Obj. ID: 37312 Kulmus, Tunisia, 1897
sub-set tree:
The following description was prepared by William Gross:
The pointer used by the Torah reader to keep the place is known in European communities as the *yad, "hand," or the etẓba, "finger," and in Sephardi and Eastern communities as the moreh, "pointer," or kulmus, "quill," the former because of its function and the latter because of its shape. Halakhic sources also use the terms moreh or kulmus. The pointer was originally a narrow rod, tapered at the pointing end, usually with a hole at the other end through which a ring or chain could be passed to hang the pointer on the Torah scroll. An additional reason for using the pointer was to prevent the oily finger from touching the parchment and inked letter, something that would eventually cause severe deterioration.
The original form of the pointer was preserved in Eastern communities, the differences from one community to another being mainly in length and ornamentation. In certain communities, a hand with a pointing finger was added, and accordingly, the pointer came to be known as a yad, "hand," or eẓba, "finger." Pointers are made for the most part of silver or silver-plated brass, but in a few European communities, they used to be made of wood. In such cases, the pointers were carved in the local folk-art style.
Typical form for Tunisian Yads, this North African design became the most common fashion for Torah pointers in Eretz Israel of the first half of the 20th century. This example, from Tunisia itself, has nice floral engraving and is dated in the inscription to 1896/7. In the inscription, the pointer is called a "kulmus", the name used in several different Jewish communities of Sephardic and Oriental Jewry for the Torah pointer. The finely engraved and chased decorative leaf pattern on the top of the flat area distinguishes this example from the common variety. The 19th-century date is also relatively early.
Inscription: This is the Torah pointer (kulmus) that i have donated, I, the young man, David, son of Rabbi Aharon, may the lord sustain him and grant him favor, in the month of Sivan, the year (5)697 [1896/7]