When the manuscript expert Paul Mirecki discovered half of a Torah scroll—ripped asunder mid-verse—in the University of Kansas collections, he began a quest for the other half. Some two years later, he has found it and reconstructed the story of the scroll, thought to have been written sometime in the 18th century. Jon Niccum writes:

After a prolonged period of sporadic unrest and acts of terror, the situation in Israel has erupted this week. Almost nonstop rocket fire from Gaza began on Monday, with Hamas firing some 100 rockets at Tel Aviv in a short span of time last night, leaving at least three dead. Meanwhile riots have broken out in several cities, and an Arab mob in the city of Lod burned three synagogue and two schools, amidst other damage to persons and property. Yoav Limor, assessing the situation, explains that Hamas has renewed its ongoing war on the Jewish state: