According to the cycle of the Torah reading the parchment of Torah is continuously shifted from one rod to another. On Simchat Torah (the holiday for rejoicing over the Torah) at the turn of the annual reading cycle, the scroll is ritually rolled back to the beginning. In Europe, Ashkenazi Jewish communities, the scroll is first tied, and then dressed in a fine Torah-coat, which is further adorned by various Torah-ornaments, typically made from precious metals. The making and use of these ornaments is not required by law, but they are symbols of how greatly the Torah-scroll is admired, prompting the desire to adorn it. The Torah-shield is the most recent of these items; it developed in the sixteenth century. A possible reason for its development is a functional one. Most probably they were made in order to use the small slots on the Torah-shield to indicate to which Torah portion that scroll was rolled. Vienna, 1805.