A friend of mine recently pointed out to me this article from Wired, which is about congregational solutions to prevent thefts of Torah. There are a number of interesting issues raised.
The article notes that Torahs are essentially anonymous. You can’t write any identifying information on them: no bar codes, no address labels, no “drop in any mailbox and we’ll pay return postage”. Jewish law dictates that not one character can be added to the 304,805 letters of the Torah’s text. And evidently, Torah theft is common: they are normally not locked up, and are relatively easy to sell. So what do you do?
There are two solutions mentioned in the article. One approach is called the Universal Torah Registry. In this approach, a synagogue mails in a form with their contact information and the number of Torahs they want to place in the system, and the registry sends back a computer-coded template for each scroll. The 3.5- by 8-inch template has eight holes arranged so their position relative to one another describes a unique identification number in a proprietary code. A rabbi uses the template to perforate the coded pattern into the margins of the scroll with a tiny needle. To keep an enterprising thief from swapping the perforated segment with a section from another stolen scroll in some kind of twisted Torah chop shop, the registry recommends applying the code to 10 different segments of the scroll. The code contains self-authentication features that keep a thief from invalidating it by just adding an extra hole in an arbitrary location. Someone finding the Torah can use the pattern to map back to the ID number, which is linked to the rightful owner in a database. The system is legal under a rabbinical ruling issued in the 1980s that says it’s kosher to make small perforations in a Torah, based on the notion that punctures are already used to sew different panels of the parchment together. The database currently tracks 10,000 Torahs, mostly in the United States.
The second appoach is called the International Torah Registry. It takes advantage of the handcrafted nature of the Torahs, and the fact that although the content is always the same, the position of the lettering varies from scroll to scroll. By measuring the distances between letters at certain standardized points, and entering them into a computer program, a 20-digit number is generated that uniquely identifies each Torah. The organization also has about 10,000 registered Torahs in its computer, about half in Israel and half in the United States, where the group sends experts several times a year to enter new scrolls into the system, and perform inspections and evaluations of Torahs.
However, both systems cost money. Many congregations evidently go the physical security route: alarm systems, locked doors to the ark, motion detectors, etc. I would guess that for the most Orthodox, there might be some halachic implications to some of those.
As a P.S.: I just notice that the article quoted Rabbi Gerry Raiskin. I remember Rabbi Raiskin when he was a rabbi at Camp Hess Kramer when I was growing up!
[Crossposted to my journal and weirdjews]
