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Torah scroll” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.