How Is Esther’s Megillah Written?

Megillat Esther or The Book of Esther is part of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). The original manuscript was written by Esther’s uncle Mordecai. It was added to the Tanakh by the Great Assembly in the third or fourth century BCE.

Introduction

Esther’s Megillah or scroll is written by scribes on vellum or parchment made from the hide of a kosher animal. Kosher ink is mixed. According to the Pen Lovers Network, the recipe for kosher ink involves mixing gum arabic, copper or iron sulfate, oak galls, water, and coal soot. Feathers from kosher birds are used to make quills. The Megillah is written by a special scribe called a sofer in Biblical Hebrew.

Photo by By Tilemahos Efthimiadis from Athens, Greece [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Ingredients

If you would like to try to write a small portion of Megillat Esther, you can purchase:

vellum
a quill
and some archival quality ink

Preparation

Decorate your section with colorful inks to create an illuminated megillah!