A particularly intriguing Torah scroll is currently being offered for sale at the Tag Art auction house in Jerusalem, precisely because of its unusual size.
This is a 150-year-old book prepared in Germany - the height of the scroll is only 7.6 cm and the text is on only 6 cm - 42 lines on each page.
This is a particularly impressive work of art, because it is very challenging to create such a small Torah scroll.
The book is sewn onto two "trees of life" made of silver and placed inside a tiny ark.
In the center of the casket, the goldsmith carved in Hebrew letters the verse "The Torah commanded us, Moses permitted the community of Jacob".
"This is an exceptional example by any standard of a Setam writer," says Tomer Rosenfeld, the director of the auction house.
Usually small books of this kind were made by special order for especially rich people or important rebbes, for the purpose of travel and the like. It must have cost a lot of money to commission a work like this."
Despite the fact that this is a particularly small book, the auction house makes it clear that it meets all the halachic criteria for writing Torah scrolls.
It is currently offered at a price of 88 thousand dollars, and the auction house estimates that the price will increase to between 120 and 150 thousand dollars.
This is certainly one of the smallest Torah books that exist.
A similar Torah scroll, with a height of 7.4 cm, was sold about three years ago for a price of 50 thousand dollars. In this case, the fact that it is a tiny scroll adds to the fact that it is a Torah scroll from a German community in the 19th century, which adds another element to its prestige.
Rabbi Haim Kanievsky.
Signed the smallest book, photo: Eric Sultan
The smallest Torah book in existence is apparently a book only 3.5 cm high, which is worth 300 thousand dollars. About a decade ago it was given to the late Rabbi Haim Kanievsky, so that he could dance with it in his hands.
Rabbi Kanievsky even wrote the last letter in the unique Torah book using glasses equipped with a special magnifying glass due to the smallness of the letters.
"This is a particularly exciting masterpiece that has no other like it in the world of Torah books," Tag Art auction house says about the miniature book.
"Another thing that distinguishes and differentiates the Torah book before us from other books is the thinness and special quality of the parchment, as well as its proportional writing that meets the halachic conditions. This fact makes the Torah book before us unique in that it is so small, of such high quality, and still meets the halachic conditions."
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