Thirteen years ago, Wessex Liberal Jewish Community acquired its scroll and used it for the first time. The congregation recently marked the milestone with a special Shabbat morning service, a kind of B’ Mitzvah for the scroll, sharing what is now known about its origins, including a number of recent discoveries.
The service was conducted by one of the community’s lay leaders, Michael Hart, with input from several members who were involved with the decision to buy the scroll in 2013. The invoice from the sofer (scribe) who had sold the scroll to the Wessex community presented the first surprise. It mentioned that the scroll had been written using the Vavei Amudim layout — nearly every column of the scroll begins with the letter vav. Even those members who often read or leyn from the scroll had been unaware of this. They and many other congregants were keen to gather round to have a look during the service.
Two facts were known for certain about the scroll: it originally came from Eastern Europe and, most recently, had belonged to a synagogue in Soho, London. Michael and his wife, Pam Fox, researcher and author of Jewish history, identified the Soho synagogue as the West End Great Synagogue in Dean Street, which closed in 1997 and is now the location of the Soho Theatre. During the service, Wessex members learnt about the history of the West End Great Synagogue, its rabbis and members, which helped to build a picture of this phase of the scroll’s history.
The big question remained: where had the scroll been written and initially used? Various contacts suggested different ways of exploring the question but each turned out to be a rabbit hole without leading to any real progress. Then Pam thought of using ChatGPT to assist. Within seconds the computer was displaying pages and pages of analysis based on a photo of a single column from the scroll, giving an approximate date for the writing of the scroll and narrowing down where it might have come from. Next, ChatGPT requested enlarged photos of specific letters, first alef, dalet and shin, then an even closer-up view of a chet, followed by an enlargement of a kof. Each time Pam supplied a photo, ChatGPT provided an increasingly detailed analysis. By the end, it had identified the scroll as having been written in an area close to the Lithuania/Belarus border.
There is more research to be carried out. ChatGPT has requested further photos and members of the Wessex community have been stimulated to carry out their own investigations. There are also questions about the origin of the mantle, which came with the scroll when it was purchased. Rabbi Miri Lawrence helped to identify the embroidery’s wording as ‘v’has’neh aynenoo oo-chal’, ‘And the bush was not consumed,’ from Exodus chapter 3, but so far it has not been possible to trace the identity of the donor, Esther Spector, or her father, Simchah Rafael ben David.
As for every B’ Mitzvah, there is more learning to come… Wessex members have been stimulated to carry on exploring. If anyone from another community would like more information about the research, you are welcome to contact Michael (michaelhart477@gmail.com) or Pam (pamfox@virginmedia.com).