Netivat Sofrut: diary of a Soferet

Orthodox Women Chanting Megilat Esther for Men

2009-03-02T04:48:00.002-08:00

BS"D

From Haaretz:
Top Sephardi rabbi rules women may chant Scroll of Esther for men
By Yair Ettinger
Tags: scroll of esther, israel news

Women are allowed to chant the Scroll of Esther on behalf of men if no competent men are available, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of Israel's Sephardi community, ruled last week in a landmark decision liable to outrage many of his Ashkenazi counterparts.

Esther is traditionally read in synagogue on the holiday of Purim, which this year falls next week. And while some rabbis have long permitted women to read the megillah, or scroll, for other women, most do not allow women to read on behalf of men.

In his weekly Torah class on Saturday night, however, Yosef discussed the rules of reading the megillah and ruled that not only may women read it in front of men, but the men will thereby have fulfilled their obligation to hear the scroll read.
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"It is permissible for a woman to fulfill this obligation on behalf of men," he said, because the obligation to hear the megillah falls equally on men and women.

Yosef said that most rabbis forbid women to read the megillah on the grounds that men are forbidden to listen to women sing, because a woman's singing voice can stimulate sexual arousal. However, he said, he does not agree that a woman chanting a sacred text is the kind of singing that stimulates sexual arousal. The analogy rabbis have drawn between singing and chanting sacred texts has "no value," he declared.

Yosef said women should not read for men if there are men capable of doing the reading. But in a "small community" where there are no men capable of chanting the text properly, it is permissible to bring a woman to read, he ruled.

Yosef also said that women could write a kosher Scroll of Esther - another task that most rabbis say can be done only by men. He said that ancient megillahs written by women have been found in Yemen, and it would be permissible for women to do so today as well, "to earn a living for their household," since women "were part of the miracle" that the megillah describes.

However, he admitted wryly, it is an open question "whether anyone would buy it."

In both cases, Yosef's rulings were specific to Megillat Esther and do not necessarily apply to other sacred texts, such as the Torah.

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MECHILAH

2007-02-15T11:04:00.000-08:00

בס’ד

In addition to so many issues with my e-mail address & mail program, my laptop also managed to die while I was teaching at Limmud & Cambridge University in the UK. This means that I have not been able to access certain vital information, such as client contact information. If you wish to communicate in an effective & timely manner now with me, best to leave a message in the "comments" section here & I'll respond when I'm next able to be online. Please accept my apologies for the difficulties my software & hardware has posed. As soon as I can resolve this, I'll be in touch, as I'm so looking forward to continuing our work together.

Thank you once again for your patience & for the great honour of writing your Torahs & Megilot, & bringing them back to life.

Blessings,
Avielah

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NEWS IS GOOD!

2006-12-15T13:33:00.000-08:00

בס’ד

I received confirmation today that I'll be teaching once again at the ALEPH Kallah, thank G@D. It's a biannual Jew-do put on by the Alliance for Jewish Renewal, where they make Yidden of all stripes comfortable: the food is kosher, multiple minyanim are available, & Shabbes-keepers are put together. This is a week-long singing, dancing, drumming, dancing, praying, loving, eating, learning Jewtopia. It's in New Mexico next summer. Check it out.

Shabbat shalom ve-chag Chanukah same'ach!

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JUST IN TIME FOR CHANUKAH

2006-12-13T14:19:00.000-08:00

בס’ד

My friend Rory & I did these t-shirt designs together - ok, all I did was the Hebrew script, my own design called "Qeset Ha-Soferet" & first published by MySpace. & I did the writeups on the tags, but everything else was her idea - she's the brainchild.

Anyway, each shirt sports a powerful Hebrew word, as an intention the wearer wishes to put out into the world or carry within themselves. They're meant to be inspirational spiritual gear.

The Hebrew word sports its traslation below:

& then on the tag there's a further thought, expanding on the impact-word. Like this:

Notice that all the shirts are modestly cut so those of us who cover up for religious reasons can wear them! There is a line of baby wear in the making as well...

Interested? They're for sale at PURE here in Vancouver, or you can just e-mail Rory.

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MARRY ME, JUST FOR TODAY?

2006-12-05T18:55:00.000-08:00

בס’ד

An elderly homeless man stretched his arms wide to me as he asked this a few hours ago. I smiled & blessed him instead.

I haven't blogged in almost a month, as I have been occupied with catching up on overdue work, preparing for my next teaching engagement, checking in with my mum over medical issues, avoiding a stalker, attending religious & political lectures & moving out of my apartment.

But it's all good.

אוֹר, זָרֻעַ לַצַּדִּיק; וּלְיִשְׁרֵי-לֵב שִׂמְחָה
or zaru'a la-tzadiq u-le-yishrey leyv simchah
Light is sown for the righteous, and for the upright in heart, gladness

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RETURN TO INNOCENCE

2006-11-02T23:49:00.000-08:00

BS"D

Return to yourself.
Parshat Lekh Lekha.

B'reyshit/Genesis 12:1, Parshat Lekh Lekha states:
א וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-אַבְרָם, לֶךְ-לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ, אֶל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ. 1
Va-yomer Y-H-V-H el-Avram, "Lekh lekha mey-aretzekha u-mi-moladet'kha u-mi-beyt avikha el-ha-aretz asher areka"
"Now G@D said to Avram: 'Get yourself out of your country, & from your birth-community, & from your father's house, to the land that I will show you'.

"Lekh" means "go" in the masculine imperative. "Lekha" can be interpreted as moving towards one's Self. Go inside & discover the Great Mystery which is You. This is the beginning of the journey of Av Ram - the Great Father, or "Big Daddy" (hat tip to Danya!).

The words lekh lekha look exactly the same as each other when written in Hebrew:
לך לך
It's the vowels which differentiate the one from the other.
לֶךְ-לְךָ

There is a midrash which teaches us that while we grow in our mother's womb, an angel teaches us the whole Torah, then touches us on the philtrum to cause all we've learned to rest in our subconscious. We then spend our entire lives seeking the wisdom which already lies within, by having what are popularly called "learning experiences".

When you look at the letters of the words "lekh lekha", they illustrate the path we take to return to our true selves. The letter Lamed (ל), whose root means "to learn" & whose pictographic shape is that of a goad, reaches higher than any other letter of the Alefbet. The letter Khaf (ך) means "palm of the hand", the thing we grasp with, & in its final form drops low down. With these letters we can learn that the journey of returning to ourselves requires learning lessons & grasping those lessons. & that the learning experiences may bring us to the very heights of joy, or to the depths of despair. Or both. & that these are necessary steps along the way.

As the Kotzker Rebbe once said, "If The Holy One were to reveal our true essence to us, we would be unable to survive for even an instant". Does this sound familiar? If it does, it's because The Holy One tells us in Sh'mot/Exodus 33:20:
וַיֹּאמֶר, לֹא תוּכַל לִרְאֹת אֶת-פָּנָי: כִּי לֹא-יִרְאַנִי הָאָדָם, וָחָי. 20
Va-yomer, "Lo tukhal lir'ot et-panai, ki-lo yir'ani ha-adam ve-chai"
& He said: 'You cannot see My face, for humans shall not see Me & live.'

Because the essence of each & every human being is tzelem El@qim, the image, or the shadow, of G@d. Our souls are each a sacred spark from the One Source.

May we all be blessed to accept our lessons graciously, learn them so as not to have to repeat any, & have faith in the loving G@d who teaches us these lessons while we navigate the difficulties. May we all know our true selves.

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RABBI AVI WEISS

2006-11-01T23:51:00.000-08:00

BS"D

You can see the kindness in this man's face, can't you?

This man is a great, great rabbi. His whole life has been about social justice, while remaining within the boundaries of Orthodox Judaism. He has much admiration from me. Google him & see how he not only acts on behalf of all Jews but non-Jews & those who have left this world as well...

We were very lucky to have R' Weiss visit us at Shaarey Tefilah last night. He was a great alternative to sitting inside our homes, praying that no teenagers drunk on their first beer were going to inadvertently turn our neighbourhoods to ash with their wanton shooting off of roman candles & various other fireworks...
...for such is Hallowe'en in Canada.

I hadn't met with R' Weiss in, oh, 5 years or so. It was the Decemer after 9/11, my first ever trip to New York, & the World Trade Centre site was still smoking. The air was heavy with its citizens' breath & the skeleton of the devastated buildings were mapped out on each person's face as I passed them in the street.

& I was meeting with R' Weiss to beg for his help to take one step closer in finalizing my sofrut education, a journey I had already been on most of my life.

I won't do his message justice here, but he spoke of "positive Judaism" - a Judaism not defined by what you're against. Denominationally, most Jews seem to choose their camp based on what they cannot tolerate, rather than embracing what they believe is good & right (according to R' Weiss). He strongly encouraged us to avoid negative inspiration, as it doesn't last & deeply poisons us.

He spoke of the war with Lebanon/Hizbullah this summer. He was there, too, as I was. I have tremendous respect for R' Weiss, because he is a firm, yet gentle Zionist; his Zionism is founded on Torah & not on fear or xenophobia. Israel, he said, is surrounded by terrorists. True, we have signed peace accords with Egypt, peace agreements with Jordan - but it's a cold peace. He spoke about how the whole of the Jewish People have a covenental relationship with G@d & the Land; ie, we do our part & G@d will do G@d's part. Some Jews forget this, that the Land is a gift in exchange for fulfilling our half of the deal G@d struck with us. It's a priviledge to posess &/or to live in the Land & not a right. The only thing G@d promises us in the Torah, said R' Weiss, is that the Jewish People will never be extinguished. We are eternal. However, if we don't do our part, then we will not possess or be able to live in the Land. The State of Israel is not eternal. It is an opportunity.

& how do we support the current State of Israel in actualizing the final redemption?
We can visit. We can say tehilim. We can do mitzvot. We can pray. We can give tzedaqah. We can learn Torah.
We have to constantly earn the reward, or it will be taken from us, G@d forbid.

B'reyshit/Genesis 3:9, Parshat B'reyshit:
וַיִּקְרָא יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים, אֶל-הָאָדָם; וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ, אַיֶּכָּה. 9
Va-yiqra Y-H-V-H El@qim, el-ha-adam; va-yomer lo ayekah
& the L@RD G@d called unto the earthling, & said to him: 'Where are you?'

R' Weiss said that G@d wasn't asking literally, "I can't see you, where did you go?". Of course he knew where Adam & Chavah (Eve) had hidden themselves - & why. G@d's question was more like, "Something has changed with our relationship, on your end - where are you at with us?" G@d wanted to hear His creations explain what was different for them, from their point of view.
& he said that each day when we pray, we're answering G@d's question for G@d & for ourselves as well - where are you - I'm here - I'm here...
...don't go...please...

Teshuvah is the answer to the question "where are you?"
My eyes filled with tears when he said this.

As you can see. I'm cradling my newest scroll here as I absorb as much of R' Weiss' wisdom as I can.
My Hebrew name is Avielah T'shuvah. T'shuvah is a name commonly given to girls born on Rosh Ha-Shanah, as I was.
It's the feminine future construct of a word whose root can mean return, respond, repent, answer...like she is constantly in flux & re-paving her way toward her true self, to where G@d wants her. So naturally, this touched me deeply & has altered my prayer experience. I bless R' Weiss for that gift.

After his inspiring talk I showed him my latest Megilah & he said it was beautiful. I thanked him because R' Ross Singer, my Rav, had consulted with R' Weiss (& other Orthodox rabbis) about me & sofrut & greatly helped me due to his influence. I owe him a lot, as do the women scribes coming after me.

Suffice to say, I want to be like him when I grow up. Except for that being a man & a rabbi part. But you get my drift. We all have an ethical obligation to stand for something outside of ourselves. With G@d's help I'm turning my life's work into work for others' lives.

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RELATIVE RIGHTEOUSNESS

2006-10-31T23:55:00.000-08:00

BS"D

A version of the d'var Torah I gave over last Shabbes in St Paul:

Parshat No'ach

B'reyshit/Genesis 6:9 states:
אֵלֶּה, תּוֹלְדֹת נֹחַ--נֹחַ אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים הָיָה, בְּדֹרֹתָיו: אֶת-הָאֱלֹהִים, הִתְהַלֶּךְ-נֹחַ.
Eyleh tol'dot No'ach -- No'ach ish tzadiq tamim hayah, be-dorotav; et-ha-El@him, hit'halekh-No'ach
These are the generations of No'ach. No'ach was a man righteous and whole-hearted in his generation; No'ach walked with G@d.

& then B'reyshit/Genesis 7:1 goes on to say:
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה לְנֹחַ, בֹּא-אַתָּה וְכָל-בֵּיתְךָ אֶל-הַתֵּבָה: כִּי-אֹתְךָ רָאִיתִי צַדִּיק לְפָנַי, בַּדּוֹר הַזֶּה.
Va-yomer Y-H-V-H le-No'ach, bo-atah ve-khol beytekha el-ha-teyvah; ki otakh ra'iti tzadiq le-fanai ba-dor hazeh
& G@d said to No'ach: 'Come you & all your house into the ark; for you have I seen righteous before Me in this generation'.

Both times No'ach's righteousness is mentioned in the Torah, this quality is awarded him only in comparison to the common standard of times in which he lived. G@d judged No'ach's behaviour as higher than the staus quo. He was the best that G@d had to work with, & he "walked with G@d", but his righteousness was not absolute.

Lucky for the planet, No'ach was "good enough". G@d could say, "he'll do".

The name No'ach is spelled with 2 letters in Hebrew: Nun (נ) & Chet (ח). The word nach, from the same root, can mean "at rest", "to be settled", or..."quiescent". This may give us a clue as to why G@d considered No'ach not fully righteous, but relatively righteous. He did fulfill to the letter each comandment given by G@d; but no more. No'ach may have only performed the bare minimum of what was required of him.

Nun

The bent Nun, which begins his name, denotes reliability.

Sometimes our souls, our neshamahs, are withdrawn & resigned, in a state of contraction like the resting Nun, while at other times it is active and exuberant like the erect Nun. When someone is inactive and immobile, his/her soul lies fallow, but when this person feels vibrant and motivated, his/her neshamah draws itself up to its full height.

No'ach was truly the Nun at rest.

The name as well as the pictograph of the letter Nun means "fish". This is notable because of No'ach's survival of the deluge; &, like a tzadiq (righteous person), is associated with water. Our tradition tells us that when a righteous person dies without a perfectly clean slate & they still have a little bad karma - I'm paraphrasing here - to remedy, they are reincarnated as a fish. Why? Because fish are very quiet & lead calm lives in the most comfortable medium - water.

Comfortable. Settled. Like No'ach.

The letter Nun has a gematrial value of 50. A word which also has a value of 50 is spelled Alef-Tet-Mem Sofit (אטם). If pronounced atam, this letter combination means "seal" or "shut" - filled up. If pronounced iteym, the meanins shifts to "sealed" or "water-tight". Etem is a seal or gasket.

Chet

This is one of the words I wrote in a Sefer Torah. The middle letter is Chet, the way my sofer taught me to shape it.

The letter Chet's name reminds us of the word chatoteret, a hump or hunchback. Indeed, when Chet is written in an Ashkenazi/European Sefer Torah, it consists of two Zayins - or a Zayin (ז) & a Vav (ו), depending on the philosophical leanings of the scribe - joined by a peaked roof. This is where Chet gets its name, from chat - "distorted" or "curved". This is also where we get the words chatah & cheyt from - sin, transgression, miss, fail. When we don't shoot straight in our lives, we fall.

Our Sages draw a lesson from this construction; when one observes two people fighting, whether using verbal or actual weapons (Zayins) against each other, spare no effort to build a bridge and bring them together so they may join once again in friendship (Krias HaTorah).

Another flourish on this letter shows us the Zayin (bride) & her Vav (groom) held high on chairs in celebration of their wedding, the only bridge connecting them a hanky :)

The numerological value of the letter Chet is 8. Going beyond seven, the Shabbat, the number eight represents our ability to transcend our physical limitations. Eight symbolizes the metaphysical, the entrance of the Divine into our lives.

No'ach's name bears the gematria of 58 - which is the same as that of cheyn, grace. So much as this man may have helped save the inhabitants of the world from total destruction by doing as little as possible, he did, in the end, walk with G@d.

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PIX

2006-10-30T22:40:00.000-08:00

BS"D

The Temple of Aaron men's club was kind enough to present me with this collage they made of some of our Torah event's media coverage:

(I'm actually really surprised that the photographer got a good shot of me - I'm normally so animated & I move around so much that I'm horribly horribly UN-photogenic. So kudos to him!)

Sunday went beautifully, thank G@d. We started at 9am with all the children of the Jewish school, their parents, grandparents, & any other special people in their lives who they wanted to invite to share in the Torah-writing experience. It was gorgeous!

You know, hundreds of people lined up to rest their hand on mine as I wrote in this Torah. It was amazing. Some even cried.

It made me really think: I refused to practice sofrut until my teachers & rabbis gave me the go-ahead. Even though I'd learned it well with them & felt ready - ok, MORE than ready - to begin this sacred task I had yearned for since I was small, I knew it was wrong for me to call myself a soferet or to practice any of it until I was given permission by them to do so. Once I received my endorsement, then my work was finally kosher (if you accept sofrut from a woman, that is!).

& I chose my teachers carefully, & they me, because to seriously, positively change the world you have to change yourself. They still mentor & challenge me.

& when I first began to write, I have to admit, I was petrified. Who was I to interact with the holy letters in this way? Just because I was certified didn't mean I was an expert yet. It's like when you finish journalism school or are ordained as a minister - you're totally qualified, but you lack experience. You're a baby. & I was a baby soferet. & terrified of making any error, visible or invisible, even by accident. I felt the weight of all the Jews who might rely on me to provide for them what they needed. It was hard.

& yesterday I had the solemn privilege to witness other people's very intimate reactions to my writing a letter for them. The searing love I saw in their faces for this scroll, which some may not have even been able to read, was palpable. This is the Torah, Eytz Chayim Hee!

I am so lucky! Barukh Ha-Shem!

There were yummy little kids, oldsters...what a blessing!
One very elderly man came up to me on his turn - he must have been 100 years old if he was a day - & he looked me in the eye. Like, right through me.
& I asked him what his name was.
I was expecting "Max" or "Benny" or some other anglicized name for a gent of his generation. But he gave me his Hebrew name. He pronounced it proudly with his heavy Polish accent: "Barukh ben Chayim Pesach!"
& I was just held, transfixed, by this man's presence. He kept staring right through me & he repeated his Hebrew name: Barukh ben Chayim Pesach.
I was blown away.
Then he held my hand & we wrote a letter together.

