In a Jewish bar or bat mitzvah service, the handwritten scroll containing the Five Books of Moses is called a sefer Torah.
A sefer Torah is written by hand on parchment by a specially trained scribe called a sofer. Its text contains the Torah, also known as the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The scroll is formed from sheets of parchment attached to wooden rollers, often called atzei chaim, or “trees of life.”
During a bar or bat mitzvah service, the Torah scroll is taken from the ark and read publicly. The celebrant may receive an aliyah, chant verses, or deliver a teaching connected with the reading. A sefer Torah is not the same as a siddur, which is a prayer book, or a chumash, which is a printed volume containing the Torah and often commentary. Jewish communities handle Torah scrolls with special reverence.