What is an example of an authentic Hebrew Torah/Tanach scripture/book, entirely in Hebrew script, like you would find in a Jewish Temple. I have found this, which seems to have these traits:
- justify the text
- new paragraph per block of some kind?
- hebrew page numbers
I don't think this is the most accurate, authentic representation of it however. I am basically looking for what the formatting is like in the most authentic Jewish Hebrew texts. For example, I have seen some texts where there is a large/long space in between parts of the text, I don't know what it's called or how it's used. Also, I don't know if paragraphs or sections are created within the text or if it s one block of text. Also, if the verse/chapter numbers are placed interlaced in the text, or parentheses used, or whatnot.
I am looking for examples (maybe just images online would be helpful), of Torah-only texts, not Torah's filled with footnotes and citations and references of all kinds. Just the pure Torah, what authentic traditional Torah books or scrolls look like, formatting-wise, in today's world.
Answer
There is what's usually called a "Torah scroll" in English, which is what we read from during official public Torah-reading ceremonies a few times a week, and then there's everything else.
The Torah scroll has rules about how it must be written, though there are some disputes about those rules, and done things are left to the discretion or local tradition of the scribe. To address your question: text is justified right and left; paragraphs are denoted by spaces, from the end of the paragraph either until the end of the line or for a short gap; there is no page numbering (nor, for that matter, verse or other numbering) included; there are several columns of text per sheet of parchment. (Oh, did I mention it's handwritten on parchment? It is. And the sheets are not bound in a stack but sewn end to end to make a long scroll.) There are occasional departures from this layout for poetry, where the text is laid out more… poetically. (Actually, "Torah scroll" refers to the scroll of the first five books of the bible. We also have similar scrolls of other books of the bible — but not nowadays of any other books — and the layout is basically the same.)
Other books, including other copies of the Torah, have no such rules and you can find all sorts of formats. Really all sorts: some break it up by chapter or other man-devised paragraph system; some have no paragraph breaks at all; some have just a few words per line with translation on the side; some have just a few words per page with commentary; I've seen bible text written in tiny letters in various directions, arranged to form a shape; you name it.
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