What a Find!

Yated Ne'eman reports on an 800 Year Old Sefer Torah Discovered in Argentina.

An ancient sefer Torah was recently discovered in Argentina. According to experts, the sefer Torah appears to have been written in Spain during the period of the Rambam. The sefer Torah was brought to Argentina from Rhodes island near Greece.

The Jewish community leaders who discovered the sefer Torah, turned to Machon Ot in Yerushalayim, which specializes in preserving and analyzing ancient sifrei Torah. They wanted to know how to preserve the ancient sefer Torah, whose letters are still clear and are kosher for Kriyas Hatorah.

The sefer Torah is an outstanding find since there almost doesn’t exist an entire sefer Torah heralding back to such an early period. At most, collectors are in possession of individual Torah parchment sections.

Due to the Argentinian community’s financial distress, the leaders are planning to put the sefer Torah up for auction in the U.S. and they plan to use the payment to help alleviate the community’s fiscal difficulties. The projected price they hope to receive for the sefer Torah is one million dollars.