A Robot Writes Out a Torah Scroll at Berlin's Jewish Museum

On July 10, 2014 Phys.org reported on the demonstration of a Torah-writing robot at the Jewish Museum Berlin, Germany (Jüdisches Museum Berlin) by the German artists group robotlab.

". . . . 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."