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One day the Jews in the town decided to renovate the Torah. I don’t remember why, perhaps it was damaged, after all the Torah gets damaged like all other books, the paper becomes yellow. When the Torah got damaged, it had stains or tears, you’d have to organize a funeral for the Torah, bury it in the ground, like for a person. [When a Torah is no longer usable, it should be placed in a waterproof container and buried.] The Torah was written with a goose quill, on parchment. There was a specialist to do this. [The Torah Scrolls are written in holiness by a religious man who is also a qualified scribe, always hand-written on parchment scrolls in attractive Hebrew calligraphy known as ‘STAM’ (Sifrei Torah, Tefillin and Mezuzot).] He used to live in Kielce and he took money for copying the Torah. You’d have to pay for each letter. When the community decided to buy a new Torah, they announced it in town and waited for donations. When on Saturdays [Sabbath] and holidays Jews were called upon to read fragments of the Torah, they had to say how many letters for the writing of the Torah they wanted to buy, that is how much they wanted to donate. One bought himself five letters, another ten, another 50. It depended on how much they could afford.
My father also bought, donated a few letters, but not too many, because he didn’t have enough for food. So the Torah would be written and money collected. The Jews would make these donations orally, because you couldn’t have money with you on a Saturday. If the city was not surrounded by telephone wires, then you couldn’t carry anything in your pockets on Saturdays and walk too far on foot. [Editor’s note: surrounding the city with wires was connected with separating Sabbath space. This space was treated as one’s own apartment, where you could move around freely, without breaking religious rules.] Only after electricity had been installed in the city, were you able to carry money with you in the area where there were wires. When there was no eruw [expanding the Sabbath borders], then people didn’t carry any objects with them, especially on Saturdays. Later, even when we had the wires, you still couldn’t carry any money. Buying, handling money, giving it to someone, that was all strictly prohibited. You could only carry a handkerchief in your pocket. I know about these wires from the Torah, it’s written somewhere there, in the writings. [Editor’s note: The referred regulation takes part of the Talmud, the Mishnah, Tract Eruvin, Chapter 5: Regulations concerning the boundaries of a town and the measurements of the legal limits.]
Then, after the writing of the Torah was done, you’d have to put all these pages together, this cover would be made, and one more with golden edges, and these handles [Yad] would be made, silver crowns and lions, because the Jewish symbols are usually two lions holding the Torah. [The lion of Judah is one of the most popular symbols of the Jewish people.] You can see them everywhere, like next to prayer houses. And then, when everything was ready, a date would be set when all the tzaddiks, religious Jews, got together and there was a huge ceremony when these so-called scrolls, that is the Torah, were carried into the prayer house. It was later kept in this special cupboard [aron kodesh], it’s a holy place.
My father also bought, donated a few letters, but not too many, because he didn’t have enough for food. So the Torah would be written and money collected. The Jews would make these donations orally, because you couldn’t have money with you on a Saturday. If the city was not surrounded by telephone wires, then you couldn’t carry anything in your pockets on Saturdays and walk too far on foot. [Editor’s note: surrounding the city with wires was connected with separating Sabbath space. This space was treated as one’s own apartment, where you could move around freely, without breaking religious rules.] Only after electricity had been installed in the city, were you able to carry money with you in the area where there were wires. When there was no eruw [expanding the Sabbath borders], then people didn’t carry any objects with them, especially on Saturdays. Later, even when we had the wires, you still couldn’t carry any money. Buying, handling money, giving it to someone, that was all strictly prohibited. You could only carry a handkerchief in your pocket. I know about these wires from the Torah, it’s written somewhere there, in the writings. [Editor’s note: The referred regulation takes part of the Talmud, the Mishnah, Tract Eruvin, Chapter 5: Regulations concerning the boundaries of a town and the measurements of the legal limits.]
Then, after the writing of the Torah was done, you’d have to put all these pages together, this cover would be made, and one more with golden edges, and these handles [Yad] would be made, silver crowns and lions, because the Jewish symbols are usually two lions holding the Torah. [The lion of Judah is one of the most popular symbols of the Jewish people.] You can see them everywhere, like next to prayer houses. And then, when everything was ready, a date would be set when all the tzaddiks, religious Jews, got together and there was a huge ceremony when these so-called scrolls, that is the Torah, were carried into the prayer house. It was later kept in this special cupboard [aron kodesh], it’s a holy place.
Period
Interview
Jakub Bromberg