Invaluable Torah scrolls revealed in new National Library of Israel series

This year, in advance of Shavuot, the National Library of Israel (NLI) has released a series of video clips featuring four of the most significant Torah scrolls from its world-leading Judaica collection. Due to their exceedingly delicate state, the scrolls aren't generally available for public viewing and were only brought out from the library's vaults for a few minutes to be filmed and photographed, with approval and supervision from conservation experts.

The items featured include fragments from a 1,000 year-old Yemenite Torah scroll, which were found in a bookbinding, as well as one of the world's smallest legible Torah scrolls, measuring just 6cm in height.

The other two scrolls featured have exceptional stories behind them, such as the 'Rhodes Torah', which scholars believe was written in Iberia in the 15th century and that Sephardic refugees brought it to Rhodes, where it was used for hundreds of years in the Kahal Shalom Synagogue – now the oldest synagogue in Greece. Just a few days before the Nazis deported nearly all Jews from Rhodes in 1944, the scroll was smuggled out and placed in the custody of the local mufti, Sheikh Suleyman Kasiloglou, who is said to have hidden the Torah under the pulpit of a local mosque.

The final scroll in the series was believed to have been owned by Saul Wahl, a prominent Jewish merchant and adviser to royalty who, according to legend, served as King of Poland for just one day in the late-16th century. It's staves are made of ivory and horns, and it's decorated with silver. It also comes with its own miniature holy ark, featuring a door made from a 17th-century Torah shield.

Each day leading up to Shavuot weekend, the NLI is posting a new clip on Facebook and Twitter. You can also watch all the clips on the NLI YouTube page.

Header image: 6cm Torah © Amit Dekel Productions