Here's some
information I found about Sefer Torah scrolls. There's quite a bit of
conflicting information, so its kind of hard to summarize.
Web sites pretty
consistently indicate there are 304,805 letters in a Sefer Torah. Try a Google
search for How
many letters are in a Sefer Torah?, and you'll find a huge number of pages
which show there are 304,805 letters in a Sefer Torah. Since the Torah has been
checked so...
The research I did
for the article What is a Sefer Torah? shows there are
304,805 letters in a Sefer Torah. A common question asked on the websites I
looked at is: What is the middle of a Sefer Torah? The word Sofer
is the Hebrew word for counter (not scribe, writer, author, copier, etc.), and Soferim count the letters in a Sefer Torah to
ensure it was copied accurately. Since the letters have been counted so many
times over a few...
My last two articles have been: What is a Torah? and What is a Sefer Torah?, and now I want to address who writes Sefer Torahs. The Hebrew word Sofer (or sopher) (plural: soferim/sopherim) means "one who counts", and refers to Jewish scribes who have faithfully copied the Torah for thousands of years. I find it interesting the the scribes are called "counters" and not "writers". Only a trained and certified Sofer...
My last article was What is a Torah?, and now I want to discuss a particular type of Torah. A Sefer Torah is a handwritten copy of the Torah on a scroll, rather than in a book, and is still used for ceremonial purposes in Synagogues. On Mondays and Thursdays short sections of the Torah are read, and a longer sections are read on Saturday (Sabbath, Shabbat) and during festivals; over the course of a year, the entire scroll will be read....
