All Your Torah Scrolls Are Wrong! The Evolution of Scribal Practices and the Cairo Genizah

The Duke Center for Jewish Studies, The Manuscript Migration Lab, and the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library welcome Mordechai Vaintrob, who will present his talk, "All Your Torah Scrolls Are Wrong! The Evolution of Scribal Practices and the Cairo Genizah." In what ways has the production of Torah Scrolls-often thought to have been a standardized, unchanging practice across millennia-changed over time? In this talk, we will look at the evolution of specific scribal practices in the production of Torah Scrolls as evidenced in material from The Cairo Genizah, focusing on paratextual and parascriptual elements. Throughout, special attention will be given to items located in the Rubenstein Library, such as the Ashkar-Gilson manuscript. Mordechai Weintraub is a PhD candidate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a researcher at the Institute of Hebrew Bible Manuscript Research (IHBMR). His dissertation focuses on codicological aspects of the production of Torah scrolls and is based on information relating to the laws of writing Torah scrolls found in works of halakha and on a massive photographic database of premodern Torah scrolls from around the world. Weintraub received a BA in Bible and Talmud and Halakha and an MA in Talmud and Halakha from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has published widely on the production of Torah scrolls and on Hebrew manuscript culture more generally. A light will be served.