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, September 09, 2005

WE ARE THE BORG: RESISTANCE IS FUTILE

בס"ד


5 Elul

I found this today. It was a fun, temporary diversion away from all my serious black & white Halakhic world...

Apparently, I am an Artificial Versatile Infiltration and Exploration Lifeform :)

The more non-observant people ask me to teach them sofrut, the more I am afraid that the future will hold more & more animosity between the streams of Judaism. For many Jewish women, "men" have always been the enemy, making rules for us & determining our roles without our consent throughout our history. But in the future, once it becomes common knowledge that shomeret mitzvot female sofrot like myself won't take on unobservant students, then "the Orthodox" will once again become the enemy.

*sigh*

I really mean, with all my heart, what I wrote here, but in the best, most respectful, non-judgemental, Jew-loving way possible.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Today at lunch Beit N was having a little whinge about how the Orthodox World doesn't take them seriously because they're Reform, cue righteous indignation and Orthodox-bashing. I felt rotten. It's not NICE of people to assume that just because they're Reform they don't care about the halacha and doing it properly...but in this case it's all too true...and that's making me unduly suspicious of Reformim in general, which is terrible. I think the shul world needs to develop a better culture of knowing where their Torahs came from. Everyone checks where their food came from - we need that to spread to sofrut.

4:54 p.m.  
Blogger Soferet said...

בס"ד
Aw, I'm so sorry to hear than, Jen. For the life of me, I don't understand why this sort of thing even happens. If someone chooses to join The Reform Club, then why complain about people in the club next door? Why not establish yourself as a strong, dedicated Reform Jew? If you can't stand in your own Truth, then you will always look outside of yourself to others for approval. This is the responsibility which comes with all of our choices. So if you choose to be part of a non-Halakhic movement, then you have to really be in that movement. If you choose to be a Halakhically motivated Jew (of whatever stream), then that is the bed you have made for yourself & you must lie in it.

On the microcosm of all this, I'm sorry that your co-workers were so selfishly insensitive to actually Orthodox-bash in your presence. That's just rude.

& I agree with you, 100%, that as many Jews as possible should be educated sufficiently that they can take an educated & concerned interest in where their sacred books & ritual items come from & whether they are up to standard.

3:01 p.m.  

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