I later learned that this man walked away from my writing table with tears in his eyes, saying, "I'm 95 years old & that was the most important thing I've ever done."

& this went on all day! What a great experience! I'm so blessed!
& there was a 6-month-old baby girl too! Her parents held her over the Torah & put her teeny delicate little pink hand on mine as I wrote, her eyes wide.

I must thank everyone at Temple of Aaron for making me feel like I was part of their family. They honoured me by trusting me with their Torah & really, with their hearts too. & I hope I brought to them whatever they needed from me. If, in the end, we've all drawn a little closer to Torah, & thereby a little closer to G@d, that is the greatest gift we can share.

I must say, the airport here has the coolest floors!
Jewy centre of the snowflake mosaic floor of Minneapolis-St Paul airport:

All good things must come to an end, so I hopped my plane & headed north back home to Canada:

& this is the fab view I had of Mount Ranier & the waxing moon on my layover at Sea-Tac:

(if you click on the pic, you'll see it in all its stunning detail!)

& finally, the fertile Lower Mainland of Vancouver & our beautiful Georgia Strait:

Home sweet home!

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ARCHAEOLOGICS

2006-10-29T00:42:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Happened to find myself listed here (scroll down). Very odd. Nice, tho'.

Wish me luck for today - I'm leading a Siyum Sefer Torah where hundereds of men, women & childern will line up to watch me write letters in a Torah scroll for them. Pray that my hand survives such a holy celebration, please :)

Shavu'ah tov! A good week!
& don't forget to set your clocks back an hour!

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TORAH SCRIBE HAS FOLLOWED SACRED CALLING TO THE LETTER

2006-10-28T21:51:00.000-07:00

BS"D

This article appeared in the Pioneer Press this morning. I must thank Steve Scott, the paper's religion editor, & Craig Bork, the photographer, for their excellent work.

Little kids were coming up to me today at services & saying, "hey - HEY! I saw you in the paper this morning!" They were so cute. Since when do small children read the Saturday morning news? I spoke last night before Shabat dinner, just toward the end of services, to about 300 people (so I'm told). They were really good about my not using a microphone on Shabbat, & thank G@d I think I reached most everyone.

I've been staying with Rabbi & Mrs Konigsburg & I just adore them! They've been so kind. & as an extra blessing, they only live about a block from the synagogue, which makes all the difference in the world to me. This West Coast girl gets cold easily.

I did a little show & tell today with part of the Hebrew school & then later spoke on some letter-midrash. All in all, my patrons, students & audience have been very enthusiastic. People are very sweet in the Midwest, ken ayina hora.

& tonight after Shabbes I had the great honour of going to Rabbi & Mrs Raskas' home for dinner. They were really lovely hosts with a very sharp Judaism. I like them. We drank rye - which they call "VO" for some reason - neat & talked Jewy-feminist-Halakhah. They both have some great stories to share. He went to school with such luminaries as R' Harold Shulweiss & apparently "used to hang out with Kaplan". & no, not this Kaplan. THIS Kaplan.
I left with a fleece kippah embroidered with "Go Vikings!" in Hebrew...

Torah scribe has followed sacred calling to the letter
'Soferet' to help Temple of Aaron congregants fulfill commandment

BY STEVE SCOTT
Pioneer Press

The writing was on the wall when she saw "Fiddler on the Roof" as a 3-year-old.

Mesmerized by the Hebrew letters she saw in the movie, Avielah Barclay sensed a sacred calling that would not let her go, until decades later she became the only female Torah scribe in all of Judaism.

In a St. Paul synagogue this weekend, she will do what no Jewish woman before her has done for at least 250 years: inscribe letters in a Torah scroll, one of the holiest acts of Judaism.

"The Torah is the heart and soul of what the synagogue is all about,'' said Rabbi Randall Konigsburg of Temple of Aaron, celebrating its 50th year in its synagogue on Mississippi River Boulevard. "So our congregation is very excited about having her here."

They're not the least bit opposed, either, to having a female scribe — a soferet — put quill to scroll.

That hasn't been a universal response. Barclay, an Orthodox Jew from Vancouver, British Columbia, has been accused of heresy.

"Oh, yeah, but that's boring,'' she said. "People send me e-mails saying, 'You're going to burn in hell.'

"It's perfectly fine for people not to accept this, but I would rather people would engage in intellectual discussion with me.''

There will be plenty of that during Barclay's visit to Temple of Aaron this weekend. The highlight is Sunday, when she will help several hundred congregants fulfill a Jewish commandment by writing a letter in the Torah.

"That's a lot of letters to be written all at once in one day,'' said Barclay, 38.

Her apprenticeship as a scribe was more laborious — and painful.

She was a gemologist 15 years ago when a bicycle accident derailed her career. Her writing hand was crushed against her handlebars.

"I'm bionic now,'' she said, alluding to the pins and screws that keep her hand together.

A long period of recovery prompted a soul search that harked back to the movie house of her childhood.

"My dad used to manage movie theaters, and I would go with him during the day while my mom worked,'' Barclay said. "I must have seen 'Fiddler' a hundred times.

"When I saw the Hebrew letters, I very much had a sense they were sacred, even though I was only 3 or 4 years old. That followed me through my childhood.''

...

What followed was another long search: to find a mentor who would teach her the methodical and intricate craft of writing Torah.

Barclay couldn't find a sofer willing to risk his reputation by teaching a woman.

"They discussed it in the Talmud, whether a woman could write a Torah,'' said Rabbi Emeritus Bernard Raskas, who saw a magazine article about Barclay that prompted him to encourage Temple of Aaron to invite her to St. Paul.

"It's inconclusive. They don't rule either way. It's just a discussion. But I think the men just didn't want any women writing, that's all.''

Barclay nearly gave up.

"Until I got this e-mail one day,'' she said. "I wasn't going to open it. I thought it was from a Jewish dating service. But I looked at it, and it was from a sofer in Jerusalem.

"He said, 'I like your Web site. But I thought your calligraphy could use some work.' "

He agreed to teach her calligraphy. It took several years, and careful research by her home rabbi in Vancouver, to persuade the Jerusalem sofer to help Barclay complete a full apprenticeship as a soferet.

Since being certified three years ago, she has helped other synagogues complete a Siyum Sefer Torah, the restoration project like the one at Temple of Aaron this weekend. She has written the Book of Esther for congregations to use during Purim. And she is negotiating with some West Coast congregations to write an entire Torah, a process that can take up to two years.

Barclay also has discovered as many as 10 other women who were Torah scribes, but none more recent than the 18th century.

"I guess every 250 years, we've got to try to get another one,'' Konigsburg said.

Steve Scott may be reached at 651-228-5526 or sscott@pioneer press.com.

If you go

Avielah Barclay, Judaism's only female Torah scribe, will give a public talk after today's 6 p.m. Shabbat service at Temple of Aaron, 616 S. Mississippi River Blvd., St. Paul. She will speak about the meaning and mysticism of the Hebrew letters of the Torah.

Sacred ritual

On Sunday, Avielah Barclay will help several hundred congregants at Temple of Aaron fulfill a Jewish commandment by writing a letter in the Torah. In a ritual called Siyum Sefer Torah, the congregant literally holds the hand of the highly-trained scribe, who precisely guides the writing of the letter.

As with other news articles about me featured here, I'm going to make some comments & corrections when I have a minute - for now I'm so pleased to be here in St Paul with the Jews at Temple of Aaron! Stay tuned :)

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MITZVAHS A-GO-GO

2006-10-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

BS"D

On my way here today as scholar-in-residence for their Siyum Shabbaton. I'm really excited to meet Rabbi Raskas, who is one of the people responsible for bringing me in, & a well-known & well-loved theologian, rabbi & community leader. What an honour, barukh Ha-Shem!

Actually, I'm always happy to meet & connect with more Yidden, so cheers to that :)

This is the full certificate which I made for Temple of Aaron to be given all those people who will be participating with me in completing their Sefer Torah:

I really appreciate the opportunity to do some artwork occasionally & not only sofrut - grateful as I am that I can make my living at sofrut, thank G@d.
This was much fun!

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HOLY LETTERS

2006-10-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

BS"D

This is a very short, very cool bit about the Hebrew letters from the Chazon Ish, as given over by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin, one of my fave ravs.
Enjoy the mp3.

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A WOMAN OFFERS JUDAISM'S SACRED HAND

2006-10-24T00:46:00.000-07:00

BS"D

A St. Paul synagogue will celebrate its jubilee with a visit from a pioneering Torah scribe.
Pamela Miller, Star Tribune

When Avielah Barclay leans over a Torah scroll and slowly shapes the elaborate Hebrew letters, she's not thinking about being the only female soferet -- certified Jewish sacred-text scribe -- in the world.
She's thinking about beauty.

"From the time I was 3, I've been drawn to the alefbet [the Hebrew alphabet]," said the Vancouver, British Columbia, artist. "My dad ran a movie theater, so I saw 'Fiddler on the Roof' a few times and was stunned by these gorgeous letters. I wanted to be as close to them as possible."

From then on, Barclay, 38, knew she wanted to be a soferet.

She'll share her story, skills and passion for the sacred texts next weekend at Temple of Aaron, a 100-year-old congregation that is celebrating its 50th year in St. Paul's Highland Park neighborhood, said Rabbi Randall Konigsburg.

Jewish law does not ban female scribes, but long tradition holds that they should be male, said Bernard Raskas, Temple of Aaron's rabbi laureate.

At 82, Raskas has witnessed much of the synagogue's history and decades of dramatic events in the history of the Jewish people. Barclay's pioneering role is important because it weds tradition and innovation, he said.

"She sure knows her stuff," Raskas said. "After she decided she wanted to be a scribe, she tried to get training and kept hearing no, no, no, because she is a woman. When she finally found a sofer [a male scribe] in Israel willing to teach her, he said it was only on condition that she never reveal his name, never touch him, and work in a room with open windows and doors." The teacher wanted to be sure that there could be no suggestion of impropriety, he said.

Barclay has learned "the thousand rules" that govern proper creation of a Torah, Raskas said. On Sunday, she'll oversee a private ceremony in which hundreds of synagogue members will shape a Hebrew letter in the Torah, guided by Barclay's gifted hand in what she calls "a very careful and difficult process."

Said Raskas: "There's a commandment [in Deuteronomy] that says every Jew has to write a Torah. Of course that's impossible, so in the 12th century, Maimonides [the great Sephardic rabbi and scholar] ruled that if you write one letter, you have fulfilled the commandment."

Konigsburg said the siyum sefer ceremony, as it is called, "is very moving."I've seen people weep with emotion when the sofer guides their hand through the shaping of the Torah letter" because it connects them with their faith and ancestors, he said.

The scroll they'll work on will bear a new cover "lovingly crafted" by Sam Rafowitz, an 81-year-old Holocaust survivor, in memory of his family, Konigsburg said.

When the ceremony is over, "the Torah will be kosher and we will celebrate," Barclay said. And she will have shared her passion for what she calls "art with intention."

Going where she's welcome

Although Barclay knows of no other female Torah scribes now living, her research has led her to suspect that there have been a few scattered through history.

"When I was certified to do this three years ago, there was no record of any other female Torah scribe," she said. "But I've found that there were possibly up to 10 women who did this before me, including one in Yemen in the 1400s and in Rome before that. Sometimes they were rabbis' wives."

It's important for her to identify predecessors, she said, "because if I can show there were others, we can open it up even more to other women."

Although acceptance is growing, many Orthodox Jews still balk at the idea of a woman doing the sacred work, she said.

"Some say it wouldn't be kosher for a man to use a Torah written out by a woman," she said. "I get many e-mails or objections on my blog [at www.soferet.com]. That's the way mainstream Judaism has gone for centuries, and as an Orthodox Jew, I acknowledge that. But there is a minority opinion that says it's perfectly kosher.

"I'm not upset about people objecting, and they don't have to hire me," she said. "But views differ, and many are willing to accept me."

Since being certified, she's talked about her work or overseen Torah rededication projects at many synagogues in the United States and Canada.

Barclay's early fascination with the Hebrew alphabet stayed with her through an early career as a gemologist. But in her 20s, during a period of healing after her writing hand was crushed in a biking accident, she had what she calls "an epiphany" that she should pursue her dream of being a soferet.

"Then it took me 10 years to find the teacher who finally took me," she said. "It's been a slow process to get where I am, but that I can do it at all is a huge blessing."

She does her work with the healed hand, which still bears scars from the accident and surgery, she said.

Shortly after she was certified, Barclay was asked by her Vancouver synagogue to write out the Book of Esther, and since then, her work and reputation have grown.

"I do feel like I'm at a pivotal point in Jewish history, for both women and all of us," she said. "People tell me that my story and work have affected them in a positive way, and that's a wonderful thing to hear."

Temple of Aaron's Jubilee logo, which I jazzed up a little for them :)
It was great fun & I'm really looking forward to this weekend!

There are a few comments & corrections I'm going to make on this article as soon as I have a minute. Nothing drastic - the reporter was totally lovely to talk with & I think she wrote this really nicely - but there's the odd thing that isn't quite right in the article that I'll write about in the addendum I always put at the end of stories about me.
When I have a minute!

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A GREAT LIGHT

2006-10-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Sefer B'reyshit/Genesis 1:14-18 reads:

יד וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יְהִי מְאֹרֹת בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמַיִם, לְהַבְדִּיל, בֵּין הַיּוֹם וּבֵין הַלָּיְלָה; וְהָיוּ לְאֹתֹת וּלְמוֹעֲדִים, וּלְיָמִים וְשָׁנִים. 14
& G@d said: 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the Heaven to part the day from the night; & let them be for signs, & for seasons, & for days and years;
טו וְהָיוּ לִמְאוֹרֹת בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמַיִם, לְהָאִיר עַל-הָאָרֶץ; וַיְהִי-כֵן. 15
& let them be for lights in the firmament of the Heaven to give light upon the Earth.' And it was so.
טז וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-שְׁנֵי הַמְּאֹרֹת הַגְּדֹלִים: אֶת-הַמָּאוֹר הַגָּדֹל, לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַיּוֹם, וְאֶת-הַמָּאוֹר הַקָּטֹן לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַלַּיְלָה, וְאֵת הַכּוֹכָבִים. 16
& G@d made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, & the lesser light to rule the night; & the stars.
יז וַיִּתֵּן אֹתָם אֱלֹהִים, בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמָיִם, לְהָאִיר, עַל-הָאָרֶץ. 17
& G@d set them in the firmament of the Heaven to give light upon the Earth,
יח וְלִמְשֹׁל, בַּיּוֹם וּבַלַּיְלָה, וּלְהַבְדִּיל, בֵּין הָאוֹר וּבֵין הַחֹשֶׁךְ; וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים, כִּי-טוֹב. 18
& to rule over the day & night, & to divide the light from the darkness; & G@d saw that it was good.

Last week when we read Parshat B'reyshit, we again witnessed the birth of Creation. Humankind was, much like children when first born, placed in a garden, protected from the elements of the outside world. All our physical comforts were taken care of without any effort on our part, & we had G@d, the sun, moon & stars to watch over & guide us.

Much like being born into your family with your father, mother (the 2 large luminaries) & older sibs (stars) to welcome & care for you. This is one of the ways I read these verses in Genesis, because of my own family & my personal origins. I was lucky enough to be the last born into a clan of Mum, Dad, & many older sisters. They, along with G@d, began my narrative & I owe them all much for being "the light upon the Earth" for me.

I want to talk about ...et ha-ma'or ha-gadol le-memshelet ha-yom..., the great light to govern the day...because for me, this great light was my dad, Alex. & at this time in the Jewish calendar, when we finish our annual Torah reading cycle & begin it all over again, is when he was suddenly called to the next world. This sentimental d'var Torah I write in his honour.

I inheirited much from Dad. I have not only his sirname, but his eyes, his freckles, his lower lip & his feet all on my own female version of his small frame. He gifted me with his disparate ancestry from the Yekke, Nusach Venezia, & John McIntosh. I also owe him for his goofy sense of humour, love of all movies, & the ability to take any leftovers that happen to be in the fridge at the end of the week & make a comforting, tasty soup that every one loves & demands the recipe for.

Dad used to manage movie theatres, & until I was in school I spent my days with him at work while Mum was out at her job. I drew pictures in the projection booth, befriended the cleaning ladies, & played in the parking lot in between shows when it was empty. I also watched the same movies over & over every day, subsisting on popcorn, Twizzlers & Orange Crush. At the end of each film's run, he used to carefully cut the people & animals out of the movie posters & give them to me to play with. It was Heaven.

If I hadn't sat, completely transfixed, through "Fiddler on the Roof" hundreds of times in 1972, I would not now be an Orthodox Jewish soferet.
& if he hadn't brought rolls of paper home from the theatre for me to draw & write on, I would never have "written my first Torah scroll" as a preschooler.

Dad retired from management when I was 6 years old. He was almost 60 when I was born, & decided to go back to being a movie projectionist in the evenings as he had been in the 1940's. & yes, if you've ever seen "Cinema Paradiso", that was our life.
With his days free, he walked the dog, did the shopping, cooked our meals & generally minded the house. When we were sick, he was the one who brought us home from school & took care of us with his famous soups.

I consider my dad to be "a great light", because he was just a regular man, very unassuming, who was kind to people, & quietly brought justice. The whole time he was in management, from the 1940's to the 1970's, he used to pay his female employees the same as his male employees. He would make sure elderly people had jobs, if they needed one. He used to help aspiring actors like Bruno Gerussi by giving access to & attention in the auditorium while it was closed to the public. & he used to make one night per week free admission to the movies for the Aboriginal Canadians in our community. When he retired, they gave him beautiful beaded Native jewellery to thank him, which Mum still has. Even Chief Dan George thought well of him.

He was also very generous. When Mum & Dad returned from their trip to the UK in 1977, I remember someone asking what he'd bought for himself, & him remarking, "Everything I bought was for other people. This was the only thing I bought for myself" & with that he produced a leverage-type bottle opener with the shield of Scotland on the handle.
(By the way, I haven't been able to find this for several months, so if you borrowed it or mistakenly took it with you somewhere, please please bring it back. It means a lot to me)

But only our family & very close friends know these things about him, because he was also a modest man. & for all the good things I inheirited from him, there are other good things I did not & am still learning from him these decades after his death. From him (& from Mum) I learned how to run a home, that it's important to dance a little in the kitchen while you make dinner, & when enough is enough. I'm still learning to be patient, to improve my listening skills & reach out to my local community.

