CELLULOID SOFERET

BS"D
7 Av


Sasha Edge came over today to resume filming on her documentary about R' Haviva Ner-David, Danya Ruttenberg & me. It was great fun. Sasha's very cool. I'm not very eloquent in person, one of the reasons why I have a blog, so hopefully I won't come off as a total jerk in this movie. If I do, I'm sure it'll be all my own fault :)

After she interviewed me, she taped me writing. I explained on camera about Amaleyq (which is a fave theme of mine: I write about it here & speak some about it in this doc).

I cut a quill for her & then demonstrated how to test the quill before using it for any holy purpose: you test your nib (which any professional calligrapher would do anyway) by writing the name "Amaleyq" & then obliterating it. I write here that one crosses the name out with one horizontal stroke, however since then I have adopted the tradition that R' Dr Eric Ray, z"l, taught of: crossing the name out 3 times on an acute diagonal.

See:

"The Good, The Bad & The MacIntosh" ;)
That would be my Amaleyq scrap on top of my Pismo...

The above scrap of parchment will be ceremonially burned, complete with blessings, on the Eve of Tisha Be-Av (Wednesday). May this name & all its related behaviours be blotted out & erased & removed & destroyed from the souls of all people, Ameyn.

Later, I facilitated my first ever class at Pardes! YAY!
I had a lot more students than had signed up, but still a small enough group so I could easily come around & help anyone who needed with their lettering. Thank G@D!
The first day is always a bit jerky, what with folks getting used to using the tools & writing on klaf, plus there's an enormous amount of information exchange in the beginning, but we all went through 4 letters or so, discussed some sofrut, Kabbalah, practical applications, etc & even got to some Midrash. They were very god sports. I hope I see them all & their shiny, eager faces at the next class!

As I promised on the sign-up sheet, I gave each student a gall nut. When I explained what gall nuts were, they said "Ew", & left them on the tables. Oh well, all the more for me :)




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