One of World’s Smallest Torahs Among Scrolls Unveiled by National Library of Israel
by Shiryn Ghermezian
The Saul Wahl Torah. Photo: ©Herzog & de Meuron; Mann-Shinar Architects, Executive Architect.
The National Library of Israel (NLI) is highlighting four extraordinary Torah scrolls from its Judaica collection in a new series of video clips released days before the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which celebrates the giving of the Torah.
The items include fragments from a 1,000-year-old Yemenite Torah, which were found in a bookbinding; one of the world’s smallest, legible Torah scrolls, measuring only 6 centimeters in height; and a Torah that was used in Rhodes, Greece, and saved from the Nazis by the local mufti.
“Due to their exceedingly delicate state, the Torah scrolls are not generally available for public viewing and were only brought out from the NLI vaults for a few minutes to be filmed and photographed, with approval and supervision from conservation experts,” NIL said.
The “Rhodes Torah” is believed to have been written in Iberia in the 15th century and brought to the Mediterranean island by Sephardic refugees, where it was used for centuries in the Kahal Shalom Synagogue, which is now the oldest synagogue in Greece. Just days before the Nazis deported nearly all of Rhodes’ Jewish community in 1944, the scroll was given to the local mufti, Sheikh Suleyman Kasiloglou, who hid it under the pulpit of a local mosque — where it ultimately survived World War II as the majority of the island’s Jewish population was killed in the Holocaust.
The final scroll featured in the video series was believed to have been owned by Saul Wahl, a Jewish merchant and adviser to royalty in the late 16th century who, legend has it, served as king of Poland for just a single day. The scroll bears staves made of ivory and horns, is decorated with silver, and has its own miniature ark that includes a door made from a 17th-century Torah shield.
The video series is available for viewing on the NIL’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, in a YouTube playlist, and on the library’s blog.
The entire NLI collection will be relocated to the new National Library of Israel that is set to open adjacent to the Knesset in Jerusalem in early 2023.