Dad was the memshala, from the same root as le-memshelet, of our home. He was, quietly, the boss. The buck stopped with him, but he was gentle about it. He was also the mashal, again from the same root, which means 'to speak in parables', or 'to give an example'. He was a great joker & story teller who was fond of singing & playing music with people. Especially Hoagy Carmichael.

The Ramban teaches that the great light mentioned in Genesis, whether we're literally talking about the sun here or the Great Daddy Energy, causes growth & nurturance. Fathers, like the sun, if they shine brightly they can provide their families with security, build a structure from within which spouse & children can receive the special energy that only fathers can gift. A sustaining influence that, as vital as mothers are, is a different kind of care that only a man can give the children in his household.

I struggled with G@d for years over Dad's death, but my process kept leading me back to the same thing:...et ha-ma'or ha-gadol le-memshelet ha-yom... each day we are grown in all our ways by the great light. Being a good father is one of the most challenging relationships a man can have. So many people have fathers who, for whatever reason, cannot care for them well. But I'm not one of those people. Having a good dad is one of the greatest blessings a child can have, a vital, nourishing source for growth. & I had that. I have no business resenting G@d for having my dad around for such a short time, especially when other people get not-so-great-dads for their entire lifetime. & his influence on me is still with me, encouraging me by the examples he set to grow into a better person. So I have every reason to feel gratitude - & thank G@d.

Over 400 people came to his memorial service. We held it in his last movie theatre. Many people spontaneously stood & told wonderful stories about how my dad had helped them, or cheered them up, or took them out for a drink & advice. Stories I would never have known otherwise, because his life was mostly over by the time I was born. Stories which confirmed what I already knew: Dad was a mensch.

Father's Day, 2006:

May each spark our loved ones, our teachers, bring into the world be perpetuated in every moment by we who are left behind to continue the work. Or gadol.

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HEY!

2006-10-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

BS"D

The letter Hey (ה) has a gematrial/numerological value of 5. It's the 5th letter of the Hebrew alefbet.

Hey has the easiest voice. The sound of Hey is only your out-breath, the exhalation of prana. It needs no effort, no motion of lips, tongue or mouth (Tanchuma Bereishis 16).

Our spirit (ru'ach) lives in our breath (ru'ach), is our breath. The Kabbalah says that when two people are talking together and their faces are so close they inhale the other's breath, they are sharing souls. According to Hasidism, our souls are too vast to inhabit our bodies; they penetrate and surround them.

Hey is female. Her soft-sounding voice indicates the feminine form of a noun, as in yeled (boy) - yaldah (girl). The two Heys in The Four-Letter Name represent the Mother and the Daughter in the archetypal Family, Yud (י) representing the Father and Vav (ו) the Son.

G@D created two worlds; this one with the letter Hey:
בִּדְבַר יְהוָה, שָׁמַיִם נַעֲשׂוּ; וּבְרוּחַ פִּיו, כָּל-צְבָאָם. 6
Bid'var HaShem shamayim na'asu uv'ru'ach piv kol tzeva'am
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
- Psalms 33:6

Why? Our traditions tell us that this world is like the letter Hey, easy to fall out the bottom. Also like this world there is always a tiny space, which allows another entrance. This is t'shuvah, repentance (Menachos 29b). This teaches us to leave a small opening in our hearts to let others back in when they have hurt us and wish to be forgiven (Tomer Devorah 1:7).
It also serves us by making room for forgiving ourselves...

Hey is made up of two other letters. First there is a Dalet (ד), then there is a Yud (י) in the lower left hand corner of the Dalet's space. Yud, the hand (yad) has the power to open the Dalet, door (delet) to the path of returning to G@d, our Source. The point of the Yud must be separate from the roof, but not further than the thickness of the roof. This Yud leans inward to the space, so the Hey won't resemble a Taf (ת).

We just saw a miniature letter Hey yesterday in B'reyshit Parshat B'reyshit/Genesis 2:4 -
ד אֵלֶּה תוֹלְדוֹת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְהָאָרֶץ, בְּהִבָּרְאָם: בְּיוֹם, עֲשׂוֹת יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים--אֶרֶץ וְשָׁמָיִם. 4
Eyleh toldot ha'shamayim v'ha'aretz be-hibaram b'yom asot Y-H-V-H Eloqim eretz v'shamayim:
These are the generations/begettings of the Heavens and of the Earth when they were created, at the time of Y-H-V-H, G@D's making of earth and heaven:

The Hey is small in "be-hibaram" because the letter Hey is one of those which symbolizes G@D - an abbreviation of both the Four-letter Name "Y-H-V-H" and "HaShem". And according to midrash, before the creation G@D was...that's it. All there was was G@D and G@D was all there was. So in order to make room for us, The Holy One had to contract. The word our tradition uses here is "tzimtzum". Like a mother's body making room for a growing baby. The child, like us & all of Creation, is of its mother, but different. The mother contains & sustains her child, but must constantly be altering the status quo to achieve this. So the Hey in the word meaning "they were created" inspired this midrash which teaches us about G@D's process.

Shavu'ah Tov - a good week - & Chodesh Tov - a good new month to everyone.

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A BRIDGE TOO FAR

2006-10-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

BS"D

There has been a photo going around on the internet which, altho' very popular & rather funny (in a good way), I find counter-productive to Feminist Judaism. As someone who is committed to Orthodox Feminist Judaism, I spoke out against in on Jewschool:

BS"D
I'm going to have to agree with Cole, Jabotinsky & RM.

I welcome any opportunity for discussion about women in non-trad roles.
Although this took a great deal of time & skill to make, I find it offensive.

My concern is Jen's deliberate choice of Barbie iconography, given the associations. Most women of our generation (the over-30s) find Barbie to denote "trivial". Barbie is a cultural shorthand for plastic, superficial, brainless, and demeaning. It's the ultimate non-feminist icon.

This image says to me that basically feminist Jx women are bimbos just "playing" real Jews & that feminist Jx women who CHALLENGE tradition for the love of Torah, are really playthings. Either the women or the traditions.

So since I'm sure that Jen's intention here was NOT to trivialize feminist women in Judaism, perhaps it could have been better thought out.

Shabbat Shalom!

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אוי גיב מיי אונד העיים וואו דער בופלוקסען געיים

2006-10-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Oy gib me und heym voo der buffloxen gaym...
That would be Yiddish for "Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam..."

Buffloxen!!!

I'd like to talk about home in this post in relation to this week's Parsha, B'REYSHIT! Yes, this Shabbat we being the cycle of reading the Torah all over again. We got a preview on Simchat Torah, which was Sunday, when we read the very end of the scroll & the rolled it back to the beginning again & read some more!

We had a women's reading at Shaarey Tefilah. It was awesome. The men even let us use the newest Sefer, which is totally kosher & has beautiful writing :)

So Sefer B'reyshit parshat B'reyshit/the Book of Genesis 1:1 begins thus:
בְּרֵאשִׁית, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ.

B'reyshit bara eloqim eyt hashamayim v'eyt ha'aretz:
"At the beginning of G@D's creating of the heavens and the earth:"

This is the Sefer I'm currently cleaning & restoring. It was written after 1800. You can tell this because the first letter, Bet (ב) sports 4 crowns, called taggin or ketarim.

As with many, but not all, s'farim/holy books, the first letter is often enlarged. However, here also is an example of an action taken from the next world, by G@D. The act of creation warrants a large Bet. According to Rabbi Chayim Dovid Halevy, z"l, a great Kabbalist & the former Chief Sefardi Rabbi of Tel Aviv, any time we see an enlarged letter anywhere in our canon (TaNaKH), we are to understand that G@d has disturbed the staus quo with great chesed, kindness, & ahavah, love.

Because the letter Bet carries the gematrial value of 2, it reveals to us the Divine creative mother-father energy within it, beginning the whole universe.

So, why was the world created with the letter Bet? Just as Bet is closed on three sides and open only in front, so you are not permitted to investigate what is above (the Heavens) and what is below (the deep), what is before (the six days of creation) and what is (to happen) after (the world’s existence) - you are permitted only from the time the world was created and thereafter (the world we live in) [Genesis Rabbah 1:10. This may refer either to space or to time, or to both space and time. See Tosafot on Talmud Bavli Hag 11b, s.v. yakhol].

Some say that the Torah begins with the letter Bet to make the statement that the force that G@d used to initiate Creation was Binah - with understanding the world was created. Binah is in the world of Yetzirah, the formative dimention of "just Being". IS-ness. The letter Bet also begins Briyah, the world of knowledge whose world is creative.

Reish Lakish taught that The Holy One made a deal with the rest of Creation, that if Israel accepts the Torah, you will continue to exist; if not, I will return you to nothingness (Shabbos 88a). How do we know this? Because the first word in the Torah is an acronym: "Barishonah Ra'ah Elohim Shey'qab'lu Yisra'el Torah" - "From the start, G@D saw that Israel would accept the Torah" (Baal HaTurim).

In Judaism, G@d has many names, allowing us to attempt to express all the holy qualities of the Creator. One of those names begins with a letter Bet. Bat Qol, which literally means "Daughter of a Voice", but can also mean "Voice from Heaven", "echo", "Divine inspiration" or even "prophesy".

Just as with a ketubah, the traditional Jewish wedding contract, we begin this with a letter Bet which is often enlarged (but not always - that depends on the calligrapher). But we may have a similar situation here that requires a large Bet in a ketubah for the same reasons as in a Torah. Many Jewish couples today enter their first marriage without their virginity. There have been intimate relationships & home-building exercises, most often with people who now dwell in the past. Assuming these experiences have been dealt with, grown from & their lessons integrated into wisdom, there is no need to revisit them after the marriage begins. All that came before, like lovers, homes, experiences, relationships...were only to bring each member of the wedding couple to this point & need only be included in the wedded relationship in their appropriate place. It's not that they get wiped away, or made to magically disappear. But from that large Bet which begins the building of this new, committed home, like the large Bet, the Bayit or "home" for all of Creation, we walk forward together & leave the rest behind.

...where seldom is heard a discouraging word...
:D

Focused kavanah, intention, & great care must be taken with the shape and the length of the Bet when you are writing it. If it appears more round than square, then it could be mistaken for a Khaf (כ). If it is narrower than it is tall it may look like a Nun (נ).

Happy writing!

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SURLY SOFERET

2006-10-18T18:04:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Somebody, who I'm sure had the best of intentions, used plenty of Sello tape along the edge of the parchment here to tightly secure it to the roller.
Please don't ever do this. Seriously. Call your local sofer instead.

To get a really good look at the tape (which is clear), click on the image & selected the largest available size at my Flickr page. The tape isn't the white patches pictured here - that's more parchment added after the Torah was originally written (over the drill-holes & knots, I might say). The tape is around the edges of those patches.

& at least they are parchment patches - until I got the tape off, I wasn't sure - it looked like interfacing (stitch witchery).

The problem with this is that any kind of tape will make the Torah scroll unfit for use because of the unkosher animal hooves & other bits used in glue manufacture. Mister Ed does not belong slathered on your Sefer.

Another problem is that the residue left behind, even when completely removed, will discolour the parchment over time (if it hasn't already).
So...pleasePleasePLEASE don't ever do this. It may seem like a good idea at the time, but it's actually always a bad idea.
:)

So I did manage to get all the adhesive residue off both the parchment & the wood, thank G@d. It created a fair bit of dust, which is bad for the parchment - it grinds in & wears away the letters - unless you are careful to remove it properly. Laying clean, acid-free paper over the letter helps, but there's always some parchment or sawdust that finds its way onto the face of the Torah. DON'T BLOW! Not even gently. You'd be surprised at how much spit hits a Torah just from people reading it, so blowing is a no-no. Instead, I use a blower-bulb &/or an extremely soft goat-hair brush. Soft, because even hair can scratch the letters & goat, because they're kosher, man!

It's really handy that I'm also a professional artist & was a gemmologist before I was lead to sofrut - I came equipped with the knowledge of how to use many tools. I even owned some. I can't tell you how relieved I was when I figured out how to use some of my gemological tools (blower-bulb, diamond tweezers, loupe, etc) in sofrut! They were really expensive, so it wasn't a waste after all!
:D

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SO LONG, SUKKAH!

2006-10-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

BS"D

This is the small, lower sanctuary that I'm currently working in. I'm restoring Sifrei for a local Conservative shul during the day & working on my other sofrut projects in the evenings. Isn't this pretty?

No rest for the wicked!

Later today I continued my experimentation in d'yo (sofrut ink) stain removal. I already knew some, but learned an awful lot more this summer from Yehuda Miklaf, my Jerusalem bookbinder/conservator friend, & Jack Thompson, his colleague in Portland. Uber-conservation-idols they are. I'm lucky to have access to them.

I've experimented with both fabrics (my clothes & silk or cotton art cloths) & parchments/skins (q'laf, gevil & chamois scraps). I've noted that with most fabrics, they can be placed stain face-down on paper towels (recycled ones, please). Then I gently sponge the back of the stain with rubbing/denatured alcohol or rub detergent - liquid soap is easier on the fabric than hardened soap - into the stain until it disappears. I rinse it thoroughly & then launder the fabric.

Because d'yo is water soluable, if you catch it quickly enough then flush cold water through it will usually release the pigments. If not, I do the above.

Another method that works well is to soak the stained fabric in warm sudsy water with 1 - 4 tablespoons of household ammonia (the type with no added colour or fragrance) per litre of water. You might have to let it sit overnight. When it looks like the ink has disolved, rinse it thoroughly & wash in the hottest water safe for that fabric, with fabric safe/oxygenated bleach.

If you're strictly Orthodox like I am about using kosher soap in the house (because all cooking, eating, food-serving utensils & table cloths & napkins, etc, should be washed without unkosher animal fats, please), then if you need to get stains out of the fabric of a Torah mantle or belt, it's no problem. & if you can't find it kosher, you can always make it yourself. There are plenty of recipes for vegetable based soaps at Miller Soap (she's the mom of a friend of mine).

Be sure to test whether the stained cloth is colourfast before you do anything creative with it, too.
Who knew the Soferet was such a hausfrau? Yes, I wash, dry, scrub, cook...I even do windows!
:)

Now none of the above can be used successfully on parchment, as there's just too much water involved. Kosher solvents can be used (like colourless vodka with no added flavour or anything) or kerosene, but NOT BY THEMSELVES! Quite a few people who do Sefer Torah repair do this & it's really bad for the skin over the long-term. I was shocked by what they told me they did. You actually need to cook your solvent up with other ingredients for it to be appropriate for use with kosher parchment, but that's for people willing to "go all the way" with their sofrut study.

I took the sukah down today :(
The ushpizin & ushpizot hangings are soaking in the laundry machine, the Jerusalem artichoke stalks, ivy & jute decomposing on my compost & the bamboo planted in the garden as trellising.

I'm still hanging onto my lulav & etrog, tho'...

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BACK TO WORK

2006-10-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Sofrutastic home office space, complete with stereo, Megillah, & random artwork.

Thank G@d I have such a well-lit, airy space to work in.
Now to catch up on all my overdue projects...

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SO LONG, & THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH

2006-10-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

BS"D

My good friends Morey & Alissa stayed over with me for the weekend, our last 2 days of Sukot. It was so great having their company. Offering to be a host is an important service to perform - & enjoyable, when you share your home space with creative folks like these:

This is how they left a message for me when I was asleep, to let me know where they would be when I woke up. We aren't allowed to write on Shabbat or Jewish holidays, you see, so they went to tremendous, hilarious & highly artistic lengths to catch my attention when I emerged from my room.
Of course, I didn't notice it until they came home & showed it to me :(
I don't notice anything for at least an hour after I wake up.
But they're awesome anyway...
:)

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MO'ADIM LE-SIMCHAH!

2006-10-06T08:20:00.000-07:00

BS"D

My sukah last night:

Just thrown in a couple of blankets & some steamy cocoa & you're good to go!

The wall on the right needs to be re-hung for this to be kosher. There are a lot of opinions & rules, typical of Judaism, about what makes a kosher sukah. My favourite is this: the word "sukah" - סכה - illustrates the wall combinations considered kosher for a valid sukah.

The first letter, Samekh, represents a fully enclosed 4-walled structure (assuming there is a door!). The second, Khaf, teaches us that a 3-walled sukah is acceptable. Finally, the last letter, Hey, shows that 2 walls plus a partial third also makes for a mitzvah-filled sukah. That's why I have to re-attach that far right part of the hanging under the bamboo...

Shabbat shalom, Chag same'ach, gut-shabbes gut-yontif!

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SEASON OF OUR JOY

2006-10-05T17:55:00.000-07:00

BS"D

My friend Kim, her daughter Shula & I went on a field trip today to Home Despot (not a typo!). I'd been checking around my local Canadian Tire (because they're more than just tires!!!) off & on the past couple of weeks as the patio & garden stuff went on sale, hoping to find a bargain on sukah (that would be "tabernacle" to you Christians) building materials. But no luck. So I caved & went to the Big Box American Chain Store Which Is Destroying The Earth.

A mitzvah, after all, is a mitzvah...

& thanks to my good friends & neighbours - & their car - I built my sukah today!

I know, it needs a little more schach for the roof, but that can be remedied before the Chag starts tomorrow night. "Chag", by the way, is often used to mean "Jewish Holiday", but actually means "pilgrimage" & comes from the same etymological root as the Arabic word "Hajj".

Its frame & part of the roof is of bamboo tied together with jute & ivy. There are Jerusalem artichoke stalks on the roof. I harvested my organic garden for the autumn & tossed the inedible greens up there. The hangings for the ushpizin & ushpizot, the prophets we invite as guests into the sukah each night for dinner, are old ones that I collaborated on with a local Bukharan Jewish judaica dealer years ago.

Cozy, isn't it?

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BLESSINGS, STEP BY STEP

2006-10-04T21:48:00.000-07:00

BS"D

I've made many allusions in my previous writings to the "invisible" things a properly trained sofer/et, Jewish ritual scribe, will perform during the process of writing a Sefer Torah (or mezuzah or...)
To learn what they all are, you really do have to apprentice with a licensed scribe.
To learn what some of them are (because I'm not going to give the whole game away), you can read this blog :)

There are many blessings said & declarations of intention made at crucial points in the creating of these religious writings. One of them is:

This prayer is pronounced by the sofer before he sews the yeri'ot, sheets of parchment, together:
הריני מחבר ותפירה לספר תורה זאת לשם קדושת ספר תורה
Blessing said before the sofer sews the first & last yeri'ot to the rollers:
הריני חרש עצים לספר תורה זאת לשם קדושת ספר תורה

The idea is to have the intention in your sewing to complete the holiness of the Sefer Torah. This is one of the reasons why I don't write or correct before I go to a miqveh.

