Obj. ID: 49003  Torah Scroll with Torah finials, Germany, circa 1740

The following description was prepared by William Gross:

The Torah scroll with the five books of Moses written therein by a scribe is the heart of the Jewish faith.  There are very specific regulations for how these texts are to be written. It can take up to a year to complete a new scroll by a professional scribe. The Sefer Torah is one of small dimensions, very probably made for used in a small ark in a home.

The Torah staves are made with the Torah finials, the Rimmonim, permanently attached as an integral part. At one time, this was a custom in Frankfurt am Main. These silver pieces are from the hand of an 18th-century Frankfurt silversmith, Jost Leschnorn, who made other pieces of Judaica as well.  Some of these objects still exist in collections. On a later silver band at the base of the upper part of the Atzei Chaim is an inscription from 1870 for the dedication of this Torah scroll, probably to a synagogue, by a Frankfurt family of that period in honor of their son's Bar Mitzvah.

The crowns on top of the silver finials are later replacements. There is a pair of unattached crowns in the inventory of the Cluny Museum in Paris but now displayed in the Jewish Museum in Paris. These are the missing original crowns for this pair of finials, the very small size being suitable and the silver marks being identical. They are without the staves as these are without the original crowns.