Torah Pointers

Sterling Silver Jewish Torah Pointers

The yad is one of the most specialized objects in Jewish ritual life. It exists for one purpose: to allow the Torah reader to track the words on the parchment without touching the scroll itself, since the natural oils of the human hand would damage the calligraphy and the parchment over time. The yad is typically eight to twelve inches long, with a slender shaft and a small pointing hand (or sometimes an abstract pointer) at the tip.

Our Torah pointer collection is built around the two main occasions on which yads are commissioned. The first is the Bar Mitzvah: when a boy reads from the Torah for the first time, his family often presents him with a personal yad engraved with his Hebrew name and the parsha (Torah portion) he reads, sometimes also the Hebrew date of his Bar Mitzvah. The second is the congregational gift: when a family donates a yad to their synagogue (often in memory of a relative) it is engraved with the name of the synagogue, the name of the relative being honored, and the date of the donation.

Designs include classical Yemenite-filigree yads (with the shaft and handle woven from fine silver threads), modern contemporary yads (cleaner geometric shafts with brushed or polished finishes), and combination pieces incorporating Eilat stone, Roman glass, or carved Jerusalem stone at the handle. The pointing tip is consistently a small human hand with the index finger extended, faithful to the traditional form. Sterling silver pieces are hallmarked with the .925 stamp. Every yad is made to order in our Jerusalem workshop with the requested engraving (which we send as a digital proof before production), and ships worldwide with a certificate of authenticity.