Interested in learning more? Check out Sofrut Nation.

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SOME SEFER TORAH STATISTICS

2006-10-03T18:36:00.000-07:00

BS"D

For Sifrei Torah written since about 1860:

42 lines per amud, column
248 amudim, columns (approximately)
With the exception of 6 amudim, all begin with the letter Vav, ו
3 - 5 amudim per yeri'ah, sheet of parchment
50 - 62 yeri'ot, parchment sheets, per scroll

The 42 lines refer to the number of stops we made on our desert journey, from Egypt to the Land of Israel, as summarized in Be-midbar/Numbers 33:1 - 49 (text taken from Mechon-Mamre:

א אֵלֶּה מַסְעֵי בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, אֲשֶׁר יָצְאוּ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם--לְצִבְאֹתָם: בְּיַד-מֹשֶׁה, וְאַהֲרֹן. 1
These are the stages of the children of Israel, by which they went forth out of the land of Egypt by their hosts under the hand of Moses and Aaron.
ב וַיִּכְתֹּב מֹשֶׁה אֶת-מוֹצָאֵיהֶם, לְמַסְעֵיהֶם--עַל-פִּי יְהוָה; וְאֵלֶּה מַסְעֵיהֶם, לְמוֹצָאֵיהֶם. 2
And Moses wrote their goings forth, stage by stage, by the commandment of the LORD; and these are their stages at their goings forth.
ג וַיִּסְעוּ מֵרַעְמְסֵס בַּחֹדֶשׁ הָרִאשׁוֹן, בַּחֲמִשָּׁה עָשָׂר יוֹם לַחֹדֶשׁ הָרִאשׁוֹן: מִמָּחֳרַת הַפֶּסַח, יָצְאוּ בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּיָד רָמָה--לְעֵינֵי, כָּל-מִצְרָיִם. 3
And they journeyed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the morrow after the passover the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians,
ד וּמִצְרַיִם מְקַבְּרִים, אֵת אֲשֶׁר הִכָּה יְהוָה בָּהֶם--כָּל-בְּכוֹר; וּבֵאלֹהֵיהֶם, עָשָׂה יְהוָה שְׁפָטִים. 4
while the Egyptians were burying them that the LORD had smitten among them, even all their first-born; upon their gods also the LORD executed judgments.
ה וַיִּסְעוּ בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, מֵרַעְמְסֵס; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּסֻכֹּת. 5
And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses, and pitched in Succoth.
ו וַיִּסְעוּ, מִסֻּכֹּת; וַיַּחֲנוּ בְאֵתָם, אֲשֶׁר בִּקְצֵה הַמִּדְבָּר. 6
And they journeyed from Succoth, and pitched in Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness.
ז וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵאֵתָם, וַיָּשָׁב עַל-פִּי הַחִירֹת, אֲשֶׁר עַל-פְּנֵי בַּעַל צְפוֹן; וַיַּחֲנוּ, לִפְנֵי מִגְדֹּל. 7
And they journeyed from Etham, and turned back unto Pihahiroth, which is before Baal-zephon; and they pitched before Migdol.
ח וַיִּסְעוּ מִפְּנֵי הַחִירֹת, וַיַּעַבְרוּ בְתוֹךְ-הַיָּם הַמִּדְבָּרָה; וַיֵּלְכוּ דֶּרֶךְ שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים, בְּמִדְבַּר אֵתָם, וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּמָרָה. 8
And they journeyed from Penehahiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness; and they went three days' journey in the wilderness of Etham, and pitched in Marah.
ט וַיִּסְעוּ, מִמָּרָה, וַיָּבֹאוּ, אֵילִמָה; וּבְאֵילִם שְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵה עֵינֹת מַיִם, וְשִׁבְעִים תְּמָרִים--וַיַּחֲנוּ-שָׁם. 9
And they journeyed from Marah, and came unto Elim; and in Elim were twelve springs of water, and threescore and ten palm-trees; and they pitched there.
י וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵאֵילִם; וַיַּחֲנוּ, עַל-יַם-סוּף. 10
And they journeyed from Elim, and pitched by the Red Sea.
יא וַיִּסְעוּ, מִיַּם-סוּף; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּמִדְבַּר-סִין. 11
And they journeyed from the Red Sea, and pitched in the wilderness of Sin.
יב וַיִּסְעוּ, מִמִּדְבַּר-סִין; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּדָפְקָה. 12
And they journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, and pitched in Dophkah.
יג וַיִּסְעוּ, מִדָּפְקָה; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּאָלוּשׁ. 13
And they journeyed from Dophkah, and pitched in Alush.
יד וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵאָלוּשׁ; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בִּרְפִידִם, וְלֹא-הָיָה שָׁם מַיִם לָעָם, לִשְׁתּוֹת. 14
And they journeyed from Alush, and pitched in Rephidim, where was no water for the people to drink.
טו וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵרְפִידִם; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּמִדְבַּר סִינָי. 15
And they journeyed from Rephidim, and pitched in the wilderness of Sinai.
טז וַיִּסְעוּ, מִמִּדְבַּר סִינָי; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּקִבְרֹת הַתַּאֲוָה. 16
And they journeyed from the wilderness of Sinai, and pitched in Kibroth-hattaavah.
יז וַיִּסְעוּ, מִקִּבְרֹת הַתַּאֲוָה; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בַּחֲצֵרֹת. 17
And they journeyed from Kibroth-hattaavah, and pitched in Hazeroth.
יח וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵחֲצֵרֹת; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּרִתְמָה. 18
And they journeyed from Hazeroth, and pitched in Rithmah.
יט וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵרִתְמָה; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּרִמֹּן פָּרֶץ. 19
And they journeyed from Rithmah, and pitched in Rimmon-perez.
כ וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵרִמֹּן פָּרֶץ; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּלִבְנָה. 20
And they journeyed from Rimmon-perez, and pitched in Libnah.
כא וַיִּסְעוּ, מִלִּבְנָה; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּרִסָּה. 21
And they journeyed from Libnah, and pitched in Rissah.
כב וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵרִסָּה; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בִּקְהֵלָתָה. 22
And they journeyed from Rissah, and pitched in Kehelah.
כג וַיִּסְעוּ, מִקְּהֵלָתָה; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּהַר-שָׁפֶר. 23
And they journeyed from Kehelah, and pitched in mount Shepher.
כד וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵהַר-שָׁפֶר; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בַּחֲרָדָה. 24
And they journeyed from mount Shepher, and pitched in Haradah.
כה וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵחֲרָדָה; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּמַקְהֵלֹת. 25
And they journeyed from Haradah, and pitched in Makheloth.
כו וַיִּסְעוּ, מִמַּקְהֵלֹת; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּתָחַת. 26
And they journeyed from Makheloth, and pitched in Tahath.
כז וַיִּסְעוּ, מִתָּחַת; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּתָרַח. 27
And they journeyed from Tahath, and pitched in Terah.
כח וַיִּסְעוּ, מִתָּרַח; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּמִתְקָה. 28
And they journeyed from Terah, and pitched in Mithkah.
כט וַיִּסְעוּ, מִמִּתְקָה; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּחַשְׁמֹנָה. 29
And they journeyed from Mithkah, and pitched in Hashmonah.
ל וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵחַשְׁמֹנָה; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּמֹסֵרוֹת. 30
And they journeyed from Hashmonah, and pitched in Moseroth.
לא וַיִּסְעוּ, מִמֹּסֵרוֹת; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בִּבְנֵי יַעֲקָן. 31
And they journeyed from Moseroth, and pitched in Bene-jaakan.
לב וַיִּסְעוּ, מִבְּנֵי יַעֲקָן; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּחֹר הַגִּדְגָּד. 32
And they journeyed from Bene-jaakan, and pitched in Hor-haggidgad.
לג וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵחֹר הַגִּדְגָּד; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּיָטְבָתָה. 33
And they journeyed from Hor-haggidgad, and pitched in Jotbah.
לד וַיִּסְעוּ, מִיָּטְבָתָה; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּעַבְרֹנָה. 34
And they journeyed from Jotbah, and pitched in Abronah.
לה וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵעַבְרֹנָה; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּעֶצְיֹן גָּבֶר. 35
And they journeyed from Abronah, and pitched in Ezion-geber.
לו וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵעֶצְיֹן גָּבֶר; וַיַּחֲנוּ בְמִדְבַּר-צִן, הִוא קָדֵשׁ. 36
And they journeyed from Ezion-geber, and pitched in the wilderness of Zin--the same is Kadesh.
לז וַיִּסְעוּ, מִקָּדֵשׁ; וַיַּחֲנוּ בְּהֹר הָהָר, בִּקְצֵה אֶרֶץ אֱדוֹם. 37
And they journeyed from Kadesh, and pitched in mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom.--
לח וַיַּעַל אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן אֶל-הֹר הָהָר, עַל-פִּי יְהוָה--וַיָּמָת שָׁם: בִּשְׁנַת הָאַרְבָּעִים, לְצֵאת בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם, בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַחֲמִישִׁי, בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ. 38
And Aaron the priest went up into mount Hor at the commandment of the LORD, and died there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fifth month, on the first day of the month.
לט וְאַהֲרֹן, בֶּן-שָׁלֹשׁ וְעֶשְׂרִים וּמְאַת שָׁנָה, בְּמֹתוֹ, בְּהֹר הָהָר. {ס} 39
And Aaron was a hundred and twenty and three years old when he died in mount Hor. {S}
מ וַיִּשְׁמַע, הַכְּנַעֲנִי מֶלֶךְ עֲרָד, וְהוּא-יֹשֵׁב בַּנֶּגֶב, בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן--בְּבֹא, בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל. 40
And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the South in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel.--
מא וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵהֹר הָהָר; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּצַלְמֹנָה. 41
And they journeyed from mount Hor, and pitched in Zalmonah.
מב וַיִּסְעוּ, מִצַּלְמֹנָה; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּפוּנֹן. 42
And they journeyed from Zalmonah, and pitched in Punon.
מג וַיִּסְעוּ, מִפּוּנֹן; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּאֹבֹת. 43
And they journeyed from Punon, and pitched in Oboth.
מד וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵאֹבֹת; וַיַּחֲנוּ בְּעִיֵּי הָעֲבָרִים, בִּגְבוּל מוֹאָב. 44
And they journeyed from Oboth, and pitched in Ije-abarim, in the border of Moab.
מה וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵעִיִּים; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּדִיבֹן גָּד. 45 And they journeyed from Ijim, and pitched in Dibon-gad.
מו וַיִּסְעוּ, מִדִּיבֹן גָּד; וַיַּחֲנוּ, בְּעַלְמֹן דִּבְלָתָיְמָה. 46
And they journeyed from Dibon-gad, and pitched in Almon-diblathaim.
מז וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵעַלְמֹן דִּבְלָתָיְמָה; וַיַּחֲנוּ בְּהָרֵי הָעֲבָרִים, לִפְנֵי נְבוֹ. 47
And they journeyed from Almon-diblathaim, and pitched in the mountains of Abarim, in front of Nebo.
מח וַיִּסְעוּ, מֵהָרֵי הָעֲבָרִים; וַיַּחֲנוּ בְּעַרְבֹת מוֹאָב, עַל יַרְדֵּן יְרֵחוֹ. 48
And they journeyed from the mountains of Abarim, and pitched in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
מט וַיַּחֲנוּ עַל-הַיַּרְדֵּן מִבֵּית הַיְשִׁמֹת, עַד אָבֵל הַשִּׁטִּים, בְּעַרְבֹת, מוֹאָב. {ס} 49
And they pitched by the Jordan, from Beth-jeshimoth even unto Abel-shittim in the plains of Moab. {S}

These "Vav Torahs", aka Vav Ha-Amud Sifrei, are a reference to the connexion between G@d & Creation. The letter Vav has the gematrial value of 6 & is the 6th letter of the Alefbet. The name "Vav" means "hook", & pictographically this letter looks like a hook or a tent peg (see above).

So, why do some Torah scrolls - particularly the ones written since 1860ish - begin all but 6 of their columns with this letter?
I recall an excited rabbi asking me about the first Torah I was about to start writing, 3 years ago: "Can it be a Vav-Torah?"
"Sure", I smiled.

So there I was learning with my sofer the laws of laying out a Torah. A rabbinic opinion we learned forbade anyone from writing a Vav-Torah.
"But wait a second, almost all Torahs I've ever seen are vav-Torahs" I remarked, puzzled. My sofer admonished me. I needed to be more patient & keep learning.

Apparently, the reason why it was forbidden to write Sifrei Torah whose columns began with Vav, was because nobody had done it yet. I know that doesn't make sense on the surface, but it went like this:
Because nobody had written a Vav-Torah before, there was no existing scribe's guide to how to write one properly. One of the laws of writing a Torah states that you have to copy from either a guide (known as a Tiqun le-Sofrim) or from another Torah. Therefore, each time somebody tried to write a Vav-Torah, the lines came out very unevenly - scrunched & stretched rather than even - so the resulting scroll was always:
1) hard to read
2) ugly
3) taking the chance that the Torah you are writing will be either of the above is not paying appropriate respect to the work
4) the proper holy intention had not been foremost in the mind of the scribe because he was obssessing about his Vavs

However, some scribes were determined to write a Vav-Torah. So somebody kept doing it until he got it right.
& now most modern Sifrei Torah are laid out this way.

Why were they so obsssesssed?
Vav's number, 6, reminds us of the 6 days of Creation. That we, Humankind, were created on the 6th day. That we work 6 days, rest on Shabbat, then begin the holy cycle again. That there will be 6 millenia between Creation & the appearance of Moshiach (that means we only have 233 years left, folks!)...

The Maharal teaches us that the number six indicates physical completion: as our world was finished in six days and as each individual object has six sides: above, below, right, left, front and back.
Vav is a conjunction, a link. He comes to us in the shape of a hook, which is the function he fulfills and what his name means. The presence of Vav at the beginning of a verse in the Torah indicates continuity with the previous text ("V'eyleh sh'mot b'nai Yisra'el..." - "And these are the names of the children of Israel..."). Vav's absence means we are beginning a new subject. Vav has the power to unite anything.
So...a Vav-Torah illustrates the midrash, story or legend, that the Torah was given to Moses as one long utterance. So each column reads: "...AND x...AND...y...AND..."
In fact, the middle letter of the Torah is the Vav in the word gachon, belly (& the vav is written enlarged for this reason), Va-yiqra/Leviticus 11:42!
כֹּל הוֹלֵךְ עַל-גָּחוֹן וְכֹל הוֹלֵךְ עַל-אַרְבַּע, עַד כָּל-מַרְבֵּה רַגְלַיִם, לְכָל-הַשֶּׁרֶץ, הַשֹּׁרֵץ עַל-הָאָרֶץ--לֹא תֹאכְלוּם, כִּי-שֶׁקֶץ הֵם. 42 Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all fours, or whatsoever hath many feet, even all swarming things that swarm upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are a detestable thing.

Gorgeous :)

Also, a Vav/hook at the top of each amud/column is a beautiful reference to the body of the holy Mishkan, the Tabernacle.
Sh'mot/Exodus 27:9 - 10 reads:
ט וְעָשִׂיתָ, אֵת חֲצַר הַמִּשְׁכָּן--לִפְאַת נֶגֶב-תֵּימָנָה קְלָעִים לֶחָצֵר שֵׁשׁ מָשְׁזָר, מֵאָה בָאַמָּה אֹרֶךְ, לַפֵּאָה, הָאֶחָת. 9
And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen a hundred cubits long for one side.
י וְעַמֻּדָיו עֶשְׂרִים, וְאַדְנֵיהֶם עֶשְׂרִים נְחֹשֶׁת; וָוֵי הָעַמֻּדִים וַחֲשֻׁקֵיהֶם, כָּסֶף. 10
And the pillars thereof shall be twenty, and their sockets twenty, of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.
יא וְכֵן לִפְאַת צָפוֹן בָּאֹרֶךְ, קְלָעִים מֵאָה אֹרֶךְ; וְעַמֻּדָו עֶשְׂרִים, וְאַדְנֵיהֶם עֶשְׂרִים נְחֹשֶׁת, וָוֵי הָעַמֻּדִים וַחֲשֻׁקֵיהֶם, כָּסֶף. 11
And likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings a hundred cubits long, and the pillars thereof twenty, and their sockets twenty, of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.

This beautifully expresses the building of our Sacred Space for the In-Dwelling of G@d's Presence, the Shekhinah (Mishkan & Shekhinah come from the same root, Sh-K-N, meaning to dwell intimately). The yeri'ot, sheets of parchment, are likened to the woven curtains of the tent. They are hung from Vavs, silver hooks, on the amudim, columns/posts, which are the foundation. Torah is the foundation.

We hook ourselves to Torah by hooking the text to the skin, the curtains to the posts, creating a spiritual home in the world.

[Addendum: I apologize for neglecting to cite the source for a Sefer Torah with 42 lines per column reflecting our 42 stops in the desert. It's Talmud Bavli Soferim 2:6.
Sifrei Torah with 60, 72 or 98 lines per column were justified by the word "60" in Be-midbar/Numbers 1:46; the 72 elders in Numbers 11:16 (but there's actually only 70, but there are purportedly 72 names of G@d, so maybe that's it); & the 98 curses & warnings of Devarim/Deuteronomy 27:28.]

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THIRD ANNIVERSARY, WITH GRATITUDE

2006-10-02T23:23:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Subject: This Week in History for October 2
From: "Jewish Women's Archive"
Date: Mon, October 2, 2006 8:01
To: aviel@soferet.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version

"This Week in History" offers a unique guide to American Jewish women's history -
identifying intriguing events that occurred during this particular week in years
past.

More information about each of the events described below can be found on the
website of the Jewish Women's Archive at http://www.jwa.org/this_week/week40.html

WEEK OF OCTOBER 2

Annie Leibovitz, one of the country's most gifted photographers, was born on October
2, 1949.

