Hebrew lessons typically start several years, not several months, before your 13th birthday, and since I had no facility for language in the first place, it was only a couple of weeks before my teachers deemed me hopeless and, instead of teaching me Hebrew, had me performing maintenance chores, such as cleaning the school's blackboards.

WSJ: Passover Challenged

But a pint-size scroll about 12 inches tall, with elaborately styled Hebrew text, "can take a few more months of work, " he says, explaining how the smaller characters require a slower, more careful hand.

WSJ: When Handling Precious Scrolls, Torah Lifters Pray for Successful Hoist