Our modern Torah scrolls differ significantly from ancient Torah scrolls.   For example, Today’s seforim are written on klaf (parchment), while ancient scrolls were written on gvil (sheets of leather).

Another feature of ancient scrolls is the presence of unusual, additional, or altered taggim and/or letter forms.   These unusual features were almost always predicated upon kabbalistic traditions and reasoning…

Examples of Odd Taggim and Letter Forms From the Ancient Sefer ha-Taggim

Almost all of these oddities have vanished from modern practice because we lack expertise in the field of, well,  applied kabbala.    Therefore, it is extremely rare to ever come across  any actual examples of these altered forms or taggim.  The only ones I have seen were in a very unusual 200 year-old Hungarian Sefer Torah.

Further Examples of Kabbalistic Scribal Oddities From the Machzor Vitry

Yesterday,  Sotheby’s held a large auction of historical Judaica.  Of particular interest to Soferim and safrus-fans alike is a late 13th-century Spanish Sefer Torah up for auction.

See here for a brief .PDF overview of the Sefer Torah.

What blows me away about this sefer is that it is 1) in EXCELLENT condition, and 2) is replete with these aforementioned anomalies.

Also,  the Shaatnez Getz taggim (see Here, Here, and Here) were left out by the original sofer (the Rambam holds that Shaatnez Getz taggim are only required in mezuzos) and written in by a later scribe.

It is also apparent that the Sefer has been “corrected” several times; kabbalistic letter forms have been scraped away and replaced with their standard counterparts.   Nevertheless, you can still see the shadow of the original letters.   Luckily, many of the most impressive features remain untouched.

Please take a look at the Sotheby’s overview of the Sefer – it is fascinating and offers a rarely seen glimpse into the ” powerhouse”  Sifrei Torahs of the past!

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