When she joined the ABC evening news as a co-anchor on October 4, 1976, Barbara
Walters became the highest paid journalist, male or female, up to that time.

Aviel Barclay became the first certified female Torah scribe on October 6, 2003.

Driven by the passionate lobbying efforts of activist Annie Nathan Meyer, Barnard
College opened it doors in a rented Madison Avenue brownstone on October 7, 1889.

Read more at:
http://www.jwa.org/this_week/week40.html

-----------------------------------------------------

If this message was forwarded to you, and you want to signup for THIS WEEK IN
HISTORY emails, please visit http://www.jwa.org/thisweeksignup.html

(c) 2006 Jewish Women's Archive

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SHA'AGAT ARYEH HA-SHEYNIT

2006-09-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

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ח אַרְיֵה שָׁאָג, מִי לֹא יִירָא; אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה דִּבֶּר, מִי לֹא יִנָּבֵא.
Aryeh sha'ag, mi lo yirah; Ad@nai Y-H-V-H diber, mi lo yinavey
"The lion has roared, who will not fear? The L@rd G@D has spoken, who can but prophesy?"
Amos 3:8

R' Nechemiyah used to say, "They who converted to Judaism because of lions...are not deemed proselytes unless they are ready to be converted again..."
This great sage is referring to the Samaritans, who became Jewish after being visited by lions, because their coming was a manifestation of Divine Wrath. But only love of Torah can move people to truly become Jews.

כד וַיָּבֵא מֶלֶךְ-אַשּׁוּר מִבָּבֶל וּמִכּוּתָה וּמֵעַוָּא וּמֵחֲמָת, וּסְפַרְוַיִם, וַיֹּשֶׁב בְּעָרֵי שֹׁמְרוֹן, תַּחַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל; וַיִּרְשׁוּ, אֶת-שֹׁמְרוֹן, וַיֵּשְׁבוּ, בְּעָרֶיהָ. 24
"& the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, & from Kuthah, & from Avva, & from Chamath & Sefarva'im, & put them in the cities of Samaria (Shomron) instead of the children of Israel; & they possessed Samaria, & lived in its cities."

כה וַיְהִי, בִּתְחִלַּת שִׁבְתָּם שָׁם, לֹא יָרְאוּ, אֶת-יְהוָה; וַיְשַׁלַּח יְהוָה בָּהֶם אֶת-הָאֲרָיוֹת, וַיִּהְיוּ הֹרְגִים בָּהֶם. 25
"& so it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the L@RD; therefore the L@RD sent lions among them, which killed some of them."

כו וַיֹּאמְרוּ, לְמֶלֶךְ אַשּׁוּר לֵאמֹר, הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר הִגְלִיתָ וַתּוֹשֶׁב בְּעָרֵי שֹׁמְרוֹן, לֹא יָדְעוּ, אֶת-מִשְׁפַּט אֱלֹהֵי הָאָרֶץ; וַיְשַׁלַּח-בָּם אֶת-הָאֲרָיוֹת, וְהִנָּם מְמִיתִים אוֹתָם, כַּאֲשֶׁר אֵינָם יֹדְעִים, אֶת-מִשְׁפַּט אֱלֹהֵי הָאָרֶץ. 26
"So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying: 'The nations (Israel) which you have carried away, and placed in the cities of Samaria, don't know the manner of the G@d of the land; so He has sent lions among them, & look, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the G@d of the land.'
2 Kings/Melekhim 17:24-26

The Hebrew word for lion is אריה aryeh. Spelled Alef, Reysh, Yud, Hey.
This is an acronym.

The letter Alef stands for the month of אלול Elul, which begins with Alef. The Reysh represents ראש השנה Rosh Hashanah, Yud stands for יום כפור Yom Kippur, & the Hey represents הושנה רבה Hoshanah Rabah.

This is the time of Divine judgment, the Yamim Nora'im, days of awe. If we allow ourselves to hear the roar, G@d will wake us up to repentance so we can prepare to gently turn what is ready to be moved. In this way we inspire the Holy One to transform Divine judgement to Divine compassion.

I'm off to the miqveh now, for the annual pre-Yom Kipur women's gathering. Many blessings to you for an easy transformation.

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A SMALL YUD IN HA'AZINU

2006-09-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

BS"D

The letter Yud has a numerical value of 10. Ten fingers, ten toes, ten commandments & with ten utterances Ha-Shem created the universe; ten emanations - "eser Sefirot" - of the Eitz Chayim, the Tree of Life in Kabbalah, from conception to completion...

Yud is the building block of the Alefbet, each letter in fact being made up of a series of Yuds. The seed, the sperm, the primordial force initiating the flow of life. The catalyst.

Yad, hand, indicates a means of action. Agency. The universe is set in motion by the movement of the Yad Chazaqah - the strong hand of G@D - being the symbol of creative and directive energy.

The Zohar (Vayikra 147) explains that Yud consists of three parts: a point rising upwards to the One above, a point directed downwards to earth and the middle part uniting both. The shape of the Yud is symbolic of a person in prayer. Our eyes are lowered in humility as we stand before the Holy One, while our hearts are turned upward, toward heaven (Yevamot 105b). All three parts of the Yud are of equal importance Halakhically. The Talmud notes that it is "obvious [peshita]" that a mezuzah klaf or Torah scroll is invalid if it lacks even a "qotzo shel Yud", the point of the Yud (Menachot 29a; Rashi).

& with all this in mind...

In this week's Parsha for Shabbat Tshuvah, Ha'azinu/Deuteronomy 32:18, there's a small Yud in in the word teshi - unmindful.

יח צוּר יְלָדְךָ, תֶּשִׁי; וַתִּשְׁכַּח, אֵל מְחֹלְלֶךָ.
"The Rock that birthed you, you neglected/were unmindful of, you forgot the G@D that produced-you-in-labour:"

This tiny Yud was listed in Midrash Rabbah Aqim as one of the letter oddities which must be written into a Sefer Torah for it to be considered kosher for ritual use.
R' Chayim David HaLevy, who is a Kabbalist rabbi I quote often, wrote that a letter written in miniscule indicates that a person or people in the narrative have somehow missed the mark; that they could have done better.

Among the many gifts that Ha-Shem has given us is the power of shikhah — forgetfulness. Moshe Rabeynu said this to us right before he died. This is the last sheet of parchment in the Torah, people. Our problem is that vatishkach Keil mecholelekha — we're using our power of forgetfulness to neglect Ha-Shem, Who gives us each breath straight from Divine compassion. Is that any way to act?

It's so hard to be human. & G@d knows just what a hard job we have. That's why we got Torah. But if we forget, then our agency, our yad, is diminished. So here we have a small Yud to remind us...not to forget :)

May we all be blessed with consciousness enough to become good humans this year.

Cross-posted at Radical Torah .

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SEEK PEACE & PURSUE IT

2006-09-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Further to my fasting for peace, I received this in my e-mail. Although I'm not affiliated with Jewish Renewal, I respect & support their efforts to improve the world we're in. This is an example & I wish them well with it:

The Rodef Shalom School for Peace Joins ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal

A week after the 5th anniversary of the September 11 tragedy, the ALEPH Board unanimously and joyfully welcomed the Rodef Shalom School for Peace as one of its projects. The School is designed as a three-year training program with the potential for ordination as a Rodef Shalom/Pursuer of Peace, after successful completion of course requirements.

³It is said that a nation cannot simultaneously prepare for war and build peace,² ALEPH Executive Director Debra Kolodny mused. ³ALEPH is delighted to partner with Rodef Shalom, whose directors have been intentionally, systematically and quite effectively waging peace for years. Rodef Shalom is a much-needed part of the Jewish peace building landscape, and an important part of Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi¹s legacy. It will help ALEPH continue our commitment to inter-religious work, embodied by The Shalom Center (now a separate, sister organization) and the Sacred Foods Project. We are honored to be working with Eliyahu McClean and Ruth Broyde Sharon, masters both.²

Rodef Shalom plans to train 20 Jewish community and religious activists in its first class. Participants will learn specific techniques and models enabling them to: organize and facilitate dialogue; integrate the arts in interfaith community activities; study sources from the Jewish tradition that support a universal, peace point of view; and grapple with problematic
texts about the 'other.'

Eager to address the fierce tensions caused by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Eliyahu McLean, one of the foremost inter-religious peace builders in Israel, and documentary filmmaker Ruth Broyde-Sharone, an international speaker and interfaith activist from Los Angeles, who teaches "The Art of Interfaith," launched the Rodef Shalom/Peacebuilding Training program at
Elat Chayyim this summer. They co-taught ³Peacebuilding As an Art & Practice,² the first in a series of trainings that will aid Jewish religious and community leaders seeking tools to respond to current interfaith conflicts and to build constructive relationships with people of other faiths, especially in Muslim communities.

The inspiration for this program came from Reb Zalman Schacter-Shalomi in 2003 when he initiated and ordained Eliyahu McLean, as the first Rodef Shalom/Pursuer of Peace, and charged Eliyahu with the mission of creating a network of Jewish peace workers around the world. Eliyahu, in turn, ordained Ruth Broyde-Sharone as the first woman "Rodefet Shalom" this summer at Elat Chayyim. The Rodef Shalom Training Program, now officially affiliated with ALEPH, will also encourage Jewish peace builders to become a spiritual community for one other.

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THIS WEEK WILL GO BY FAST

2006-09-25T23:55:00.000-07:00

BS"D

I find this really upsetting.

For 2 years in a row, the Jewish month of Tishrei has coincided with the Muslim month of Ramadan & their respective extra-special holy activities. & we spent the 3 weeks (& then some) fighting each other. I really believe that G@d is giving us - handing to us on a silver platter - an obvious opportunity to turn the world around, make things right toghether.

I have a tremendous reverence for Ha-Rav Ha-Ga'on Avraham Yitzchaq Ha-Kohen Kook. His protest-response mentioned in the above article is to be admired, I think, & imitated.

So although today was the fast of Gedalyah, I've decided, in light of the tensions in the Middle East, to continue fasting during the daylight hours until Yom Kipur (with the exception of Shabbes & Yom Kipur Eve, as my rabbi maintains that we're not allowed to fast on those days). I want to draw attention to the fact that Jews don't have to just square up with each other during these Days of Awe, we have to connect in truth & peace with the non-Jews in our lives as well.

Let's pool our money, time, kindness, ideas, talents & skills to do more of this & this for people in need this year & every year until the Messiah comes.

G'mar chatimah tovah

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HAPPY 5767!

2006-09-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

BS"D

A while back, the dude at ChaiSpace asked me to design a font for him that would be for use by MySpace users & all over the net. So I rose to the occasion - an honour is, after all, an honour. Here's the first half (in rough):

& here's the second (again, it's rough - a few imperfections here & there):

I call it "Qeset Ha-Soferet", which means Inkwell of the Soferet. I've named it after my fave volume of Sofrut Halakhah (scribal laws).

...& this is what it looks like as a ChaiSpace greeting:

Shiny, isn't it?
It also comes in gold without the glitter, here.

It's been such a thrill to get comments & e-mails at my MySpace page wishing me a good & sweet & blessed New Year in my own font!
YAY!

Much gratitude to Brian (& G@D) at ChaiSpace for his idea & hard work, & for letting me know about all the positive feedback Qeset Ha-Soferet has garnered.

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SUPERHERO SYNDROME

2006-09-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

BS"D

I admit that my whole life I've wanted to work hard, protect people, save the weak & provide sanctuary to those who've been ill-treated. All rolled into a skin of perfectionism & baked to a golden brown. But apparently, that's a stressful way of being in the world because it's impossible to achieve.

Today I had the opportunity to help someone I did not know & thank G@d.

I wandered into a store, browsing for something nice to treat myself to for my birthday. It was a sweet little specialty tea shop, with real teapots from Japan & such fragrant brews. I wasn't paying attention to what was happening to the back of the store. Until the shouting started.

There was a man yelling at the lady behind the counter. He was insisting that she give him money. He was small & dirty & wore grubby clothes. He carried a squeegee.

I listened. He had washed the outside of her display window without asking her permission, & then come in to pressure her to pay him. I felt bad for him, because he was probably homeless & trying to earn a living. Until I heard her tell him that this was the third time he'd done this & that he had to ask her first. That it was unfair for him to demand money without making an agreement in advance.

But he just kept yelling over her. I started watching them, because her voice got higher & smaller & he kept interrupting her. She was having a hard time keeping up with him because her English wasn't so great & he kept shouting over her. She said she'd call her husband & ask.

She spoke with her husband on the phone in Chinese & then put the phone back on the hook. She asked him to come back another time to speak to her husband, that her husband didn't want her to give him anything but that he could speak with him when he was in the store.

The squeegee man started to threaten her. Disgusting, unspeakable threats. Like I wasn't even there. So I walked over to the counter & stood by the lady - who had by now said over & over, "I'm very afraid of you & I would like you to please leave my store" - so he could see that I was there witnessing. I wanted to do more, but I couldn't get a read on this guy & for all I knew he was hopped-up on drugs or armed (a squeegee can do a lot of damage).

"Yeah, well, you should be afraid" he said. She was fighting back her tears, "My husband is coming soon". But once he woke up to my presence, he began to retreat, hurling threats & curses, telling her he'd be back & that she'd be really sorry.

Ugh. This poor lady just broke down, so selfconcious that she was crying in front of a strange customer. "Are you ok?" I asked. She nodded. It wasn't true. She was weeping over her Bible, her small gold cross pendant shuddering along with her fearful breaths. "Are you always in here alone?" Yes. "You can't let him keep coming in here & treating you like this. He has no right to threaten you. Would you like to call the police?"

She called her husband again & I waited. She asked me to call the police for her because she wasn't confident with her English. So I did. At least open a file, I thought. I get that the squeegee man was desperate for cash, but this poor woman shouldn't keep being terrorized. I walked outside & scanned for him on the street. He was in the next block washing another store window. So I gave a description & described the event. Not much else to do, really.

She thanked me profusely, but really, I didn't do anything more than any other strange customer would have. I tried to buy an adorable little bamboo spoon from her (I wanted to cheer her up by buying something & I happen to like the cultural/home-building/commitment symbolism of handmade spoons), but she wouldn't let me.

"I don't want to take any money for this". Ach!
"But I want to pay you - I didn't pick this out hoping that you'd just give it to me for free because I helped."
She put it in a little gold bag for me, & smiled for the first time. "I know. I know your mind. But I also know my mind." She held it out to me.
I smiled, "Thank you - it's my birthday..."
"Oh! Very Happy Birthday! You are such a kind & nice lady & so beautiful..." she trailed off into tears again.

Good thing I didn't try to buy one of those cool $75 Japanese teapots.

"Can I do anything else for you?"
No.
"Is your husband coming soon?"
Yes.
I offered to leave my phone number in case the police wanted to speak further with me. Probably not, but who knows. She enthusiastically accepted. I offered to stay with her until her husband arrived, as it was obvious she was still scared. She said I could go, that it was alright. I just wish I could have done more for her.

Suffering begets suffering. If the squeegee man hadn't been abused or fallen on hard times, he wouldn't have behaved that way toward the teashop lady. It's so hard to be a person, to act rightly when we are in a state of lack. But we have to. G@d requires that of us. Thankfully, G@d is also compassionate.

Shabbat Shalom, Shanah Tovah u-metuqah, ve-g'mar tov.
Sabbath peace, a great & sweet New Year, & may we all be sealed for a good year, whether we are squeegee men or teashop ladies, or somewhere in between.

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RETURN AGAIN

2006-09-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Last night's celebration of my birth looked like this:

My deep gratitude goes to the Lev family for their very kind & loving treatment of me :)
This morning I slept in for the first time in months. Between teaching in Israel during a war, my mother's various health concerns, trying to catch up on different sofrut projects, & racing around North America trying to kasher as many Sifrei Torah as possible before the Days of Awe, my days have been over-filled.

Then I got my first-ever acupuncture treatment. It definitely shifted me to a better space. G@d is great.

On my way to the train, I got to hang out with Jack Thompson, Super rock-god of the parchment & ink conservation world. I've been learning from his articles for years & our mutual friend Yehuda Miklaf, Super rock-god of the bookbinding & restoration world, encouraged me to get together with Jack. He came by P'nai Or when I was repairing their Sefer Torah & gave it a once-over. I was so appreciative! & really felt priviledged that he would come check out my work. I mean to say, this man is so widely & well respected that they actually invited him to work on the Dead Sea Scrolls!

Jack & I nerded out in his consevation lab with all sorts of ink & skins & tools. I adore him & his calm, methodical, fatherly approach to repair. There's so much I could learn & I'm looking forward to some kind of apprenticeship with him. G@d (& Jack) willing.

You may think that I'm name-dropping here, but I'm not.
You want an example of name-dropping? Bob Dylan's mom's rabbi is being honoured with a library in his name - while he's still alive & active, yet - & Dylan is buying the set of Talmud to be dedicated to his mom's rabbi in this library. I've been asked to design the bookplate.

That is name-dropping ;)

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G@D BLESS THE JEWS OF OREGON

2006-09-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

BS"D

This week in Portland with the P'nai Or community has been a real gift. I love them, they love me, I have kashered their Torah, G@d is good.

It's such an honour to be asked to fix a Holy Scroll. After all, aside from a Jewish community's children, their Sefer Torah is their most precious posession. & the folks at P'nai Or love their Torah. So much. It's beautiful.

Speaking of precious children:
This is me with my new favorite friend in Portland. His name is Shalem Lev & he's 4.

This is R' Aryeh Hirschfield repairing the last letter Yud in va-yehi or, "& there was light" (B'reyshit/Genesis).

He doesn't really need me there to spot him. I'm just there for dramatic effect ;)

As I'm blessed with many opportunities to perform the mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah (because by correcting even only one letter to fix a Torah, you are considered to have written the whole thing), I am happy to share with others. In each community I serve, I offer the rabbi the last letter, so he can have the mitzvah :)

My Hebrew birthday is Rosh Ha-Shanah, & as I'll be tucked away back in Vancouver as of tomorrow, my hosts & new friends here are throwing me a "Happy Birthday & Thank You for Restoring Our Torah" shin-dig. Just a little one. So good night, I'm off to enjoy good kosher vegan carrot cake, good kosher mead, & above all, good kosher company :D

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LOOK OUT FOR THE LARGE LAMED!

