How and where do they get the Parchment for Sefer Torahs?

hi always it’s always great to see you.

The parchment, or Klaf as it is called,

used for the Sefer Torah, is made

from the hides of an animal of the

Kosher species. The most preferable

quality parchment is Shlil, the hide of

the embryo or a newborn calf. The

surface of the Klaf should not be

coated or glazed. Approximately sixty-

two hides are needed for a complete

Sefer Torah. The average size of a

newly written Sefer Torah is between

17 to 20 inches however, smaller sizes

are available.

Kosher Parchment called Klaf must

be prepared specifically for that

purpose (ie. the klaf for a Torah

cannot be used for Tefillin, and vice

versa). The parchment must derive

from a kosher animal, usually a

goat, bull /cow, or deer. The Klaf is

meticulously prepared by the

Sofer, who first soaks the skin in

lime water for nine days to remove

hairs, and then stretches the skin

over a wooden frame to dry. The

Sofer scrapes the skin while it is

stretched over the wooden frame

to remove more hair and smooths

the surface of the skin in

preparation for writing on it with

the use of a sanding machine. When

the skin is dry, the Sofer cuts it

into a rectangle. The Sofer must

prepare many such skins because a

Sefer Torah usually contains 248

columns, and one rectangle of

parchment yields space for three or

four columns. Thus a Sefer Torah

may require up to 80 or more

skins in all.

Finally, When the parchment sheets

are ready, the Sofer applies a

straight edge to draw a writing

pattern – usually forty two

horizontal lines across the

parchment and two vertical lines

defining the boundaries for each

column. He also leaves a blank

space between the area designed

for writing and the margin –

(according to the tradition, it has to

be five fingers wide). Thus, a Sofer

will have at least three to four

columns on each piece of

parchment – called amudim (amud –

a column). In general, there should

be no less than three amudim on

one yeriah (sheet or folio) and not more than eight. There must be a margin of three inches on the top, four

inches at the bottom, and two

inches between columns. Now the

parchment is waiting for the writing

process to start.

62 COWS!

ItcheSrulik – you can get shlil today, the industry term is slinks. These are normally from aborted foetuses taken from milk cows where the cow was brought to that state in order so that it would produce milk. Slinks are quite cheap becuase they don’t have many other uses.

I have seen the diamond pattern, but I guess not all klaf is necesarily dried the same way. There were some yungerleit who started producing chemical tanned klaf in Israel a few years ago. Anyway I doubt if you are buying klaf today that this is hand tanned and frame dried unless you paid a premium for it.

pcoz: I did pay through the nose for it but I thought that was the premium for getting something me’ubad lishma.

lol…and who, exactly, would want 8 wives…?

Some gelatin which is used to make lollies and ice-cream is made from cow face pieces. That means you have a person standing in the tannery cutting the faces of the cows from the hides, they remove the ears becuase these are made into dog chew treats. I hope your animal rights activists don’t like ice-cream.

In the tannery I used to work in they called them slinks