Berlin – Robot Writes Torah At Berlin’s Jewish Museum

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    A robot writes a Torah at an installation in the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, July 10, 2014. It is an installation by the artist group robotolab. The robot is equipped with a pen nib and ink and will write the Torah in human speed. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)Berlin – The robot’s quill runs across the paper scroll, from right to left, scribbling down ancient Hebrew letters with black ink. It is penning down the Torah, the Jews’ holy scripture, and it is doing it much faster than a rabbi could because it doesn’t need to take breaks.

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    The Torah-writing robot was developed by the German artists’ group robotlab and was presented for the first time Thursday at Berlin’s Jewish Museum. While it takes the machine about three months to complete the 80-meter (260-foot) -long scroll, a rabbi or a sofer — a Jewish scribe — needs nearly a year. But unlike the rabbi’s work, the robot’s Torah can’t be used in a synagogue.

    “In order for the Torah to be holy, it has to be written with a goose feather on parchment, the process has to be filled with meaning and I’m saying prayers while I’m writing it,” said Rabbi Reuven Yaacobov. The Berlin rabbi curiously eyed the orange-painted robot as it ceaselessly wrote down the first book of Moses. Yaacobov then showed visitors the traditional way of writing the Torah the way it’s been done for thousands of years.

    Matthias Gommel from robotlab said the robot initially wrote down the Christian Bible in German, Spanish and Portuguese before it was reprogrammed with the help of an Israeli graphic designer.
    A robot writes a Torah at an installation in the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, July 10, 2014. It is an installation by the artist group robotolab. The robot is equipped with a pen nib and ink and will write the Torah in human speed. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
    Both the robot and the rabbi are part of the exhibition “The Creation of the World” about the significance of Hebrew handwritings in Judaism. The show also presents Hebrew scrolls, wedding contracts and other medieval documents from the Braginsky Collection. The robot will be on show through January 2015 — the rabbi and the scrolls will only be there until Aug. 3.

    Rabbi Reuven Yaacobov shows how write a Torah at an exhibition in the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Thursday, July 10, 2014. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)


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    13 Comments
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    yaakov doe
    Member
    yaakov doe
    9 years ago

    I assume it’s kosher for a minyon of robots who recite their tefillah by wrote.

    BenZvi
    BenZvi
    9 years ago

    Is this what the holy Divrei Chaim was thinking when he proclaimed that machine matzoh is chometz?

    jsjcbs
    jsjcbs
    9 years ago

    Is this Kosher? Does it need to be L’Shmaa?

    9 years ago

    Will Mr. Roboto please come down for minyan?

    9 years ago

    This invention is great. Can’t wait to buy a robot like this to produce Gittin, teffilin and megilos.

    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    9 years ago

    Soooooo not good.

    MarkTwain2
    MarkTwain2
    9 years ago

    It will be great for a minyan of cell phone users davening on auto pilot.

    StevenWright
    Member
    StevenWright
    9 years ago

    Does it go to the mikveh before writing Hashem’s name?

    greuv
    greuv
    9 years ago

    the tagim looked a little shvach.

    HighIQ
    HighIQ
    9 years ago

    You lot write such cool comments – some of them are really funny (sadly a little truth in them as well)

    NeveAliza
    NeveAliza
    9 years ago

    If the Germans would have left a few Jewish scribes alive decades ago, perhaps they wouldn’t need robots today.

    benzion
    benzion
    9 years ago

    It doesn’t have to be written with a goose feather, and a sofer doesn’t say prayers while writing. It must me written Lishmah.

    9 years ago

    I think I had heard that R2D2 was a jew. C3PO was a righteous gentile. They got along well. R2 might have really liked this robo-sofer. But of course, no one really thinks that it matters in the Rebellion. Most people are more interested in the reasons why the Force is more bestowed on the Jedis.