2006-09-16T23:41:00.000-07:00

BS”D

I'm in Portland, healing a sick Sefer Torah & staying with some very special people. I was on my way to shul this morning to give over this drush, but I fell down the stairs & the concensus between the adults in the household was that I should not walk on my injured leg. So I never had the opportunity to share this with the community I wrote it for, but you can read it below:

There is an enlarged letter Lamed in this week’s Parsha, Nitzavim, in Devarim/Deuteronomy 29:27.

וַיִּתְּשֵׁם יְהוָה מֵעַל אַדְמָתָם, בְּאַף וּבְחֵמָה וּבְקֶצֶף גָּדוֹל; וַיַּשְׁלִכֵם אֶל-אֶרֶץ אַחֶרֶת, כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה.

“Vayit’sheym Y-H-V-H mey’al adematam b’af uv-cheymah uv-qetzef gadol va-yash’Likheym el-eretz acheret kayom hazeh:”

“So Y-H-V-H uprooted them from their soil in anger, & wrath, & great fury, and cast them into another land, as is to this day:”

The word in which this enlarged Lamed appears - “va-yash’Likheym” (& cast them) - is from the same shoresh/root as “tashlikh” - to throw out or away; exile. Like what we do with bread crumbs on the afternoon of first day Rosh Ha-Shanah (when it’s not Shabbes, like this year - then we save it for second day), & symbolically to our sins, contracted spaces & narrowness which needs healing.

Context: Devarim 29:21 reads, “A future generation, consisting of your descendants, who rise up after you, along with the foreigner from a distant land, shall see the punishment directed against that land (Israel), & the plague with which G@d has struck it… ”

Followed by 29:23, “All the nations will ask, ‘Why did G@d do this to the land? What was the reason for this great display of anger?’”

Then 29:24, “They shall answer, ‘It is because they (the Jews) abandoned the covenant that G@d, L@rd of their ancestors, made with them when He brought them out of Egypt.’”

The verse immediately following, 29:28, says,

הַנִּסְתָּרֹת–לַיהוָה, אֱלֹהֵינוּ; וְהַנִּגְלֹת לָנוּ וּלְבָנֵינוּ, עַד-עוֹלָם–לַעֲשׂוֹת, אֶת-כָּל-דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת.
“Ha-nistarot (Esther/Nestor/Nistar/Astoroth) la-Y-H-V-H Eloqeynu ve-ha-nig’lot lanu u-le-vaneynu ad-olam…”

“The concealed is for G@d our L@rd, & the revealed is for us & for our children forever. We must therefore keep all the words of this Torah.”
So… why the letter Lamed? The pictographic shape of Lamed is that of a goad - that’s an instrument with which we coax animals to go in the direction we want, rather than the direction that they want. Sort of a non-electric cattle prod.

The Shoresh/root is the same as that of talmud/limmud/learn/teach. So here we have “a big teaching”, as my friend Chaim Rothschild Lev yesterday said to me about this.

R’ Chayim Dovid Ha-Levy, z”l, the former Chief Sefardi Rabbi of Tel Aviv, was a great scholar, posek & Kabbalist. He said that anytime we see an enlarged letter in our writings, that is a place where G@d takes over the direction. That Ha-Shem steps out of the status quo & is proactive about something. Example: the enlarged letter Bet which begins the Torah. B’Reyshit bara Eloqim…

So here we see that Ha-Shem is goading us away from the direction we would choose to go & instead take the path which G@d wants for us.

Talmud Bavli Yoma 29a tells us that there are 22 saintly women in our history, each with a quality which represents a letter of the Hebrew alefbet. The letter Lamed is the symbol of Devorah (Haftarah Beshallach = Judges 4:4-5:31). Who was Devorah? She was named after Rivqah’s wet nurse, who died at the same time as Rivqa (B’reyshit/Genesis 35:8 Parshat Va-yishlakh) & was buried in that area. & what did Devorah do? She judged for us & decided questions of law for the whole nation - a posek, or poseket. She was considered to have been a vessel for the ru’ach nevu’ah/spirit of prophesy. She also goaded Baraq - who was commanded by G@d to go to war with Sisera. Ha-Shem guaranteed Baraq would be victorious & yet he, feeling unworthy of such a miracle, refused to go to war unless Devorah accompanied him. Baraq felt that only her merit would guarantee his success. Devorah’s response: “I will go with you, but the path you have chosen to go will not be for your glory. Ha-Shem will deliver Sisera into the hand of a woman.” In Devorah’s song, Judges 5:1 - 31, she sings of how when the people of Israel devote themselves to Ha-Shem, they travel safely, the land blossoms & there is no war made against us. But when we forget G@d, we experience calamity.

This enlarged Lamed prophesies the coming of Devorah ha-Neviyah. Just to remind us about being very careful of the path that we choose.

Shabbat Shalom

Cross-posted at Radical Torah.

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LIVING TORAH

2006-09-08T14:43:00.000-07:00

TBS"D

Today I was lucky enough to have all the Hebrew pre-schoolers visit me while I worked at healing this Sefer Torah. They were so yummy, those little kids!

Also, some of the older elementary students spent time asking questions & were very patient while I turned this:

Into this:

(again, please excuse my poor photography - in person, the ink is a uniform matte black colour)

You know, it occurred to me today after I spent time with all these bright Jewish children, that each Sefer Torah is dead skin written on with a shed feather & boiled tree bits mixed with ash. But TORAH is alive! Living, breathing, in each of us. That's why the Living Torah from Ha-Shem commands us to teach it to our children so that they never depart from it. She is a Tree of Life...

The remainder of the programming I'll be sharing with Congregation B'nai Amoona:

Saturday, Sept 9 following kiddush lunch - "Sacred Art of Torah Calligraphy"
Following Kiddush, Soferet Avielah Barclay will introduce us to the art, craft & Laws of Torah writing.

Saturday, Sept 9 6pm - "Kabbalah of the Hebrew Alef-Bet"
Soferet Avielah Barclay will guide us in our exploration of the deep mysteries associated with the Alef-Bet.

Sunday, Sept 10 10am - "In the Scribe's Workshop"
Learn about Hebrew calligraphy from Soferet Avielah Barclay, & personally participate in the repair of some of our Sacred Torah Scrolls under her tutelage at our Membership Fair.

324 South Mason Rd
St Louis, MO
63141-8029
MapQuest link

Have a beautiful Shabbes!

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A STILL, SMALL VOICE...FROM MYSPACE

2006-09-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

BS"D

I received this in my MySpace inbox:

Wow, I just hope she knows not to do it during her cycle when she's going through mood swings. (Eze 36:17) Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt on their land, they even defiled it by their ways and by their doings. As the defilement of woman's impurity, their way was before Me. Something to keep in mind when doing things of holiness. Yah bless.

& this is the answer to that non-question: I've been coming here every morning...

(Community miqveh at the JCC in St Louis)

before I go here:

(Conference room at B'nai Amoona, where I've been restoring Torahs)

One of my fave odd letters in the Sefer Torah:

Parshat Shmini/Sefer Va-yiqra (Leviticus) 11:42 – large Vav in the word gachOn, belly.

כֹּל הוֹלֵךְ עַל-גָּחוֹן וְכֹל הוֹלֵךְ עַל-אַרְבַּע, עַד כָּל-מַרְבֵּה רַגְלַיִם, לְכָל-הַשֶּׁרֶץ, הַשֹּׁרֵץ עַל-הָאָרֶץ--לֹא תֹאכְלוּם, כִּי-שֶׁקֶץ הֵם.
"Kol holeykh al-gachon v'khol holeykh al-arba ad kal-marbeyh raglim l'khal-hasheretz hashoreytz al-ha'aretz lo tokh'lum ki-sheqetz heym:"
"Anything going about on its belly, anything going about on all fours, up to anything with many legs, among all swarming-creatures that swarm upon the earth: you are not to eat them, for they are detestable-things!:"

Vav has the numerical value of 6. The Maharal teaches us that the number six indicates physical completion: as our world was finished in six days and as each individual object has six sides: above, below, right, left, front and back.

Vav is a conjunction, a link. He comes to us in the shape of a hook, which is the function he fulfills and what his name means. The presence of Vav at the beginning of a verse in the Torah indicates continuity with the previous text ("V'eyleh sh'mot b'nai Yisra'el..." - "And these are the names of the children of Israel..."). Vav's absence means we are beginning a new subject. Vav has the power to unite anything.

This is, according to midrash, the middle letter of the Sefer Torah, & it has been written large like this since the 3rd century, CE.

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TIQUN - REPAIR

2006-09-06T21:32:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Lending a little TLC to a Sefer Torah...

How I found it:

How I left it:

(for some reason, the highlights on the brand new ink look sort of like white spots where I didn't fill in properly - but I assure you that it's really just because my photography is amateurish)

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PLAY NICE. DON'T HIT. SHARE.

2006-09-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Thank G@d, my trip to St Louis was uneventful & I landed safe & sound in the arms of B'nai Amoona. I had the honour of sharing dinner with R' Dr Neal Rose & Max & Susan Brown tonight, then dropped off at my host family's home. They're totally lovely & I can see I'll be very well taken care of on this trip, barukh Ha-Shem.

I'm really looking forward to restoring their precious Sifrei this week, IY"H. & I learned so much more in Israel about kosher Torah repair - SO excited to apply my new techniques!

Other than the above (which is great), this is not a happy post.

This is a really odd time, information-wise. A strange article appeared in St Louis Today last week, with quite a few inaccuracies. It's not really surprising, since the reporter called my mother at home in her sick bed & interviewed her, but did not contact me.
I e-mailed the editor, offering corrections & mentioned how weird all this was, since I'm ALL OVER the internet & easy to e-mail. I also thought it was kind of creepy that he would hunt my Mum down at all. Mr Editor has not responded.

& the person who I mentioned in this post is also talking me down on Jewschool.

I'm very concerned about the narrowing of Halakhic Judaism. Very concerned.
To use oppresive Halakhah in an attempt to curb women's lives is an abuse of power. By stemming social change, those in authority are ignoring derekh eretz ("the way of the land", ie common civil rights taken for granted in countries such as Canada) as well as the valid expression of women's relationship with G@d. Women should be able to choose the extent to which we are willing to engage in the public sphere, choose our work, whether we marry, have children & men should not have a veto. Don't use Torah to rationalize un-Jewish treatment of others. You have an obligation to pursue justice. Don't exclude the perspective of those outside your very closed circle. Are you willing to risk cutting half of all Jewry off from our drawing closer to The Holy One through the fulfillment of mitzvot?

OK, that's today's rant.
Thanks for reading!

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LABOUR DAY

2006-09-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

BS"D

I finally had a day to relax today, between teaching at Pardes in Israel, helping refugees from the war, rushing back to Victoria to help take care of my Mum after her accident, try to catch up on the bazillions of e-mails & phone messages, arrange my teaching & sofrut engagements for the Autumn, &, &, &...

So I went to the Day of Jewish Unity with some friends. It was beautiful. Hundreds of Jews & their kids & dogs out in the fresh air & sunshine by the river on Labour Day. Gorgeous!

I even took a "test your Jewish IQ" quiz & got 100%, so I won an Vancouver NCSY hoodie.

I will be teaching, speaking & restoring Torah scrolls at Congregation Bnai Amoona in St Louis, Missouri, as of tomorrow.

This lovely community's P.R. for my visit includes this:
Thursday, Sept 7 11:30am - 1:30pm - "Soferet: Woman as Sacred Scribe"
Soferet Avielah Barclay will share her journey to become the world's only certified female Hebrew scribe & the first woman to write Jewish sacred scrolls in over 200 years.

324 South Mason Rd
63141-8029
MapQuest link

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EVERYBODY LOVES SATURDAY NIGHT

2006-09-02T20:58:00.000-07:00

BS"D

I want to publicly thank Leah J for mentioning me on her blog. She deserves a big kol ha-kavod for her strong writing & passion for consciously engaging in her Judaism.
:)

On other blogging notes, I've just jazzed up my Flickr photo page, Blogger profile, & MySpace site

Let me know what you think, y'all - constructive crits are welcome!

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HOW TO GIVE BLOOD

2006-09-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

BS"D

- See a tv commercial from Canadian Blood Services (a.k.a the Canadian Red Cross) begging for blood & marrow donations

- feel obligated in the mitzvah of helping to save & preserve life

- call CBS regarding blood & marrow donation & wait on hold until Hell freezes over

- walk to CBS

- wait

- sit with reception until ID & data are fully entered into the computer

- fill out extremely long & detailed donation form with surprising questions (like Did you spend more than a total of 12 weeks in the UK between 1977 & 1990?)

- wait

- bring form & ID for blood pressure test & haemoglobin assessment

- take a number

- wait

- follow an R.N. into a small room for a private interview

- be permanently rejected (CBS calls this "deferral") over a medical misunderstanding, despite going to great lengths to be very clear that there is actually no problem

- walk home very disappointed that no mitzvah was accomplished

- make multiple phone calls to various CBS offices & wait until Hell freezes over

- call doctor

- doctor visit: confirm that blood is perfectly fine & that the CBS nurse just freaked out

- letter requested to make paper trail en route to having blood deemed acceptable again

- call CBS regarding re-instatement & wait on hold until Hell freezes over

- walk to CBS with doctor's letter with intention of donating blood & joining the bone marrow registry

- wait at reception while nobody can find anyone to meet & accept paperwork

- walk home very disappointed again

- wait 6 weeks

- get phone call from friendly CBS rep whose entire job consists of re-instating people whose blood & marrow were mistakenly rejected

- walk to CBS to donate blood & register for marrow donation

- discover that donation clinic isn't open

- walk home very disappointed (again again)

- go to Israel, preferably when there's a war

- call Magen David Adom (Red Shield - Israeli equivalent to the Red Cross) & wait on hold until Hell freezes over

- ask Anglo-Israeli friends where to go to donate blood

- over 5 weeks, frequently go to Central Bus Station & Zion Square looking for donation vans (which are supposed to be there almost every day)

- 2 days before returning to Canada, finally happen across a mobile blood donation vehicle in Zion Square

- fill out 4 pages of donation form in Hebrew with help from friend who is fully bilingual & knows all the medical jargon

- wait

- bring form & ID for blood pressure test & haemoglobin assessment

- follow an R.N. into van for private interview

- lie down on donation bed

- be asked whether I have recently had a cold

- have 10 minute conversation about definition of cold symptoms, severity, & a million details about throat, sinuses, eyes, etc...

- be rejected over having had a cold too recently

- walk home very disappointed (again again again)

- return to Canada

- go Shabbes shopping (groceries, wine, candles, etc)

- decide to live dangerously

- walk to CBS with Shabbes shopping, having neither eaten nor drunk

- have reception check on long & bizarre paper trail supporting the safety of blood hoping to be donated

- fill out extremely long & detailed donation form with surprising questions (like Did you spend more than a total of 12 weeks in the UK between 1977 & 1990?)

- wait

- bring form & ID for blood pressure test & haemoglobin assessment

- follow an R.N. into a small room for a private interview

- be gratefully accepted as a blood & marrow donor after explaining everything again (YES!)

- lie down on donation bed

- be swabbed first with alcohol until a timer sounds, then with iodine

- be stuck with the biggest livestock needle ever (are these really meant for humans?)

- take 20 minutes - about twice as long as expected - to fill a bag

- apply ice to wound

- sit around the goody table, where nothing is kosher, & meet a non-Jewish lady who works at the JCC as well as a non-Jewish woman who was adopted by a Jewish family & grew up going to Catholic school & Jewish summer camp

- walk home with Shabbes shopping, quite pleased to finally have accomplished this mitzvah of helping preserve other people's lives by consenting to be drained a pint, & get ready for the long weekend

Shabbat Shalom!!!

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LIMMUD!

2006-08-31T06:54:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Barukh Ha-Shem! Wonderful news! I've been selected to teach at the renowned Limmud conference held annually in Britain! What an honour!

