The Symbolic Representation of the Sefer Torah - Maqom

important is that it was placed with the tablets (or broken tablets) containing the Ten Commandments thatwas the word of G-d. Placing the Sefer Torah alongside the Ten Commandments meant that its level ofsacredness was parallel to that of the Ark of the Covenant and its contents. Thus the Sefer Torah written byMoses, according to the word of G-d and possessing the sacredness of the Decalogue, would retain thisholy status in the collective memory of the Jew even after the destruction of the Temple and the loss of theArk of the Covenant.The Sacredness of the Sefer TorahVan der Toorn argues in his essay (1997, pp 229-248) that, since the Israelites did not worship idolsand could not use physical entities to represent their deity, they required a substitute image or icon toidentify with and symbolically represent sacredness. 9 The pagans carried idols on their persons, just as theIsraelites carried portions of the Torah as represented in phylacteries that contain parchments with Torahpassages written upon them. Pagan households (as found among the Babylonians) had figurines todissuade demons and dangers from entering their homes, while the Israelites placed mezzuzoth containingwords from the Scripture on their doorposts. As an alternative to the shrine housing the images of thepagan deity, the Cohen or the Israelite priest carried an ark containing a Torah attributed to the pen ofMoses.On page 234, Van Der Toorn reminds his readers that, although silent, those replicas of cult imageshad their own way of speaking to convey their message. These smaller images not only retained thememory of the real living object but also stimulated the devotion of the believer. Even for those who didnot conceive of the Deity as a physical entity, and for whom any visual representation of the Lord wascondemned and forbidden, the image of the Sefer Torah ( though not of the Deity) was the expression ofthe divine and the manifestation of the sacred. The Israelites were the people of the Torah and, from apsychological perspective, the Torah replaced the void with the image needed. The Torah thus served a9 See also Hendel 1997, pp. 205-228.4