For sale: Oldest surviving Torah from Spain's Golden Age
700-year-old scroll to be auctioned at Sotheby's based on an appraised value of $300,000 to $500,000.
By Ofri Ilani Tags: Torah portion Jewish World Israel newsA 700-year-old Torah scroll adorned with mystical kabbalist designs will be put up for sale by Sotheby's on November 24.
The scroll, which experts think is the oldest surviving Torah from the Golden Age of Spain, will be offered for purchase based on an appraised value of $300,000 to $500,000. It is one of several items of Judaica that will be on offer.
The scroll's importance was first identified by Rabbi Yitzchok Reisman, a New York-based scribe and dealer in manuscripts. Yitzhak Wiener, a former Israeli Judaica dealer who is involved in the sale, said the Torah's most recent owners did not appreciate its value.
"The scroll has been in Reisman's possession for about 10 years," Wiener said from New York. "It was in the home of a Moroccan family of Spanish origin that now is in Israel."
"Sometimes owners don't know the importance of what they have," he added. "But we who deal in Torah scrolls realized that it was very old ... After several years of research, including carbon-14 dating, [Reisman] determined how old it was."
Wiener said decoration featured on this Torah scroll is mentioned in several writings from Spain's Golden Age.
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have examined the Torah Scroll? Any art historians and experts in documents from the same period? What is the real story here? How did this man get hold of the scroll? Did he buy it from the family? Does he have the authority to sell it? This needs to be carefully investigated!
By 1300, all but Granada has been conquered. This was the only city-state still held by the muslims, and there were few to no jews there, as they had been wiped out in the mid 13th century during the wars there. When historians refer to the golden age of spanish jewry, they mean the 11'th Century, the time of Shmuel Hanagid and Ibn Shaprut. By the 14th century, when this torah is from, Jewry in spain was on the decline, in terms of the powerful jewish leaders in the courts of the kings who could protect their people from the church.
Despite all the political issues, Israel today is the centre of the Jewish life even if you are religious or not. The place of this Torah Scroll should be in Israel and not in another place. Shame somebody is making money on that.
The whole concept seems very unseemly to me.
What a shame such a precious spiritually loaded Torah scroll is treated as a diamond ring. Not every object is there to buy and sell. We human beings need to understand and respect the spiritual and less tangible, without framing that respect only as possessing and trading it.
Christians had not conquered the entire Spanish Penninsula by 1300. Golden Age was still golden in Granada, et. al. Keep in mind that the oldest torah scroll is the Aleppo Codex, which is more than 1,000 years old.
I am not sephardic, nor am I Moroccan, however I agree the Torah should stay with the Community or put in a museaum. The world should see it, not some private collector.
The golden age of Spanish Jewry was not 700 years ago. By that time, the christians has reconquered the peninsula from Islam , and life was definitely not golden. The Golden age was 1000 years ago.
This a request for the two member of the Billionaire family Mark Lassry and sister will rise to this momentous occasion as Moroccans, and buy the Torah Scroll from Spain. It will be a great addition for all futur generations to see the work of their forfather, being exposed at the Moroccan Jewish Museum in Casablanca. I am not a religious person, but I do hope that an extra providential involvement is needed for Mr Lassry to heed my call. Thank you....
"Sometimes owners don't know the importance of what they have" I hope the esteem Rabi has'nt lost all the integrety his reputation lies on. It is not a De Vinci, whose paintings and sculptures are in many Museums, this is one of a kind cultural icon of a gone era, but it belongs to the Sepharad Community and ought to stay there as part of their legacy. Obviously, the Moroccan descendants of the Megurashims were in a possession that was given from Father to Son. It will be a grave mistake if the Torah Scroll as old as 700years (hopefully, the data cited is correct) is not kept with the actual Community it belongs to, it should be given as a gift to the Casablanca Jewish Museum in commeration of an epopee to the Jews From Spain. The World Moroccan Jewery ought to salvage the Torah Scroll in a collective DONATION. I'll be the first to participate.