Antique Jewish silver Torah pointer 84th probe, Russian Imperial, 1873. Artist: И.А. Length: 7 inches = 18 cm Weight: 19.4 g; Provenance: brought to USA by Russian immigrants after 1917. A yad (Hebrew: יד, romanized: yad; Yiddish: האַנט, romanized: hant, lit. 'hand') is a Jewish ritual pointer, or stylus, popularly known as a Torah pointer, used by the reader to follow the text during the Torah reading from the parchment Torah scrolls. It is often shaped like a long rod, capped by a small hand with its index finger pointing from it. Beyond its practical usage in pointing out letters, the yad ensures that the parchment is not touched during the reading. There are several suggested reasons for this, including the mistaken idea that the fragile parchment is easily damaged by skin oils. However, the reason provided by the Talmud and other aspects of Jewish tradition state that the original reason was related to ritual purity.[1][2] While not required when chanting from the Torah, a yad is used frequently and is considered a hidur mitzvah ("embellishment of the commandment") of reading the Torah.