It's the largest Jew-do in Europe & they're celebrating their 25th anniversary. I'm so excited that I'm not even sure which of my courses I'm going to teach, or whether I'll give over some of the offerings from my women's sofrut certification program. We'll see what the Brits want... :)

A Psalm for Divine Guidance, Tehilim Chapter 139:

א לַמְנַצֵּחַ, לְדָוִד מִזְמוֹר:
יְהוָה חֲקַרְתַּנִי, וַתֵּדָע.
1 For the Leader. A Psalm of David.
O LORD, You have searched me, and known me.
ב אַתָּה יָדַעְתָּ, שִׁבְתִּי וְקוּמִי; בַּנְתָּה לְרֵעִי, מֵרָחוֹק. 2
You know my lowering and my rising, You understand my thought afar off.
ג אָרְחִי וְרִבְעִי זֵרִיתָ; וְכָל-דְּרָכַי הִסְכַּנְתָּה. 3
You measure my going about and my lying down, and are familiar with all my ways.
ד כִּי אֵין מִלָּה, בִּלְשׁוֹנִי; הֵן יְהוָה, יָדַעְתָּ כֻלָּהּ. 4
For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, You know it entirely.
ה אָחוֹר וָקֶדֶם צַרְתָּנִי; וַתָּשֶׁת עָלַי כַּפֶּכָה. 5
You have hemmed me in behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.
ו פלאיה (פְּלִיאָה) דַעַת מִמֶּנִּי; נִשְׂגְּבָה, לֹא-אוּכַל לָהּ. 6
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; too high, I cannot grok it.
ז אָנָה, אֵלֵךְ מֵרוּחֶךָ; וְאָנָה, מִפָּנֶיךָ אֶבְרָח. 7
Where shall I go from Your spirit? or where shall I flee from before Your presence?
ח אִם אֶסַּק שָׁמַיִם, שָׁם אָתָּה; וְאַצִּיעָה שְּׁאוֹל הִנֶּךָּ. 8
If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in the underworld, behold, You are there.
ט אֶשָּׂא כַנְפֵי-שָׁחַר; אֶשְׁכְּנָה, בְּאַחֲרִית יָם. 9
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the deepest parts of the sea;
י גַּם-שָׁם, יָדְךָ תַנְחֵנִי; וְתֹאחֲזֵנִי יְמִינֶךָ. 10
Even there would Your hand lead me, and Your right hand would hold me.
יא וָאֹמַר, אַךְ-חֹשֶׁךְ יְשׁוּפֵנִי; וְלַיְלָה, אוֹר בַּעֲדֵנִי. 11
And if I say: 'Surely the darkness shall envelop me, and the light about me shall be night';
יב גַּם-חֹשֶׁךְ, לֹא-יַחְשִׁיךְ מִמֶּךָּ:
וְלַיְלָה, כַּיּוֹם יָאִיר-- כַּחֲשֵׁיכָה, כָּאוֹרָה. 12
Even the darkness is not too dark for You,
but the night shines as the day; the darkness is even as the light.
יג כִּי-אַתָּה, קָנִיתָ כִלְיֹתָי; תְּסֻכֵּנִי, בְּבֶטֶן אִמִּי. 13
For You have made my reins; You have knit me together in my mother's womb.
יד אוֹדְךָ-- עַל כִּי נוֹרָאוֹת, נִפְלֵיתִי:
נִפְלָאִים מַעֲשֶׂיךָ; וְנַפְשִׁי, יֹדַעַת מְאֹד. 14
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
wonderful are Your works; and that my soul knows so well.
טו לֹא-נִכְחַד עָצְמִי, מִמֶּךָּ:
אֲשֶׁר-עֻשֵּׂיתִי בַסֵּתֶר; רֻקַּמְתִּי, בְּתַחְתִּיּוֹת אָרֶץ. 15
My frame was not hidden from You,
when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth.
טז גָּלְמִי, רָאוּ עֵינֶיךָ, וְעַל-סִפְרְךָ, כֻּלָּם יִכָּתֵבוּ:
יָמִים יֻצָּרוּ; ולא (וְלוֹ) אֶחָד בָּהֶם. 16
Your eyes did see my unformed substance, and in Your book they were all written--
even the days that were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
יז וְלִי--מַה-יָּקְרוּ רֵעֶיךָ אֵל; מֶה עָצְמוּ, רָאשֵׁיהֶם. 17
How weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O G@d! How great is the sum of them!
יח אֶסְפְּרֵם, מֵחוֹל יִרְבּוּן; הֱקִיצֹתִי, וְעוֹדִי עִמָּךְ. 18
If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand; were I to come to the end of them, I would still be with You.
יט אִם-תִּקְטֹל אֱלוֹהַּ רָשָׁע; וְאַנְשֵׁי דָמִים, סוּרוּ מֶנִּי. 19
If You but wouldest slay the wicked, O G@d--depart from me therefore, you men of blood;
כ אֲשֶׁר יֹמְרוּךָ, לִמְזִמָּה; נָשׂוּא לַשָּׁוְא עָרֶיךָ. 20
Who utter Your name with wicked thought, they take it for falsehood, even Your enemies--
כא הֲלוֹא-מְשַׂנְאֶיךָ יְהוָה אֶשְׂנָא; וּבִתְקוֹמְמֶיךָ, אֶתְקוֹטָט. 21
Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate You? And do not I strive with those that rise up against You?
כב תַּכְלִית שִׂנְאָה שְׂנֵאתִים; לְאוֹיְבִים, הָיוּ לִי. 22
I hate them with utmost hatred; I count them as my enemies.
כג חָקְרֵנִי אֵל, וְדַע לְבָבִי; בְּחָנֵנִי, וְדַע שַׂרְעַפָּי. 23
Search me, O G@d, and know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts;
כד וּרְאֵה, אִם-דֶּרֶךְ-עֹצֶב בִּי; וּנְחֵנִי, בְּדֶרֶךְ עוֹלָם. 24
And see if there be any way in me that is grievous, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Three cheers for Jewish learning! Hip-hip...

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SCRIBAL DVD

2006-08-30T10:42:00.000-07:00

BS"D

So the lovely & talented people at Vision TV are offering for sale the documentary of my life story & how I became a certified soferet 3 years ago on DVD!

YAY!

You can either purchase it through Vision by clicking here (I make no money on this option), or from Yours Truly by e-mailing me (I make a small comission on this option).

ENJOY!

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CONTRAST

2006-08-24T00:35:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Public art at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv:

Public art at Vancouver Airport in Richmond:

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LEHITRA'OT

2006-08-23T06:56:00.000-07:00

BS"D

My Mum has had an accident, so I must head straight for Victoria. Please pray for her complete & speedy recovery.

I only just realized that when I changed my blog's time zone to Israel from than Pacific, that it changed ALL of my posts times, not just the ones I wrote since coming to Israel. That means when I change it back to Pacific time when I return to Vancouver, some of the entries will appear to have been written on Shabbes :(

This is very very bad.
I keep Shabbat - really!

Qever Rachel - Rachel's tomb - was an adventure. We boarded a special bullet proof bus with IDF soldiers as escorts at the front & rear doors. They rode along with us, M16s drawn.

Breyshit/Genesis 35:16 - 20:

טז וַיִּסְעוּ מִבֵּית אֵל, וַיְהִי-עוֹד כִּבְרַת-הָאָרֶץ לָבוֹא אֶפְרָתָה; וַתֵּלֶד רָחֵל, וַתְּקַשׁ בְּלִדְתָּהּ. 16
And they journeyed from Beth-el; and there was still some way to come to Efrat; and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour.
יז וַיְהִי בְהַקְשֹׁתָהּ, בְּלִדְתָּהּ; וַתֹּאמֶר לָהּ הַמְיַלֶּדֶת אַל-תִּירְאִי, כִּי-גַם-זֶה לָךְ בֵּן. 17
And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said to her: 'Fear not; for this also is a son for you.'
יח וַיְהִי בְּצֵאת נַפְשָׁהּ, כִּי מֵתָה, וַתִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ, בֶּן-אוֹנִי; וְאָבִיו, קָרָא-לוֹ בִנְיָמִין. 18
And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing--for she died--that she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.
יט וַתָּמָת, רָחֵל; וַתִּקָּבֵר בְּדֶרֶךְ אֶפְרָתָה, הִוא בֵּית לָחֶם. 19
And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Efrat--the same is Beth-lehem.
כ וַיַּצֵּב יַעֲקֹב מַצֵּבָה, עַל-קְבֻרָתָהּ--הִוא מַצֶּבֶת קְבֻרַת-רָחֵל, עַד-הַיּוֹם. 20
And Jacob set up a pillar upon her grave; the same is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day.

When you look on a map of Israel, it looks like Jerusalem & Bethlehem are far away from each other, but they're really just 2 or 3 kilometres of tense No Man's Land apart. A couple of weeks ago I took the wrong bus & ended up south of Ramat Rahel, which is right at the Green Line. There were even turrets & fortifications, complete with scars from bullets & shrapnel. I was still officially in Jerusalem, but I was surrounded by sheep, mosques & fences.

The bus to Rachel's tomb hurries along a deserted road right up to the security wall & drives right butt up against it. Then it makes a sharp curve to the left, where a parallel security wall runs alongside the opposite side of the bus. Basically, we're speeding down a 2-storey-high corridor just wide enough for this one bus to pass through.

At the end of the narrow concrete hallway is a huge metal gate laced with razor wire. More IDF soldiers appear & open it so we can pass through. The bus pulls right up to the entrance. The security wall, now 3 storeys high, surrounds the tomb. There is nothing else here. We are instructed to walk straight from the bus into the mausoleum & that we have 20 minutes. The driver is quite serious.

Shot of the entrance of Qever Rachel, taken from the door of the bus:

Notice that it's fortified, is covered with camoflage & sandbags, & has turrets.

Sandbagged defensive window, narrowed toward the outside to facilitate shooting:

The soldiers usher us in & we wash for prayer. There is a man collecting alms for the local yeshivah. The men & women each gather at our respective sides of our mother Rachel's cairn & pray the afternoon service & say psalms. This is a view into her tomb from what used to be an outside door. The embroidery on her cairn depicts how the quaint little building used to look before it was turned into a fortress:

At the end of the alotted 20 minutes, the soldiers began ordering us out of the building. On my way out, the same way we came in, I snapped this view of the security wall in between the front door & the bus:

The bus driver & all the soldiers were commanding us to go straight onto the bus, & not tarry around the entrance. We had to either be under the shelter of the facade or in the bus. They said it wasn't safe. There are apartment blocks right behind that wall.

Our bus shunts around & heads back out the wired gate & back along the cement tongue-in-groove corridor back to the relative safety of the central bus station. Is it really this bad? Are these the lengths the we legitimately have to go to in order to make a pilgrimage of faith to the grave of one of our most revered foremothers?

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COUNTDOWN

2006-08-22T13:47:00.000-07:00

BS"D

A photo diary of my second to last day in Eretz ha-Qodesh, the Holy Land:

An arched building adjacent to the Armenian Quarter of the Old City. This says "1938", the year my Mum was born:

The first az I encountered, as I peered at the Kotel from Mount Zion:

As I turned around I found this on a gate:

On my way out of the Rova, near the valley that Hell is named for, I caught another one:

In the park at Yemin Moshe:

& finally:

The memorial plaque at the restored & rejewvenated Cafe Hillel:

One of the last lines reads Hashem yenuqam damam - G@d will avenge their blood.

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NIGHT PILGRIMAGE

2006-08-20T14:16:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Melodic Arabic trembles above the din of Jews praising, begging, thanking.

G@d took our holy temple & its sacred mountain away from us because we committed sinat chinam, needless hatred, against other Jews...
...when will the Messiah come?

I wade through supplicating Jewish women to lay my palm flat on the soft warm stone & pour my soul out on these ancient rocks, washing them with my gratitude, my fear, my desire.

A bridal couple arrives amid flashes of light - she a silver shimmer in the night. The joy rising from the horas spinning on the stone almost drown out the voice of the muezzin. Almost.

Pebbly shadows creep up the middle of the windmill. I lean in the corner of the park facing this marvel. I recline & a group of Arab boys hoot through. I rise. Feel the dew on my books & inhale the rosemary, jasmine & honeysuckle. Heady. Heavy, Penetrating the close air.

Throughout this day I have encountered signals that I must act. After absorbing & processing my latest meeting with Secret Sofer, which will take some time & more letter-forming, I wander the familiar streets of the Old City's Jewish Quarter. Everywhere I turn I see the same word:

Az
Now

Everywhere I turned I saw different colours, textures & surfaces all branded with this word in Ashkenazi ketav stam. From the narrow corridors within the old walls all the way to the park across the valley & to the south.

May G@d help me be truly present in each moment.

[Addendum: or perhaps אז is the roshei teyvot, an acronym, for or zaru'a...scattered light. A sewn seed of light.
Hat tip: Simon]

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LETTERS, LETTERS EVERYWHERE...

2006-08-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

BS"D

I met with Secret Sofer today (the not-Rabbi-Laimon-sofer who taught & certified me) for a crit of my recent work. Because I can always learn more & I can always do better. This serves to keep me humble(r). Besides, other soferim find nothing to criticize in his work. I'm so lucky to have him as my teacher.

It makes such a huge difference to my work when we can bend over it together. I wish we lived in the same city. Heck, even the same hemisphere would be a start...

He began with my Qufs (ק): the rosh, head, of the descending tail is waaay to close to the lower horizontal. It's still technically kosher, but this will cause the reader to stop & check for a negi'ah, letters touching (which is not allowed). It's just bad calligraphy. It must not be distracting. Also, I have to think "circle" when I'm making that initial stroke. Round. Like Reysh (ר).

We moved to Ayin (ע). I have a "Sefardi" (Iberian/North African style) angle/curve/heel on the upstroke of the tail. The Ashkenazi Ayin's tail is straighter. Also, the left head must be turned to 90˚ as he commanded me 3 years ago, so that it resembles the upper Yud (י) of the letter Alef (א).

Went on to Mem (מ). I make a Sefardi-type curved bridge where the Ashkenazi is supposed to be straight across. & the body is a tad wide on my Mems as well - they should be two-thirds of a Khaf (כ), except that the bottom right hand corner needs a sharp, square shape.

Now Shin (ש). I have to make the inner corner more pronounced & smooth, a gradual, sexy curve from the base to the "wrist" of the far right Vav. 45˚ angle of the middle arm into this corner is also a must.

Then Chet (ח). The join between the roshei, heads, & their respective legs must be stronger & in more proportion, ie the difference between the thickness of the join & the middle of those down-stokes should be less exaggerated.

& finally, Hey (ה). Make a "6" for the Yud-part. 'nuff said.

I noted that he had nothing bad to say about any of my other letters...thank G@d :)

Here's a piece of scrap parchment we worked on together (sorry about the silver highlights - that's just the black ink being all shiny under the flash). I did some of my letters with a bamboo kulmus I carved & others with a quill, while all of his are with a quill:

I am committed to ongoing guidance from my mentor, as I aspire to continue growing my craft & refining my skills.

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SHALEYM

2006-08-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

BS"D

The Shabbatot I have spent here have been glorious, thank G@d.
I haven't blogged about them much, because shabbes is a whole day requiring a half day of preparation, so by the time it's over so much has happened that I never know where to begin with my writing. Besides, getting back into headspace after 36 hours of heartspace disturbs my mellow, man...
;)

I have been lucky enough to celebrate with the holy Yidden at Yakar, the Leader Minyan, Yedidya & others.

& to share delicious food with kind, gracious hosts who allow me to contribute. Laugh, share, meet new spouses & babies of friends I have not seen since my last trip here 3 years ago. Go for walks. Make new friends. Take naps. Learn Torah.

This is what life is all about :)

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I DO DECLARE!

2006-08-18T00:14:00.000-07:00

BS"D

The meetings I've been having with rabbis & sofrim here in Jerusalem have been very enlightening. Not only have I met with my own mentors, but with other Orthodox rabbis & sofrim who don't agree with what I'm doing. They're respectful - I won't meet with anyone who isn't - & they won't be named on this blog. I don't need to get them in trouble nor do I want to appear as though I'm validating myself by publicizing their identities.

I am pleased to note, however, that once we have got past the very difficult & challenging discussions we have together, that they'll still talk a little shop with me :)

I think this is really important to preserve my integrity & by extention the integrity of my work. G@d willing, it's working...

Because what we're doing can't just be looked at as a job.

It's holy work we do on behalf of other Jews where you take this beautiful creature, part of the family of Creation. It's life was taken to feed us, & the skin would normally be discarded, but here we are using it to continue spreading Torah so we're raising it up, we're lifting the sparks & our consciousness at the same time. Having the right attitude & supportive Jewish practice while you do the work is vital!

Do it only for the sake of Heaven - not for fame, ego, self-glorification, not to be a "rock star" or to otherwise draw attention to yourself...& declare your intention! If you have a speck of davka, spite or rebellion, in what you bring to the work, please put down your quill & process that until it's gone.

Shabbat shalom!

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I'M SO GLAD WE HAD THIS TIME TOGETHER...

2006-08-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Well, my teaching at Pardes is over. What kind, consciencious people run that establishment! I see how they have earned the excellent reputation they so richly deserved.

At the closing banquet, one of the Australian students stood to speak about how a very close friend of hers was killed last week in Lebanon. He was 23.

A teacher rose to thank everyone for supporting her through the war because her eldest son was in Lebanon. A paramedic. I cringed.

It was all very touching & made the fact that Jerusalem had stayed relatively quiet during the whole crisis seem like even more of a miracle. So, thank G@d.

I got really good reviews from my students (because this is my blog, so everything is all about me, me, me...did I mention me? ok. me.), which is a huge blessing. I didn't have a large class, but they're often smaller in the summer (so my teacher R' Dov Laimon who normally teaches this class told me) & this has the benefit of my being able to spend more time with each individual student helping them sharpen up their letters. So, yay.

I also have taken on some new female students "on the side", as they say, & am very pleased & impressed with their work.

In the evening I went to a single's tzedaqah (charity) night where we made up gift packages for the Israeli children who had to spend part of their summer feeling terrorized in bomb shelters rather than at camp or whatever else their family had planned. It was also a schmooze for single Jews which was fun & cool. The added bonus was that I now have 2 shadchanim (male matchmakers) & 2 shadchaniyot (female matchmakers) keeping an eye out for a Good Husband for me.

See? I told you this was all about me ;)

G'nite!

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I MET AN ANGEL TODAY

2006-08-15T14:40:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Today, meaning yesterday (Tuesday August 15th).

My days typically look like this. See if you can spot today's anomaly. It's not easy:
* wake
* wash
* pray
* make myself one of those Israeli mochas out of Elite instant coffee, powdered chocolate & milk
* write
* hand wash my laundry for the day & hang it on the line where it will dry in 4.5 seconds due to this baking heat
* eat something, if I remember to
* attempt to catch up on 25% of the hundreds of e-mails I get every day
* try to connect with my mother on AIM (I have no phone)
* wash
* pray
* go out. do something I can only do in Jerusalem & nothing that I can do in Vancouver
* meet with an Orthodox sofer stam who doesn't approve of what I'm doing (because only listening to people who praise me is unhealthy & unreal)
* accidentally stumble into an angel who advises me on my life, future, G@d, the messiah & asks that he be invited to my wedding.
* meet a friend for dinner & drinks
* come home & cruise the internet
* wash
* pray
* go to bed

Did you spot it? I know, it's hard. I hid it really well.

His name is Moshe Tzvi. He is a living, breathing blessing & I was supposed to meet him today.

Please buy his holy art.

Entrance from the lane across from the Ticho house into Rav Kook's home courtyard, where The Museum of Psalms is:

Ceiling just above the door in the previous pic. Moshe Tzvi told me he painted this & all the ceilings inside his museum "10 years ago...when I was young". 10 years ago he was in his mid-70s...

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CEASEFIRE?

2006-08-15T01:07:00.000-07:00

BS"D

Within hours of this ceasefire going into effect, Hezbollah was making moves to ambush more IDF boys. Why do you think the Israeli army is called the "Israel Defence Force"? Israel wouldn't have to have the 4th largest war machine on the planet if others weren't constantly planning its destruction. Don't you think Israelis would rather be spending their tax money on enriching their arts scene or restoring more historical antiquities to share with the world?

I wag my finger at Fox, CNN & EuroNews. Your re-framing of the facts is shameful.

Look at poor Haifa. Why?

Despite "the situation", I've been enjoying some of the awesome beauty this Holy Land has to offer.
I clambered around the ancient aqueduct we built to feed the Har Ha-Bayit/Temple Mount from the springs of Hevron with Steg & Simon:

This was so cool. My Mum would love this.

I spent a few ecstatic hours drooling over The Aleppo Codex, a millenium-old scribe's toolbox & various holy scrolls in The Shrine of the Book at The Israel Museum. It's one of my personal sacred spaces. This is it on the right, juxtaposed with the Knesset:

Israel's present & past. What does the future hold?

I survey'd the hand-built scale model of Jerusalem as it was 2,000 years ago, before the Romans destroyed everything & scattered us around the world. This is it from the south side:

Isn't it amazing what we can learn from archaeology?
The Har Ha-Bayit/Temple Mount is the large campus of buildings on the far right, where the Dome of the Rock now satands.

