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A Torah scroll (Hebrew: סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה, Sefer Torah, lit. "Book of Torah"; plural: 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.
The term "Torah" has two meanings. It can refer solely to the Five Books of Moses. Traditionally, it is written on a parchment scroll, known as a Sefer Torah, although it is also printed in book form, known as a Chumash (and in some cases a tikkun).
The completion of the Sefer Torah is a cause for great celebration, and it is a mitzvah for every Jew to either write or have written for him a Sefer Torah. Torah scrolls are stored in the holiest part of the synagogue in the Ark known as the "Holy Ark" ( אֲרוֹן הקֹדשׁ aron hakodesh in Hebrew.)
The term Etz Chaim (plural: עצי חיים Atzei Chaim) is also used to describe each of the wooden poles to which the parchment of a Sefer Torah is attached. A hymn including the aforementioned verse Proverbs 3:18 (Etz ḥayim hi lamaḥaziqim bah, v'tomkheiha m'ushar) is sung in all Ashkenazi rites as the Torah is returned to the ark. [1]
A sofer at work, Ein Bokek, Israel A Middle Eastern sofer sews together the pieces of parchment A sofer, sopher, sofer SeTaM, or sofer ST"M (Hebrew: סופר סת״ם, "scribe"; plural soferim, סופרים) is a Jewish scribe who can transcribe Sifrei Kodesh (holy scrolls), tefillin (phylacteries), mezuzot (ST"M, סת״ם, is an abbreviation of these three terms) and other religious writings.
A siyum ha-sefer, meaning “completion of the book,” is also held as a ceremonial completion and dedication of a sefer Torah, a handwritten copy of the Torah, the most important Jewish ritual object, which is kept in the Ark of a synagogue. This is not technically related to the other forms of siyum.
The Mishneh Torah (Hebrew: מִשְׁנֵה תוֹרָה, lit. 'repetition of the Torah'), also known as Sefer Yad ha-Hazaka (ספר יד החזקה, 'book of the strong hand'), is a code of Rabbinic Jewish religious law authored by Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon/Rambam).
This first part is the earliest component of the work, and is extant also as an independent "minor tractate," entitled Massekhet Sefer Torah; [6] in this form it is a systematic work, but as incorporated in Soferim, although its division into chapters and paragraphs has been retained, its order has been disarranged by interpolations. A ...