Sefer Torah - External Decorations

External Decorations

A completed Sefer Torah is treated with great honor and respect. It is housed in the Ark (Aron Kodesh or Hekhal), which in its turn is usually veiled by an embroidered parokhet (curtain) as it should be according to Exodus 26:31-34. The scroll itself will often be girded with a strip of silk (see wimpel) and "robed" with a piece of protective fine fabric, called the "Mantle of the Law". It is decorated with an ornamental breastplate, scroll-handles (‘eẓ ḥayyim), and the principal ornament—the "Crown of the Law", which is made to fit over the upper ends of the rollers when the scroll is closed. Some scrolls have two crowns, one for each upper end. The metalwork is often made of beaten silver, sometimes gilded. The gold and silver ornaments belonging to the scroll are collectively known as kele kodesh (sacred vessels), and somewhat resemble the ornaments of the Kohen Gadol (high priest). The scroll-handles, breastplate and crown often have little bells attached to them. A yad, or pointer, may also be hung from the scroll, since the Torah itself should never be touched with the bare finger. This ornamentation does not constitute worship of the Sefer Torah, but is intended to distinguish it as sacred and holy, as the living word of God. Special prayers are recited when the Sefer Torah is removed from the Aron (see Torah reading), and the text is chanted, rather than spoken, in a special melodic manner (see Cantillation and Niggun). Whenever the scroll is opened to be read it is laid on a piece of cloth called the mappah. When the Sefer Torah is carried through the synagogue, the members of the congregation may touch the edge of their tallit to the Sefer Torah and then kiss it as a sign of respect.

In the Mizrachi and Romaniote traditions, the Sefer Torah is generally not robed in a mantle, but rather housed in an ornamental wooden case which protects the scroll, called a "tik". On the other hand, most Sephardi communities — those communities associated with the Spanish diaspora, such as Moroccan Jews, the Spanish and Portuguese Jews (with the exception of the Hamburg tradition), and the Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino-speaking) communities of the Ottoman Empire — do not use tikim, but rather vestidos (mantles).