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Today Mar Gavriel came round, and we sewed his megillah of Shir ha-Shirim.* We put reinforcments on it, too. I wouldn't normally put reinforcements on a megillah, especially not one which is only about ten inches high - it doesn't need it - but it's awfully cute.
Reinforcements are the things you see on the back of a sefer Torah, at the tops and bottoms of the seams. Next time you see someone holding the Torah up, snatch a look at the back; you see the things which look like Band-Aids? Those are reinforcements. They're little pieces of parchment cut to size and glued on.** They're the first line of defence against seams tearing - sort of like having a button at the top of a zipper; if there's a sudden jerk, the button might pop open, but the zipper will hopefully stay put. Same with a seam. You hope that if the Torah gets jerked (maybe it rolls off the amud, maybe hagbah overbalances), the reinforcement will hold, or at least absorb most of the shock, and stop the seam coming undone.
I also cleaned things. My RSI is playing up; cleaning is hard when certain usage of certain tendons is liable to cause pain. But things are cleaner than they were, and Pesach is on the way.
* which is part of the Pesach liturgy; normally people just read it out of a Bible, but if you're either very hardcore or very cool, you read it from a scroll.
** with kosher glue, people! Not with tape! And if you're missing a reinforcement, get it fixed. And if you really can't get it fixed, at least use archival tape, which won't stain and can be removed without damage.
Reinforcements are the things you see on the back of a sefer Torah, at the tops and bottoms of the seams. Next time you see someone holding the Torah up, snatch a look at the back; you see the things which look like Band-Aids? Those are reinforcements. They're little pieces of parchment cut to size and glued on.** They're the first line of defence against seams tearing - sort of like having a button at the top of a zipper; if there's a sudden jerk, the button might pop open, but the zipper will hopefully stay put. Same with a seam. You hope that if the Torah gets jerked (maybe it rolls off the amud, maybe hagbah overbalances), the reinforcement will hold, or at least absorb most of the shock, and stop the seam coming undone.
I also cleaned things. My RSI is playing up; cleaning is hard when certain usage of certain tendons is liable to cause pain. But things are cleaner than they were, and Pesach is on the way.
* which is part of the Pesach liturgy; normally people just read it out of a Bible, but if you're either very hardcore or very cool, you read it from a scroll.
** with kosher glue, people! Not with tape! And if you're missing a reinforcement, get it fixed. And if you really can't get it fixed, at least use archival tape, which won't stain and can be removed without damage.
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