These are Torah scrolls, or to be precise, Torah scroll cases. They belong to the owner of the house (Shevet is renting), and most probably the Torah itself is not inside (Quick google search returned that Torah scrolls cost $30,000 to $100,000 (all professionally handwritten).

Torah (5 Books of Moses, the first 5 books of the Old Testament; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) is the center of the God fearing Jews. As a Christian, I was a little bit scared by the sound of the word Torah, the Laws, which seemed to force rules and limitations on our daily life and rid of joy. As I started to read the scripture along with people who know the Hebraic perspective, I began to understand how the Jewish people love and seek Torah. It probably can be compared to how Christian love and seek Jesus. They have an annual cycle of Torah reading schedule. On Simchat Torah, which is the last day of the 7day-long Festival of Booth in fall, the cycle ends by finishing reading the last portion of Deuteronomy and starts with the first portion of Genesis right away. There is no single day without Torah. This important day is mentioned in the following verse.

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.

John 7:37

The Festival of Booth has a significant meaning for Christians, and if you are interested, readthis。

On Simchat Torah, those serious looking Jewish adult men dance jumping around and singing with full of joy, taking turns in holding the Torah scroll,Like this..How joyful they are with Torah make us smile. There is this folk dance called “Mayim Mayim” (Mayim means water) which is very familiar to us Japanese, and this is actually made for this dance on Simchat Torah. How the Jewish festival dance song ended up in Japan should be an interesting study topic.Video here.。

Torah is really the center of life for them. Below picture is the wall drawing on a school yard which I found while taking a walk in the neighborhood.

We can see, the Torah (top left), wine and bread, etrog and lulav (used in the Festival of Booth), shofar horn, olive tree, menorah, Jerusalem walls, tallit (prayer shawl), pomegranate, which are all symbols from the scripture.