In the Song of the Sea, Moses says "This is my G-d and I will beautify Him..." The rabbis ask "How can we beautify G-d? Beautify Him with Mitzvot! Anything you make for the Divine Service should be beautiful." This is understood in two ways. One is to "beautify the act of a mitzvah" by making it conform to all the rules and regulations set forth in the Written and Oral Torah. The second is to make every material thing used in a Mitzvah aesthetically beautiful, thus honoring G-d and "Beautifying" Him.
One may purchase a cheap "knockoff" of a great work of art. It may look like the original, but it isn't the original. It lacks the love and devotion not only of the artist's hand, but also his mind, heart and soul. So with the scribe. Not only must his finished product be beautiful, but he must be spiritually attuned to what he is about to create. Beyond that, even the materials he uses in his craft must conform to halachah, and be beautiful to the eye. Even if we do not see this in the finished scroll, lacking this beauty, the scroll is like the "knockoff" painting. It is missing the real beauty and soul of Divine Service.
At one time the Scribe would personally make all the materials; the parchment, the ink, the sinews used for sewing the scroll together, and the actual pen, either a reed or a quill. Today, most still cut their own pens, but the making of the parchment ink, and sinews is usually done by experts in this field, often by people who have the methodology in their families for generations.
The first step is the parchment, known in Hebrew as klaf or gevil. Although these words are used interchangeably, they actually refer to two different thicknesses of skin. The klaf must be from a kosher species of animal, but not necessarily kosher slaughtered. Klaf makers purchase the skins from meat processing plants. For writing purposes, calf skin is best. For making the boxes (battim) and straps of the Tefillin , steer skin is generally used. But the skin, as it comes off the animal, is essentially useless. It is like a piece of meat. It must be "tanned"; a process that shrinks the skin and strengthens it. For ordinary leather, chemicals are used. In ancient times, leather was usually made by processing the skins in animal dung. (This is why a leather tanner is often depicted in the Talmud as someone you wouldn't want to stand too near to.) But for sacred purposes, this was seen as not befitting the holiness of the object. The skins were soaked in a solution of gall nuts. Gall nuts are actually a type of blister formed on a tree as a reaction to insects boring into it. The gall nuts contain a lot of tannic acid (so called because it was used in tanning!). The klaf maker will first make a statement before putting the skin into the tanning solution: "I am tanning this skin for the sake of the sanctity of the Torah scroll, and I stipulate that if one chooses, it can be used for tefillin, mezzuzot, or Megillot (scroll of Esther).The skin would sit in this solution for about a month. In medieval Europe, lime was usually used instead. Most do use this today, but some keep the older tradition of gall nuts. One can tell which was used, as white klaf will indicate lime, brown klaf will indicate tannic acid.
After the tanning process, the skin is scraped to remove any remnants of hair or blood vessels.A special process is used to give the writing surface just the right texture. If it is too smooth, the ink will not "take". If it is too rough, the letters will come out broken and uneven.It must have a "silky" feeling. The scribe is trained to correct any tiny imperfections he may encounter while writing.
The symbolism is clear. What had been a beast, becomes fine parchment, and finally contains the Word of G-d, becoming a holy object. So are we called upon to transform our animal nature to human, and from human to a vessel for the Divine. We are meant to become Torah!
In my next installment I will discuss the ink and the pen.