Hundreds of Sifrei Torah, some more than 700 years old, are housed at a surprising location—a closed IDF base. Yisrael Hayom was allowed a rare look at the enormous storeroom at the IDF Rabbinate’s Shura base, where more than 400 Sifrei Torah are being safeguarded.
“There’s nothing like this in the world. The sense inside is as if you’ve gone down a time tunnel through the history of the Jewish people,” said Lt. Col. Shoham Orkaby, head of the Military Rabbinate’s Halachah department.
Because the Sifrei Torah are housed on a closed military base, the general public cannot see them.
“We’re happy to tell the story of the largest holy ark in the world through you,” said Orkaby.
The Sifrei Torah are housed on long industrial metal shelves in a warehouse known as the “Torah Treasury.”
“We have scrolls that are 750 years old, written on parchment thicker than what exists today. There are few scrolls like these in Israel, and we have dozens,” said Orkaby.
Most of the Sifrei Torah were used by Jewish communities that were destroyed. One was donated by Holocaust survivor Edward Mossberg after he took part in a Witness in Uniform delegation to Auschwitz.
“He bought the scroll from a Romanian peasant, who had hidden it in a barn, and made a cover for it that included the names of all the camps where his relatives had been, along with the numbers of those who survived. … Today, the scroll is used by the delegations to Poland,” said Orkaby.
Another Sefer Torah, known as “The Prisoner,” was taken into an Egyptian prison by an Israeli soldier captured in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In 2000, then-president of Egypt Hosni Mubarak agreed to comply with a request by then-President Ezer Weizmann, and the Sefer Torah was returned to the soldiers.
“Sadly, they kept half of it, and symbolically, it was torn right in the middle of the Priestly Blessing,” said Orkaby.
Sifrei Torah continue to arrive at the base.
“Every time we get one, we create its DNA, the story of its life, by researching its history and preserve it with awe because we understand what a treasure trove, what amazing things, we have,” said Orkaby. JNS
The G-dless IDF guarding the world’s largest Torah collection reminds me of the Nazis who planned to make the world Judenrein and save Jewish holy items in a museum.
How easy it is when you know no history.
Do facts need history?
Perfectly timed comment for bayn hamezorim.
People like you guarantee that we will be “zoche” to continue fasting for many years to come.
Shkoiach.
If anyone is causing the fast, it’s the G-dless IDF and not someone who’s troubled by it.
^^^^kind of like the brainless idiot in your case. ^^^^
What an intelligent remark.
This reminds me of the Journeys song about a sefer Torah “The Place Where I Belong”. How greatly appreciated would the histories of these sifrei Torah be by congregations that used them for their intended purposes. What feelings would a person have doing hakafos with a sefer Torah used by those who died al kiddush Hashem.