Just A PSA, Desecrating A Torah Is Not The Same As Burning A Bible.

Just a PSA, desecrating a Torah is not the same as burning a Bible.

Torahs are not mass produced, and cannot be mass produced due to how specific and strict the rules are for construction. They have to be handmade in a very specific process with specific materials (the scroll must be made of calf skin instead of paper, for example) A rabbi can reasonably spend about a year making a single torah. It must be written by hand in ink, and if a mistake is made on a page, the page must be thrown out and started from scratch. Because of this, torahs are often extremely expensive and delicate, and we have rules for how they are to be held and interacted with so as not to damage them. One of the most important rules is that you cannot touch the parchment of the scroll with your fingers, you have to use a pointer called a yad. This rule is for religious reasons, but also practical ones because the oils on your hands can damage the parchment very easily if touched regularly. That is how fragile these objects are.

In addition, if one is damaged, it is no longer considered kosher and must be replaced. There is obviously a spiritual reason for not wanting a torah to be harmed, but it’s also because they are extremely expensive, often very old heirlooms or artifacts, and handmade art pieces. Desecrating a torah is not just a symbolic gesture of disrespect to Judaism, it is destroying an expensive, old, and culturally significant art piece.

The Christian equivalent would be more along the lines of smashing stained glass windows in a historic church. Bible burnings as a form of protest are almost always done with copies you can buy for $15 at Barnes and noble. It is certainly meant to be disrespectful to the Christian faith, but it is not the same in terms of level of harm caused.

Bible burning vs torah desecration is a comparison made in bad faith I see occasionally to be like “why is antisemitism bad but being mean to Christians is fine?” But I’ve met a lot of well meaning gentiles who don’t fully know the cultural context or significance of the Torah and genuinely don’t understand the gravity of desecrating one.

@staff @staffs-secret-blog @support tell me why this was approved for blaze right fucking now

Worldbuilding stuff:

If your story has an idle nobility class, their culture shouldn't just be different from the general population, it should be an over-the-top caricature of the common folks' culture. Whatever the population generally agrees is ideal, fair, admirable, or good, the nobility will take into stupid extremes.

Contrary to the beliefs of many, people are actually not at all happy when they're idle - a person with no assigned task or duty will go out of their way to come up with one. And all around the world, whenever there's been an upper class with nothing to do, they've started to compete with each other over stupid shit, but always stupid shit that the culture they live in considers positive qualities.

From the noblemen in Europe challenging each other to a possibly lethal duel over insulting someone's hat, to a Chinese noblewoman being moved to tears by the beauty of someone's calligraphy, bored elites everywhere have always wanted to outdo each other in their expressions of possessing all the noble traits that this culture in particular holds in value.

You can, and should, use this as a way to highlight what the actual values of this society is. In a setting where being religious is held as an admirable trait, there is nobility coming up with new ways to one-up each other in their expressions of worship. Society that values art and music will have them competing over who hires the most artists, and who employs the most talented musicians. Aggressive, war-like people will have fuels to the fucking death over a stupid hat.

Literally anything can be competed in, and bored people with far too much time and money in their hands will become competitive over the most ridiculous things. This isn't just an useful tool in worldbuilding, but also a fun one.