Torah scroll

The presented scroll is dated at the first half of the 20th century. A fragment of parchment with text on a wooden roller. Text in 42 lines. A special ritual related to the Torah is the Simchat Torah (from Heb. joy of the Torah), celebrated on the eighth day of the Sukkot holiday (more about the Sukkot: https://sztetl.org.pl/en/tradycja-i-kultura-zydowska/swieta/sukot, accessed 12 December 2020) related to the completion of the annual Torah reading cycle. The scroll is taken out of the Aron Hakodesh and men carry it around the synagogue eight times while singing and dancing. It is a joyful ceremony during which even children are allowed to touch the Torah. It is customary that all the men present in the synagogue read the fragment of the Torah multiple times.

A gift from Szymon Rudnicki, historian, professor at the Historical Institute of the University of Warsaw, researcher of the history of Poland in the 20th century, including Polish-Jewish relations ('Stosunki polsko-izraelskie 1945-1967 wybór dokumentów' [Polish-Israeli relations 1945-1967 selection of documents], ed. with Marcos Silber, Warsaw 2009) and the history of the national-radical movement ('Falanga. Ruch narodowo-radykalny' [Falanga. National-radical movement], Warsaw 2018).

Natalia Różańska