MST 1431: The Torah That Took the Long Way Round

When a Jewish community is displaced, and forcibly moved from place to place because of antisemitism, they are not the only things that move. The Torah is very much a portable sanctuary and accompanies them in their exile, providing spiritual guidance and solace, and linking them back to their original place. No more so than the previously ignored MST #1431, that spent several decades as part of a museum exhibit, completely unrecognised. In this talk, Dr Marc Michaels, Sofer STa"M, details the discovery of an important scroll in the Czech Memorial Scrolls Trust collection. Examining the various clues that unlocked its true age, its geographical origin, and significance in the Jewish history of diasporic movement.

Dr Marc Michaels is a scholar of Hebrew manuscripts, Hebrew palaeography, Jewish scribal traditions, and the material history of sacred Hebrew texts. He received his PhD from the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge, where he was affiliated with Fitzwilliam College. His doctoral research focused on Sefer Tagin, the ancient scribal manual concerned with distinctive Torah letter forms, scribal ornamentation, and special traditions associated with the writing of Torah scrolls.

Alongside his academic research, Michaels is an experienced practising Sofer STa"M, working in his scribal practice under his Hebrew name Mordechai Pinchas. He has practised the traditional Jewish scribal craft for more than three decades and has worked with Jewish communities in the United Kingdom and internationally. The combination of practical scribal expertise and academic palaeography gives his research a distinctive perspective on the physical production, transmission, dating, identification, and interpretation of Hebrew sacred manuscripts.

Michaels is associated with the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University Library as a volunteer scholar. His research there focuses particularly on under-studied STa"M materials and Hebrew manuscript fragments. His work has included the identification and reassessment of Torah scrolls and other manuscripts that had previously been miscatalogued or misdated, as well as research into ancient Hebrew letter forms, mezuzot, Megillot Esther, scribal educational materials, and the historical development of Torah-writing traditions.

He is also associated with the Memorial Scrolls Trust as an approved scribe and has researched historic Torah scrolls and their scribal characteristics. His research on MST 1431 concerns the identification and reassessment of an important Torah scroll in the Czech Scrolls collection. His approach brings together palaeography, scribal practice, manuscript evidence, distinctive Hebrew letter forms, and traditions preserved in works such as Sefer Tagin in order to investigate the age, provenance, transmission, and historical significance of Torah scrolls.

Michaels' scholarship combines close manuscript examination with the history of Hebrew script, palaeographical dating, Masoretic and scribal traditions, and the interpretation of unusual letter forms. His doctoral research argues for significantly earlier origins for traditions preserved in Sefer Tagin and investigates the relationship between distinctive letter forms, visual textual traditions, covenantal interpretation, and Jewish ritual culture.

Sefer Tagin—Olde Face, Slab-Serifs and Semi-Ligatures: Covenantal Warnings and Reassurance. Re-housing the Temple Within the Torah
University of Cambridge

The thesis examines the form, history and function of Sefer Tagin and the distinctive letter forms associated with Torah scribal traditions.

Official record: Cambridge University Repository
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.117276

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