Megillah Esther
There were other things in the plastic Dominick's bag.
Like this officially Scooby-Doo-ish mysterious scroll, for instance. I didn't post it yesterday because I was unsure of what it was and turned to my handy dandy oracle, Ask Metafilter, for help. It's a Megillah Esther, the book of the Hebrew bible responsible for the Jewish festival of Purim. Scrolls that should be treated as Holy, are most often kept in a synagogue's Ark, but sometimes are kept in private homes...though never in an old plastic Dominick's bag for a few decades. No, it is not in the bag anymore, now that I have found the bag.Like the Ida Rai paintings, this is something that I want to research a little more. I would love to know the origin of this scroll. There are some clues at the end of the scroll, such as this mark (translated from Hebrew by helpful Mefite, milestogo):The end does have the scribe's name: Servant of God Yaakov (jacob) Halawah Son of Rabbi Yitzchak Issac, whose soul is in heaven. That is just the final two lines, with the acronyms (identifiable by the apostrophe) expanded. The paragraphs above that are a blessing recited by the reader and a poem recited by the congregation after the reading is done.
Mefite Joe in Australia had this to say about the scroll:
It's a fascinating find. First, milestogo is correct about it being a Megillah and the name at the end. I'm not a sofer (ritual scribe) but it looks too well written to be written by a student. Do you see the even spacing and regular sizes of the letters? Students tend to bunch some letters together and space others out. On the other hand, those are pretty major corrections (especially the half line of Esther 4:11 that was omitted) and I think they've been done by another hand. The additions at the beginning and end look different, too. My theory is that it's an old megillah (the parchment looks crinkly, and megillot don't get used much, so that implies a lot of age) that was demoted because somebody noticed the errors. A later owner added the corrections. A third owner (not the original sofer) added the introductory and closing invocations - the one at the end is unusual and may help identify the origin of the scroll.
Added to my To Do list: "Research the possibility of finding out who the scribe was." Right under, "Finish preparing for meeting with five teams of students, and complete the slides for tomorrow's class."
I need more time in my day.Anyone know a sofer?p.s. Did you know that Megillah is the origin of the phrase "the whole Megillah"? The scrolls are quite long to read. True story.
