The holy book of Judaism is the Pentateuch and is called the Sefer Torah or Scroll of the Law, handwritten on parchment. It is always stored in an upright position in a special niche in the synagogue, in accordance with age-old dictates on the storage of precious books. Jews all over the eastern Mediterranean, North Africa and Near East still keep the Torah scroll in a tik, which derives from thiki, the Greek word for a case. The tik has a fabric covering and is only opened for the Reading of the Law. Romaniote religious practice requires the Holy Books to be read while still in the tik and still upright. Sephardic Jews secure the scroll with a binder approximately halfway up, drape it with a cloth and hold it at a slight angle while reading.
The outside of the wooden tik is decorated with scenes engraved or drawn on its surface, or it may be covered with silver leaf, often parcel gilt. It is usually draped with an embroidered cloth called a mappah. The parchment scrolls are rolled up on wooden or ivory staves, the etzei haim, or Trees of Life, tipped with silver or mother of pearl rimonim, i.e. pomegranates, an ancient symbol of fertility and life. The rimonim often have small bells dangling from them to represent the joy of reading the Torah. Each scroll with its staves is placed in a wooden or ivory receptacle. In Sephardic custom, a metal crown, called the keter or atarah, is placed at the top to signify the importance of the Crown of the Pentateuch.
The tas, a silver plaque, which recalls but does not resemble the breastplate worn by Biblical high priests, and the yad, a pointer, often decorated with a tiny silver hand, which protects the parchment from damage, are both associated with the Reading of the Torah.
