Forty years after the Exodus from Egypt, when the Jewish people were finally preparing to enter the Land of Israel, Moses wrote down everything that God had told him on Mt. Sinai and in the desert. He wrote 13 scrolls on parchment, one for each of the 12 tribes of Israel, and one to place in the Tabernacle near (or inside) the Holy Ark. All Torah scrolls throughout the generations are ultimately copies of these original scrolls, meticulously copied by a scribe from an existent scroll.