SOFER, SO GOOD...
בס"ד
My mentor's reaction to the latest example of work I sent him:
"i am impressed with the improvement of the consistency of the wriitng. i am seeing a much more even texture which adds a lot to the quality of the page. i would still like to see better letters - stronger ayins in particular...
looking at your letters overall a strange thought came to me. there is a certain Sephardi feel to your letters - I am wondering if perhaps you don't have a more natural tendency to the Sephardi STaM script. i don't quite know what to tell you to do with this information - in an ideal world i would introduce you to a Sephardi Sofer and ask him to teach you some letters and see how it goes. but i don't know any Sephardi sofrim, (let alone one who might be willing to teach a woman) - but it still might be something to keep in the back of your mind and should an opportunity come up be ready to try it out."
My reply:
"I really appreciate hearing from you. Thanks for your e-mail.
I'm also grateful for your crit of my latest work. I agree with you, I am still struggling with Ayin. Don't blame yourself, tho', I probably just have some kind of deep, fraudulent, kabbalistic flaw in the cloth my soul is woven from...
I am so intrigued at your sense of the Sefardi flavour of my letters. Maybe this is a throwback to my Italian Jewish great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother. I would love to learn Sefardi script better, but you're right, there's a gender problem. I am the problem, apparently."
I am friendly with a Moroccan sofer st"m in Efrat...I wonder if he would consider me?
posted by Soferet | 11:34:00 p.m.
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6 Comments:
-.- ayin was the same thought i had but didn't comment because it is still (if i'm not mistaken and easily could be) kosher, scary. but that's what a person gets from doing caligraphy all their life and being chevrusa for people learning safrus. congrats though. :-)
בס"ד
Thanks, Halfnutcase :)
So, you're a calligrapher, are you? That's terrific! Do you ave any links to your art I can check out?
בס"ד
PS - despite trying to form Ayin properly since I was a child, it has always been my arch-nemesis, so I was only half-kidding when I expressed concern for my soul...
i did it as a hobby till i was about 14 and other concerns (namely something i had to take made my hands shake so bad i couldn't do it anymore) i had to give up. but now they don't shake to much and am trying to find a sofer to learn from.
בס"ד
Well, that's wonderful that you are on the derekh sofrut, Halfnutcase :)
I'm sure you have plenty of resources yourself as far as finding an Ashkenazi sofer ST"M to mentor you, but just in case you're in Yerushalayim & you'd like to learn from a very kind, very learned, very modest Bostoner Rabbi who can teach you the Kabbalah of the letters as well as all the rules, I highly recommend R' Dov Lehman. He teaches part time at Pardes, but also takes students privately. I learned Ramak with him & he is an amazing scholar & makes beautiful letters.
If you'd like, I can pass along his contact info. Either way, I wish you all the hatzlakha!
בס"ד
Yeah, he is truly amazing, barukh HaShem...
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