• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Pointy Jewish Reading Stick?

Eddi

Agnostic
Premium Member
I have a memory of there being such as thing as a little stick with a little metal pointing hand at the end

I believe such things are used in Judaism? To keep track of the writing in a holy text, during either a public reading or in private study?

That the reader would move the thing across the text they were reading, to make it easier to follow?

I have no idea why I associate them with Judaism!

I have three questions:

1) Do such things actually exist?
2) Are they used in Judaism?
3) What are they called?

I have a similar system, whenever I do a reading at church I follow the text with the bottom-end of a pen, but I like the idea of there being a purpose-built tool for doing this
 

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
Yes, it's called a 'Yad' the Hebrew word for 'hand'. It's used in all denominations as far as I know. The idea is that touching the scroll will eventually put wear and tear on the written text.
 

Eddi

Agnostic
Premium Member
Yes, it's called a 'Yad' the Hebrew word for 'hand'. It's used in all denominations as far as I know. The idea is that touching the scroll will eventually put wear and tear on the written text.
I thought it was because touching a holy text with one's flesh is forbidden
 

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
@Rival and @Eddi,

What's interesting about this issue of touching the scroll with bare hands, is that the rationale is counter intuitive.

If I understand, it's not that the scroll itself is too holy to be touched; it's the opposite. The individual's hands were considered more holy/pure. The most common reason given is that the Torah scrolls were stored next to the grain-tithes. Grain-tithes attract vermin. Contact with vermin can transfer a specific level of impurity to the parchment. In order to be cautious about coming in contact with this type of impurity; touching the parchment is prohibited.

However, there seems to be debate whether or not this issue of impurity is relevant today; so, the most common answer given for not touching the parchment is in order to avoid damaging the actual text, the ink on the parchment.
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
@Rival and @Eddi,

What's interesting about this issue of touching the scroll with bare hands, is that the rationale is counter intuitive.

If I understand, it's not that the scroll itself is too holy to be touched; it's the opposite. The individual's hands were considered more holy/pure. The most common reason given is that the Torah scrolls were stored next to the grain-tithes. Grain-tithes attract vermin. Contact with vermin can transfer a specific level of impurity to the parchment. In order to be cautious about coming in contact with this type of impurity; touching the parchment is prohibited.

However, there seems to be debate whether or not this issue of impurity is relevant today; so, the most common answer given for not touching the parchment is in order to avoid damaging the actual text, the ink on the parchment.
I should think it would have been retained even just as a ritual.
 

Eddi

Agnostic
Premium Member
@Rival and @Eddi,

What's interesting about this issue of touching the scroll with bare hands, is that the rationale is counter intuitive.

If I understand, it's not that the scroll itself is too holy to be touched; it's the opposite. The individual's hands were considered more holy/pure. The most common reason given is that the Torah scrolls were stored next to the grain-tithes. Grain-tithes attract vermin. Contact with vermin can transfer a specific level of impurity to the parchment. In order to be cautious about coming in contact with this type of impurity; touching the parchment is prohibited.

However, there seems to be debate whether or not this issue of impurity is relevant today; so, the most common answer given for not touching the parchment is in order to avoid damaging the actual text, the ink on the parchment.
That's fascinating, thanks for sharing!
 
Top