SILVER SCREEN SOFERET

בס"ד
14 Tamuz


I finally had a chance to review the latest documentary I'm in (number 3, with a 4th to be filmed this summer in Jerusalem), by LA resident & fellow Canadian Judy Kriger. Check out her very cool animation & movie site, Media Garden, here.

"Write For Yourselves" is a really clear, informative, fun & inspirational story of Jewish scribal arts in general, Torah scrolls in particular. Judy's passion draws you into her film & keeps you there with the characters she chose to interview (I am the least of them) & the cracking good animation component.

Sofer ST"M Ron Sieger makes an appearance & gives over some great Midrash & Halakahah. He also has the courage to speak of the fraud commonly practiced by "sofrim" these days. I'm a big fan of his now :)

You can meet the scribes & watch a short clip of me talking about Amaleyq. Hmm...this seems to be a recurring theme in my life (see this post).

The crit I have of my appearance has nothing to do with the film maker, only with myself. I have to admit that my first impression of myself was totally vain: "wow - look at how heavy I was!" (I've lost 35 lbs since the interview 18 months ago). I also thought I said "um" & "y'know" too much, so...not so eloquent. But that's for me to correct in future interviews & teaching.

My favourite part of the film was when R' Mel Gottlieb said,

"There're different Midrashim, different Rabbinic teachings related to how the Torah was revealed to Moses & how it was created by Moses in relationship with his encounter with G@d, with the Divine Force. & one of the Midrashim suggests that G@d showed Moses all the letters & Moses arranged the letters according to his consciousness at the time. The implication of that is that when consciousness changes over time, perhaps the letters can be re-arranged in some way in terms of Messianic-type consciousness. For example, the Zohar speaks about a Torah of King David in the sense of a Messianic Torah where some of the root letters might be re-arranged & we will understand the concepts differently, so therefore concepts, attitudes toward women, attitudes toward non-Jews might have a more universal, respectful type of acceptance of the uniqueness of each. & then there's a quaint Midrash that says that we often read the Torah incorrectly, because if you read the Torah correctly, it's actually one whole Name of G@d."

So...three cheers for Judy, Ron & Mel!

Enjoy the Full Moon tonight! Go out & howl at her!




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