Tiny Torah

Almost a year ago, I decided that K should have a toy Torah. She could carry it around at shul, dress and undress it, open and close it… in short, it would be a great toy that would also nurture her budding sense of Jewishness. There was only one problem. Actually, two. The first problem was that the only toy Torah I could find was the same plush version everybody else had; the second problem was that this was basically a pillow shaped like a Torah, one piece with no bits to take off, put on, open or close. It seemed pretty unexciting to me.

I think you know what’s coming next…

I decided to make my own toy Torah. I raided a pile of scraps for a beautifully shiny fabric for the cover, a textured fabric for the parchment, and something brown for the wooden handles. A bit of ribbon off a package of washcloths, some stuffing, a bit of leftover velcro, and some gold thread later… a Torah was born.

I had other ideas for it, like doing a transfer onto the parchment with a sentence or two of Torah text or doing an applique on the cover to make it prettier and more like the real Torahs K has seen. But time won out over perfectionism, and it’s been well received even without those embellishments.

Have a look: