In this episode of Hebrew Voices #162, Writing the Name of God in Torah Scrolls, Nehemia shows how blank spaces were left for Yehovah's holy name, which were then filled in during a second stage of writing. Nehemia presented this research last week to the world's top scholars at the European Association for Jewish Studies in Frankfurt, Germany.

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VIDEO CHAPTERS00:00 Intro to topic05:18 Reasons for filling in God’s name later18:43 Q&A

VERSES MENTIONEDGittin 54b (Babylonian Talmud)Soferim 5:7 [=Sefer Torah 5:6] (Talmud)Deuteronomy 6:4Exodus 34:6Berakhot 5:1, 9a (Jerusalem Talmud)Tosefta, Berakhot 3:22 [=Soferim B]

RELATED EPISODESHebrew Voices #102 – The Scribe’s ToolboxHebrew Voices #142 – Sign Language of the SynagogueSupport Team Study – The Dog Ate My Torah Scroll Hebrew Voices #145 – Decorative DoohickeysSupport Team Study – Paleo-Hebrew and Papal Parchment RepairHebrew Voices #144 – The Scribe of the Leningrad CodexSupport Team Study – Bible Vowels of Ancient Israel

RELATED BOOKSHilkhot Sefer Torah (ca. 12th c.)

OTHER LINKSMedieval scribal procedures for writing the Tetragrammatonby Nehemia Gordon

Inks Used to Write the Divine Name in a Thirteenth-Century Ashkenazic Torah Scroll: Erfurt 7 (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Ms. or. fol. 1216)by Nehemia Gordon, Olivier Bonnerot, and Ira Rabin

Writing and Correcting a Torah Scroll in Germany of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuriesby Grzegorz Nehring, Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), Berlin, Olivier Bonnerot, BAM and Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures(CSMC), Hamburg, Nehemia Gordon, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, and Ira Rabin, BAM and CSMC 

Distinguishing between seemingly identical inks using scanning µXRF and heat mapsby Grzegorz Nehring, Nehemia Gordon, Ira Rabin