Rabbi Yehuda Rosilio, 64, was indicated on Tuesday, 30 Tishrei 5773 in the case of stolen Sifrei Torah in Eretz Yisrael. The case pertains to at least seven Sifrei Torah from Moshav Brosh in the south. The case is a bit complicated as police allege the rabbi, a sofer, was commissioned to write Sifrei Torah by community residents. The charges include fraud due to the alleged actions of the rabbi as detailed below.

He completed some of the Sifrei Torah, which were placed in the shul. When asked to write another in memory of a family member of the person commissioning his services, the rav stole a Sefer Torah and placed it into a different case (Sephardi Sefer Torah) and then presented it as a new one.

The case involves a number of Sifrei Torah and the suspect acted fraudulently in some of the cases, including one incident in which he borrowed klaf written by another sofer, presenting it to the client as his own work. It appears that he took orders and simply continued using the same Sifrei Torah, taking them from the shul and placing the klaf in new cases.

He stole Torahs written by other sofrim as well, and there appears to have been considerable effort on the rabbi’s part to present a number of Sifrei Torah as his own when this was not the case.

On Simchas Torah a child in the community asked his father to show him the actual ksav of the Sefer Torah. It was then that mispallalim realized the Torah taken to show the child was a heavy stock paper or cardboard type of material, which was similar, but clearly not klaf.

This led to an investigation and the arrest. The rav remains under house arrest and has been prohibited by the court from engaging in any STaM work whatsoever.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)