Torah scrolls as a codicological, theological, and sociological phenomenon of Jewish scribal culture in the Diaspora

ToRoll: Materialized Holiness is a collaborative research project examining the production of Torah scrolls as an extraordinary codicological, theological, and sociological phenomenon of Jewish scribal culture. Exploring Torah scrolls, special letters and decorative traditions (tagin and otiyyot meshunnot), scribal literature from Jewish antiquity until the 19th century, as well as contemporary notions of scribal tradition, ToRoll: Materialized Holiness is a 4-year project supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Researchand based at the Freie Universität Berlin. This project combines Jewish Studies research with Digital Humanities, Material and Social Sciences and looks at the meaning and significance of Torah scrolls from an interdisciplinary perspective.
The aim of our project is four-fold: We want to create digital editions of selected scribal literature from antiquity until the modern era (I) and conduct paleographical analyses of letter crownlets and particular forms of lettering and analyse inks and materials used for writing medieval Torah scrolls of European provenance (II). These findings from the field of material sciences will be complemented by an in-depth study of the origins, history and interpretations of tagin and otiyyot meshunnot (III). A fourth aspect of the project involves qualitative interviews with contemporary scribes (IV). Broadly speaking, therefore, our project is divided into four modules:
- Module I: The ideal Torah scroll over the course of time
- Module II: Material examinations of the origin and the history of medieval Torah scrolls of European provenance
- Module III: Origin, history and interpretation of tagin and otiyyot meshunnot
- Module IV: Scribes in the Jewish worlds of the present day
Reaching these diverse research fields is made possible by interdisciplinary cooperation between researchers at the Freie Universität Berlin and experts in our partnering institutions: Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing – BAM) supports us with material analyses of Torah scrolls. Together with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), we are working on a digital repository of scribal literature throughout the ages and build a digital tool that allows for the systematic annotation of tagin and otiyyot meshunnot in Torah scrolls. Together with external project partners – the Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature, the Berlin State Library – Prussian Cultural Heritage, and colleagues from the Institute for Art History at the Free University Berlin –, we are working on a digital repository of Jewish scribal knowledge that will be available to national and international research communities as well as the interested public for use and scientific advancement in open access.
PD Dr Annett Martini is the principal investigator and is supported by two post-doctoral researchers, Dr Dana Eichhorst and Dr Rebecca Ullrich, and two PhD researchers, Anne May Dallendörfer and Katharina Wendl, who are working at the Institute for Jewish Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. They explore the meaning and significance of Jewish scribal traditions.
Annett Martini has so far focused on the significance and the role of Torah scrolls and writing traditions in the medieval collection Sefer Hasidim as well as other witnesses of the hasidic circle such as Jehudah he-Hasid’s Kitrei Otiyyot Tefillin or Eleazar of Worms’s Sha’ar tagi. In addition, she is working on the historical-critical edition of the Sefer haTagin, whose handwritten testimonies will be documented for the first time in their full complexity by a digital edition. She is also chiefly involved in the scanning, description and analysis of Torah scrolls handed down from the Middle Ages and responsible for the compilation of a paleographic database, which, fed with as many images as possible, should provide a visual impression of the developments and local features of crownlets and unusual written letters within scrolls.
Dana Eichhorst researches a text called Sefer Tagi(n) attributed to Eleazar of Worms and related texts like Sha’ar Tagi as well as its reception history and context. The material discusses various exegetical and speculative meanings of (special) letters and writing traditions within medieval ‘mystical’, respectively kabbalistic traditions. She is also further developing TEI and ODD guidelines, enabling the detailed analysis of scribal literature through tools developed by Digital Humanities.
Rebecca Ullrich investigates interpretative traditions of tagin and otiyyot meshunnot in various midrashic collections, focusing on manuscripts of Midrash Rabbi Akiva al haTagin. She also works on a number of smaller midrashim that relate to scribal traditions and edits Qiryat Sefer, a 14th-century scribal guide written by R. Shlomo haMeiri.
Anne May Dallendörfer researches manuscript traditions of Barukh SheAmar, a medieval halakhic compilation of rules and guidelines for writing Tefilin as well as other Jewish ritual texts. These manuscripts date from the 13th to the 19th century. She is working on a critical edition of these manuscripts to trace the dynamics of Ashkenazi scribal tradition from the medieval into the early modern period.
Katharina Hadassah Wendl explores the genre of scribal guides and handbooks in the 19th century. Focusing on one of the most influential modern scribal guides, Keset HaSofer, she explores its halachic agenda as well as the pedagogical and organisational considerations that influence the writing of practical guides for scribes of the 19th century.
To establish connections between medieval and early modern texts and contemporary scribal culture, the team also intends to conduct qualitative interviews with professional Jewish scribes from Israel, Europe, and the USA. Guided by Dr Silvana Greco, we will interview and explore the subjective understanding and the individual experience of the scribes. This will illuminate the societal relevance of scribal activity within present-day Jewish communities.
Supported by Dr Zina Cohen, based at the BAM, the project team is analysing medieval Torah scrolls located in libraries and collections across Europe, Israel and North America. Zina Cohen also conducts ink and other material analyses to complement research into the historical, mystical and halakhic significance of Torah scrolls, tagin and ottiyot meshunnot.
Laura Frank, Dr Danah Tonne and Germaine Götzelmann at the KIT provide the technical infrastructure that enables joint annotation and computer-assisted analysis of Torah scrolls and scribal literature. In the concept of a so-called Virtual Torah scroll, the references between rules and ritual writing practice are to be made visible and traceable. To this end, the occurrences of tagin and otiyyot meshunnot will be stored in a common data infrastructure both in text data and in image digitizations of the historical documents and will be enriched over the course of the project.
A primary objective of ToRoll: Materialized Holiness is to further integrate central research fields of Jewish Studies into the inter- and transdisciplinary research discourses, and to open them up for methodological approaches with the help of the Digital Humanities. For processing new research questions, our project combines the academic expertise from Jewish Studies with the methods of material research, the social sciences, and art history, as well as with future-oriented approaches to information technology. We will share tentative research results and reflect on our first year of collaborative, cross-disciplinary research at the upcoming EAJS conference in July 2023 and are looking forward to convening an online workshop on tagin and otiyyot meshunnot on November 6-8th, 2023. With further plans for an international conference at the Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature as well as an exhibition on scribal practices across religious communities with Berlin State Library – Prussian Cultural Heritage ahead of us, we are eager and excited to continue exploring this multi-level phenomenon of Jewish scribal traditions and advance its interdisciplinary study.

OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Maria Stürzebecher (June 3, 2023). ToRoll: Materialized Holiness. medievalJewishStudiesNow! Retrieved April 18, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/ri3f