The Hebrew Scroll of Judges was written before the 20th century in Lithuania or Poland. It survived the Holocaust, but was damaged and was finally brought to Israel.
The yad, hand pointer, is showing the place where Samson is given his name.
You can clearly see the iron gall ink degradation on many letters. There are at least two types of ink failure on the Scrolls. One is when, with age, the letters fade from black to light brown. The type seen here is when parts of the letters do not adhere to the skin and flake off. Both types of degradation render Scrolls pasul, not kosher.
Since the Hebrew Scrolls have been copied for thousands of years and have been kept accurate by the Soferim it is critical that every letter retains its proper form.
