Netivat Sofrut: diary of a Soferet

Adventures of a female sofer learning to heal the world by doing Holy Work...writing a Sefer Torah

נחזיר את השכינה למקומה בצייון ובתבל כלה

"Let us restore the Divine In-Dwelling to Her Place in Zion & infuse Her spirit throughout the whole inhabited world."

So wherever we are, let us bring the Peace of G@d's Presence.

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Location: Vancouver/London, British Columbia/UK, Canada

SCRIBAL EVANGELIST As the only living certified Soferet (סופרת - female Jewish ritual scribe) & the first woman to practice sofrut (creation of sacred Hebrew texts) in over 200 years, I feel an obligation to blog about my experiences of The Work. I am also currently researching the foundation of a lost tradtion of women practicing this holy craft. For more on the services I provide, please see Soferet.com; Sofrut Nation. I am now available to engage with students, male or female, wishing to enter into the preliminary stage of learning sofrut. You are welcome to join me on this path. "Tzedeq, tzedeq tir'dof - Justice, justice you shall pursue." Devarim/Deuteronomy 16:20.

Friday, June 10, 2005

CHILD BIRTH PROTECTION AMULET

בס"ד

Xoe amulet

"Xoatchl's Birth Amulet" copyright © A. Barclay
Dyo on qlaf

Translation/transliteration from outside to inside:
Around the edge, "In the name of HaShem G@d of Israel to my right Mikha'el to my left Gavri'el before me Ori'el behind me Rafa'el & above me The Divine Presence for Zandra daughter of Alisa daughter of Norberta daughter of Mikha'elah"

Bottom: "Open for me the Gates of Righteouness & I will enter, praising G@d." (Tehilim/Psalms 118:19)

Letters in star pattern: "ARGaMaN" (traditional acronym invoking the angels Ori'el (G@d's light), Rafa'el (G@d's healer), Gavri'el (G@d's strength), Mikha'el (G@d-likeness) & Nuri'el (G@d's flame). Argaman is the royal purple colour referred to in the Torah to be used in the Mishkan & the Temple

Three names in inverted triangle arrangement: "Sanvei, Sansanvei, Semangelef" (Three angels who, according to Midrash, traditionally are thought to protect mothers & children from being harmed by Lilith)

Centre: "Zoe"

The amulet/qame'a is round like a mother-to-be's full belly. All the letters draw a shield around & spiral into the centre, bringing the focus of protection & blessing through the invoked Gates of Righteouness, through a Magen David shape, through an inverted triangle symbolic of the mother's birth canal/Gate of Life to the middle of the parchment, with the emerging child's name. The child's name was transliterated in a way that it would have the gematria of 18 (life).


As a Soferet, I am called upon to create written prayers, psalms and names of G@d or angels, for people who seek a concrete way of requesting Divine help. Qame’ot (protection amulets) & Segulot (empowerment amulets, from the Hebrew root “to become capable or chosen”) are not magical spells or objects of idolatry, but tools for focused consciousness-raising. I write these as we have done in our Tradition for millennia. As this is a special, personal gift from G@d to share I provide these for a donation to your charity of choice. Gotta keep the flow of chesed free in the world!

10 Comments:

Blogger Alisha said...

Cool! My detail-oriented mind (we've had this exchange before, I think) has a couple of questions:

1) What you transliterated as "Mikha'elah" (feminine version of Michael -- I know our transliteration spelling style is different) you spelled in the Hebrew as "Michala," i.e without the aleph. Is that an error in the transliteration or in the text, or neither -- the woman just spells it like that?

2)How could something like this be made with the name of the emerging child in the center? As far as I know, most people who'd be likely to want something like this probably wouldn't be sharing the name of the child -- if they knew it at all before birth -- until the brit or official naming.

9:39 p.m.  
Blogger Soferet said...

בס"ד
Hey, Alisha - glad toy like it!
That's how the woman's name was spelled. & the parents knew what sex the baby was & had already picked out a name which they wanted incorporated into the amulet. It was so inspiring, I wish I could make personalized birth amulets more often!
Im yirtzeh HaShem...
Shavu'ah tov!

10:48 p.m.  
Blogger Soferet said...

בס"ד
BTW, I love your new pic :)

10:49 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Beautiful! What a wonderful energy that flows into the world through you.

5:57 p.m.  
Blogger Soferet said...

בס"ד
Many heartfelt thanks, Al. It all comes from G@d, so may we be blessed to keep our neshamahs open to The Source sufficiently that we channel more of HaMaqom into, out of & through HaMaqom.
:)

5:43 p.m.  
Blogger Peter said...

I would ad to Al's comment that you are also generating the mitzvah of learning, here. I had no idea of this practice or this beauty; it resonates especially with me as I have a new grandson (June 7).

3:47 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Beautiful! I linked to you from my post at The Jewish Connect (http://ajewishsoul.blogspot.com)

Also, just by the way, you might want to shrink the picture a bit so it won't push your sidebar down to the bottom of the page. You can do this by editing the HTML for the image -- the IMG SRC tag -- and adding in specifics for width and height of the image.

8:07 p.m.  
Blogger Soferet said...

בס"ד
Peter! Mazal tov & congratulations on your new grand son! How is his mummy doing? What's his name? Blessings on your whole family!
:D

4:20 p.m.  
Blogger Soferet said...

בס"ד
Thanks for linking to me, Mirty - that's really nice of you. & thank you also for the html advice. I'm pretty web-ignorant, writing with a feather on skin all day (Hubby did my web site), so I'll try out your suggestion as soon as I figure out what it means ;+>

Danya - THANK YOU! The couple really inspired me. I wrote this for the expectant mother in her eighth month & they delivered a healthy, happy little girl 3 years ago...

4:28 p.m.  
Blogger Soferet said...

בס"ד
Oh, & btw, I also found the way I spelled the baby girl's name indicated she was female, with the Zayin-Alef combo (as in zot)...

10:59 a.m.  

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