Sotheby’s is selling one of the smallest Torah scrolls in existence, and it’s not even the priciest thing in the room

Sotheby’s announced this week that its December Judaica sale, aptly titled “Magnificent Judaica,” will include one of the smallest known Torah scrolls in existence—no estimate disclosed yet, though “smallest” and “Sotheby’s” together should tell you what range we’re in.

That’s not even going to be the top lot. That distinction goes to a mahzor created in Italy around 1475 by Joel ben Simeon—one of the only Jewish artists of the medieval period whose name we actually know, as opposed to “workshop of” or “school of.”

The prayer book is estimated at $3 million to $5 million, and per Sharon Liberman Mintz, Sotheby’s longtime senior Judaica specialist, it hasn’t been shown publicly in a century. She told JNS that the illustrations get a little playful, think a shofar mid-blast, a faun holding a lulav and etrog, which is either an inside joke from 1475 or proof that marginalia has always been where the personality lives.

There’s more: the December 17 sale also includes a fifteenth-century Italian Roman Rite mahzor and a monumental circa-1300 German Hebrew Bible, each estimated between $2 million and $4 million, plus an illuminated Sefer Mitzvot Gadol by Moses of Coucy, the thirteenth-century French rabbi behind one of the foundational Tosafist texts, estimated at $1 million to $2 million. There’s also Judaica silver connected to the Rothschild family and, we’re told, one of the smallest known Torah scrolls in existence, because apparently that’s a category with rankings. Sotheby’s says more property will be announced before the sale.

As always, the auction house will open its York Avenue galleries to the public for a free preview in the days before the sale. It’s one of the few times a Roman Rite mahzor gets more foot traffic than the Judaica section of your average yeshiva library, mostly because this one comes with security detail and museum lighting.

We’ll say what everyone standing in that gallery will be thinking but not saying out loud: institutional acquisition committees are about to have a very expensive December and the rest of us are going to look at a $3 million prayer book, admire the penmanship, and go home to a mahzor with a coffee ring on page 40 and a grocery list tucked into Kol Nidre.

Sotheby’s has not announced ticketing details for the preview exhibition. We assume RSVP-only, and we assume everyone’s rabbi is already on the list.