This is how it looked 2 millenia ago:

& this is how it looks now.

& I've met with both my sofer-mentors, an example of each of their Ashkenazi ketav stam (European-tradition sacred scritpt) here:

Top: my certifying sofer stam who wants to stay off this blog.
Bottom: R' Dov Laimon, who considers women's certification basically meaningless because it doesn't change any of the prevailing Halakhic standards (& actually, he's right).

I've also wandered the chi-chi neighbourhood of Emeq Refa'im, where I used to live & where the Cafe Hillel bombing took place. The reason why this community was targeted (aside from it being full of Jews) is because many residents are sympathetic to Israeli Arabs, Palestinians & are interested in a just peace. Here's an illustration of how this neighbourhood feels about Arabic:

These stencils appear all over Emeq Refa'im - Arabic with a transliteration in Hebrew underneath, so Hebrew-speakers can learn random nouns in Arabic. This means "bank machine" & is prayed on the corner of Emeq & Wedgewood, where the Discount bank sits.

& this, which is stencilled on a garbage can one block away is how the people in the neighbourhood feel about English:

So there you have it.
More consideration towards Arab neighbours than to American tourists.
:D

That's all I've got in me for today. I'm off to make pilgrimage. Thank G@d I'm able.

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SICK & TIRED

2006-08-13T18:14:00.000-07:00

BS"D
20 Av

I'm up very late - or early - because I can't sleep. I've been sick off & on with a cold & various other ailments for the better part of a week now, which foils my plans to donate blood while I'm here. The least I can do is bleed a pint for someone injured by the war.

Being sick has allowed me to watch tv, listen to the radio & talk to people about the war. & I'm sick of it. Tired of the shocking behaviour displayed by Hizbullah, Nasrallah, Ahmadinejad & the disastrous decisions made by the Israeli government. This UN ceasefire proposal has only encouraged terrorists to rebuild, reorganize & to hit us again.

& I'm especially sick & tired of this:
A bereaved mother speaks out to Olmert
& this:
Arab nations called to destroy a weakened Israel
& especially this:
Mike Wallace (a Jew) convinced that Iranian leader is not an anti-Semite

What I would like to see is more of this:
25 Ways to Help Israel
Donate to Magen David Adom (Israeli Red Cross) - they provide full medical services not only to Jews, but to the Druse, Christians, Bahai & Muslims when maniacs rain missiles down on us.
Peaceful & just coexistance between Jews & Arabs

So here I sit at my laptop in Jerusalem, which is a safe place to be, thank G@d, provided that our soldiers & police stop the daily attempts at suicide bombings. But young Jewish men are still being stabbed to death in the Old City. There are cops, army & UN everywhere. Ambulance, police & fire sirens as well as alarms going off frequently. Where I live is about two & a half kilometres from Bethlehem & Beyt Jala. We have a sealed room in the basement of this building, just in case.

I took the bus (which I never do here, but I'm sick) to Yoel Moshe Solomon Street so I could buy small gifts for some friends & family. I walked into a store & the woman behind the counter rose to greet me. She was American-Israeli & could tell that I was Anglo.

"Welcome", she smiled, "Thank you for coming to Israel during this crisis. It's so expensive to come & stay, so we really appreciate your supporting us when you could have just as easily stayed home or traveled somewhere else. It means a lot to us that you're here. What's your name & where are you from?"

She had a lot of pain in her eyes. I asked her how she was doing - whether business was good. She answered, "My son is in Lebanon".

Her pain turned to anguish.

I gave her a blessing that her son should return to her very soon, all in one piece in his body & as well in his head.

People seeking refuge from the north of Israel jump & cry when you so much as slam a door, or when a car backfires.

She told me of her little cousin, a young man who was killed in his tank by Hezbullah. It was so dangerous there that it took the IDF 3 days to get him out. Meanwhile, his family was given the tragic news, but were unable to have a funeral or begin shiva. They just had to wait. He was to be married next month.

When are travesties like this going to be stopped?

When will we realize this dream?

I came home after my excursion downtown only to find a refugee asleep in my housemate's room. She was from the Galilee. My housemate had driven all the way up north to deliver food, toiletries & other badly needed articles & picked her up. She must have dodged a lot of bombs to be sleeping like that.

Some friends & I visited with a family who escaped Tzfat & are staying in a vacant apartment here in Jerusalem. The mother asked, "Why should my son be opening each door only to find what behind it when we could have finished this without sending the boys into Lebanon? Lamah? Mah Karah?

Why? What's happening?

I'm sick & tired of this war.

אִם-אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלִָם-- תִּשְׁכַּח יְמִינִי
Im esh'kacheykh Yerushalam -- tish'kach yemini
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand lose her cunning.

[Addendum: for another, more eloquent & informed, Jewish Canadian's take on what is happening here, read my friend Zach.]

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COMMENT ON ME BY ME

2006-08-09T05:55:00.000-07:00

BS"D

I was unfairly portrayed - ok, slammed - by someone on another blog recently. Someone who doesn't know me, nor showed me the respect of contacting me & checking out what I stand for before they railed against me & my work. I'm not going to include a link to the tripe this person wrote, but below is the comment I left on their post. I hope it clarifies & dispells a few things:

Hi & thanks for all the very kind things you say about me, Shawn & Cipher.
Some clarification, folks:

This is a list of women who worked in sofrut throughout our history. Some of the information I've come across is anecdotal & some is a matter of historical record. I wouldn't call them "Orthodox" per se, as I'm not a revisionist, but I'll say that none of these women belonged to a non-Halakhic movement.

Although I do learn & teach midrash & some Kabbalah on the otiyot, I don't claim to be "a Kabbalist".

Of the 4 seminaries I learned in, one told me that if I did not reveal the name, address & phone number of my sofer & tell them what his car looked like, I would have to leave the yeshivah. So I left.

I was trained by 2 sofrim, one was R' Dov Laimon (a Bostoner Chasid) & the other is Centrist Orthodox who learned his craft in Me'a Shearim & wishes to remain out of the spotlight until further notice.

My rabbi is R' Ross Singer, who is responsible for the tshuvah showing that it is the majority opinion that women can write Megilot Esther & that men who leyn from it or hear the leyning from it have fulfilled their obligation on Purim.

I attend Orthodox shul. My committment is to normative Orthodox Jewish practice, which I carry into my sofrut. I could go on, however, all the questions I see asked here can be answered by visiting my blog, so I invite you to do so.

I may visit this blog off & on, but I don't plan to follow up on this thread, so if you'd like to engage in respectful discussion, we can do that either on e-mail or at my blog.

Brakhhot to you all.

PULL THE HOLY OUT OF THE HOLY

2006-08-08T05:13:00.000-07:00

BS"D
14 Av

You HAVE to check this out.

Danya Ruttenberg has put together a thoroughly researched, well thought out, seamlessly formed resource on ideas for the Jewish wedding ceremony.

It's a good mix, I think, of recognising traditional Halakhic sources while seeking to address the real-life present needs of Jews wanting to tie the knot (forgive the pagan reference ;D).

So if your practice falls anywhere between Orthodoxy & RitualWell.org, wade into the sea of intelligent & conscious explorations Danya has made on your behalf.

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JEWISH LOVE DAY

2006-08-07T05:08:00.000-07:00

BS"D
12 Menachem Av

To celebrate T"U be-Av, the full moon of this comforting Jewish month & the traditional day to pair off with one's future spouse, I'll be giving the low-down on Love Sparks!: Sacred Sexuality & the Hebrew Letters at 8pm this Wednesday, August 9th, hosted by Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.

The park where we will meet is between Elazar Hamodai, Reysh Laqish & Rabi Chiyyah streets, at the end of Bruriyah street next to the Beyt Elisheva

(War permitting, of course)

As advertised on MySpace.

We'll discuss traditional sources on the positive gender-tension within G@d's 4-Letter Name & various other ideas supporting the unity of Creation.

All are welcome & it's free.

===

In other exciting sofrut news, I've added new products & images to my CafePress Store & to my Flickr page. Check 'em out :)

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ANA EYLI...

2006-08-05T13:38:00.000-07:00

BS"D
11 Menachem Av

Written Thursday, during the Fast of the 9th of Menachem Av...

Remains of our Beyt Ha-Miqdash, Holy Temple, which were pushed into the street by the Romans as Jerusalem burned. There are still soot stains left from the ferocious flames which licked & hungrily consumed our spiritual & national home.

The Holy One gave us the letter Tzadi to teach us not just to be perfect, but how to be perfect.

Tzadi was the first letter formed by The Holy One, before all the other otiyot, letters, in the Alefbet, for "deeds of giving are the foundation of the world."
Tzedeq, "justice".

Tzadi comes to us in the shape of a Mystic bent in humble prayer, arms extended and hands raised.
According to our tradition, the only time of the year we take this position is during the Aleynu of Musaf, the afternoon service, on Yom Kipur. The Final Tzadi, Tzadi Sofit, is standing tall with arms raised in joy for having his/her act of devotion accepted & answered - whether the response is "Yes" or "No". This is the key: to learn to accept from Ha-Shem either answer with equal joy.

What is a Tzadiq/Tzodeqet (upright person)? It is usually translated into English as a "perfect" or "righteous" individual. But "perfect" has the wrong
connotations, even baggage, in English. & "righteous"? Only ever heard in the context of a holier-than-thou attitude or at a concert, often followed by "dude" & the sign of the devil horns.

A Tzadiq is one who is present in every moment, whose consciousness is such that s/he is able to make correct choices and act appropriately in any given situation. If s/he does make a mistake, s/he rectifies it and learns from the experience.

Mishlei/Proverbs 25:26 compares the Tzadiq to a spring of water, which, even if it becomes polluted
sometimes, eventually recovers its purity. Not a Perfect One, but One Perfecting. Process.

So don't think "perfect-ion".
Think "perfect-ing".

Thank G@d for the purge of Tisha Be-Av, before the Full Moon, before the month of Elul when we begin our supplications in preparation for the Days of Awe. Empty only to fill up to overflowing. Ameyn.

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SOFERET'S ARCANE SKILL-SET AIDS AND ANGERS JEWS

2006-08-05T13:07:00.000-07:00

BS"D
12 Av

I found this tonight, while Google-stalking myself. Trackback on BlogWog.

That's me & R' Aryeh Hirschfield. He's wonderful. Ah, how I miss my old laptop...

By Anne Koppel Conway
Special to the Jewish Review

SOFERET AND RABBI--Aviel Barclay, right, and Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield of P'nai Or examine a Torah for flaws and other distinguishing characteristics June 20.

Photo by ANNE KOPPEL CONWAY

Aviel Barclay is not the first woman sofer, Jewish ritual Torah scribe. You haven't heard of any others? No names of soferets popped up at dinner parties? That's because the last time a woman – prior to Aviel Barclay – had a profession of writing sefer Torahs was 200 years ago, said Barclay, a soferet from Vancouver, B.C.

According to her research, at least 10 Jewish women have used a feather quill or bamboo or a reed to calligraph aleph-bets on parchment before this 21st century female scribe entered the scene.

Certified in 2003, Barclay believes she is the only certified soferet alive today.

She said she's perfectly happy not being "the vanguard. … It's better for everyone if I'm not the first. Halakhah depends so much on precedent."

Barclay, 37, was at P'nai Or to check the congregation's Torah.

Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield said, "We don't have a resident sofer in our community, so it's a big deal to have one come. It's our intention to raise money for needed repairs." He encourages people to sponsor letters requiring repair.

Mateh Esther/Linda Brownstein said P'nai Or hopes to have Barclay return to do repairs at the end of August. "We would love to have other communities, who need their Torahs repaired, to split the cost of bringing her down here." Brownstein can be contacted by e-mail, shalom@teleport.com.

Totally at ease with the Torah, Barclay multitasked. She scrutinized each section of the Torah, consulted with the rabbi, typed notes on her laptop, offered suggestions, answered a barrage of questions and interspersed all that with a running commentary about the Torah.

It doesn't take much to have a Torah declared passul, invalid.

"If just a single letter has a tiny crack in the ink, it's enough to make a sefer Torah not kosher," Barclay said.

"I love doing this, because every time I see something new in a sefer Torah," she said. "Maybe part of the Torah was written by a different sofer later on," though having one scribe write an entire Torah "is more common."

She also has seen beloved Torahs that had been damaged and pieced together with other Torahs to make one kosher one.

"There's a big black-market for stolen Torahs," she cautioned. Barclay has seen them posted on eBay. "For a Torah this size, the materials alone would run $4,000, if it had to be replaced."

Barclay's interest in becoming a scribe began at age 3, when watching "Fiddler on the Roof" "a 100 times" at her father's theatre in Victoria, B.C. "It was the first time I saw the letters of the Aleph-Bet; they stayed with me."

Male sofers simply purchase their supplies from sofer supply outlets. Since these stores will not sell to women, her mentor ships her the needed materials. And she is learning to make those supplies herself, "So, if God forbid" her supply is cut off, she will be able to create her own materials to continue her work.

She has learned how to make the special Torah ink. "There are a few recipes in the Talmud. You first have to boil the ingredients and then let the mixture steep like tea for six months to a year."

She is also trying her hand at making parchment. Since scraping deerskin gets "gory," she wears "industrial strength gloves and large garbage bags."

Getting turkey feathers to make quills is an easier task.

It has not been easy for the 21st century woman scribe. Barclay was a gemologist, when God "sent me a message." Her hand had been badly crushed in a bike accident. Someone opened a car door without looking, jamming her writing hand between the door and her handlebars. She called it "a door-prize. I knew I wasn't following the right path then. I'm stubborn. Sometimes God has to yell at me."

After regaining use of her hand, at age 26, she began her studies with two soferim in Jerusalem. One was Dov Laimon, a Bostoner Chasidic Rabbi, now deceased. The other sofer chooses to remain anonymous – and for good reason.

During this time she also was studying at a yeshiva. When the school found out she was learning sofrut, school officials demanded to know the name of the sofer who dared to instruct a woman, where he lived and what car he drove. She refused to reveal that information and was summarily shown the door to the yeshiva.

"It was creepy," she said. "The school wasn't right for me anyway. After that I went to others that were good."

One piece of advice from her mentor sofer: "Don't make skinny strokes." In the long term the thin strokes will crack faster. "Be kind to your clients so they won't have to make repairs again in five years," is the lesson he taught her.

The certified soferet continues to get hate e-mail. "It's mostly boring." Some tell her she will go to hell if she continues to practice sofrut. "It's just cursing; something Jerry Falwell could have written. You can't engage them in [intelligent] dialog."

On the Jewish continuum,"I'm user-friendly Orthodox," she quipped. Actually, she sees herself as centrist Orthodox. "The only thing weird about me is that I'm doing sofrut."

Rabbi Tzvi Fischer, an ordained Orthodox rabbi, who is the director of the Kollel Jewish educational learning center in Portland, said that whether a woman can be a sofer, according to Halakhah, is discussed in Shulhan Arukh (Set Table) law codifier, written by Rabbi Joseph Caro in 17th century Israel, which states women cannot write Torah. This opinion is followed by the "standard Orthodox community" today, Fischer said, and most, therefore, would not use the services of a soferet. However, he continued, this opinion "is not absolute." In Rabbi Falk Katz's responsum he disagrees with Rabbi Caro saying that it's OK, no problem for a woman to write Torah. "Both [positions] are standard Halakhic codifiers," Fischer said.

A few comments/corrections I'd like to make on the above article:

- I must say that Anne, the journalist who wrote this article, was very nice

- My name is Avielah

- the theatre which my Dad managed where I saw "Fiddler on the Roof" so many times all those years ago was the Fiesta Twin in Nanaimo, BC

- As my reputation has grown for doing good work, I'm finding it easier & easier to purchase my materials in more locations, barukh Ha-Shem (however, if you want to check me out making kosher deer skins into parchment, click here)

- Rabbi Dov Laimon - my sofer #2 who doesn't mind being publicly named - is very much alive & well, thank G@d. I saw him last week & he looked quite good

- the R' Falk Katz who R'Tzvi Fischer refers to above is none other than the Drisha, R’ Yehoshua Falk ben Alexander Katz. He lived in the late 1500’s – early 1600’s in Lublin, Poland. He also studied with the two most prominent Polish rabbis of the previous generation, R’ Solomon Luria and R’ Moses Isserles.
The Drisha, in his commentaries on the Tur*, had two possible explanations as to why the Tur omitted women from his list of those who, if they wrote a Sefer Torah, it would not be kosher. He said it could be that the Tur thinks women are not kasherot to write a Sefer Torah for public use. Men could use it for study or women for women's tefilah, for example, therefore we wouldn’t have to geniza it (store it away because it's no good - there's an explanation in this post).
Now the Drisha himself says that this reason is "dachuk" - not a very good explanation, so he goes on to say that the Tur's omission is more likely because he actually believes that women are kasherot to write a kosher Sefer Torah for public kria.
The Drisha then goes on to say “…& I have written at length about this matter in my earlier responsa.” – sadly, we have never found this volume. It may not have survived. He spent early life composing extensive analytical commentaries on the Talmud, which were later lost in a fire.

Also, a note on his reference to Shulchan Arukh Yoreh De'ah Reysh-Peh"Alef Hilkhot Sefer Torah pasuq Gimel is one famous for being used to prohibit women from writing Sifrei Torah. It reads, "A Sefer Torah which has been written by a Masur (Jew who has turned away from Judaism to atheism), Eved (slave), Ishah (woman), Qatan (minor), Kuti (someone who is of doubltful Jewish status, like a Samaritan), or Yisra'el Momar (a converted Jew who has re-converted back to their birth-religion) - pasulin (these Sifrei Torah are disqualified from/unfit for use in public kria).” Very simple & straightforward, no?
NO! If you just look at the *footnote* made by the Be'er Heytav, he speaks in the name of the Drisha (an Acharon/later commentator mentioned above), who spoke in the name of the Tur, the Ro"sh & the Ri"f (all Rishonim/early commentators). He writes that the above pasuq, these aforementioned great Rabbis understood to mean the prohibition extended only to Tefilin.

* the Tur (or Ba’al HaTurim) was R’ Ya'aqov ben Rabbeynu Asher ben Yehiel (the ROSH). He lived in late 1200’s – mid 1300’s in Germany & in Toledo, Spain.
In his volume "Arba’a Turim - Yoreh De’ah" (Four Pillars - Teach Knowledge) lists those who, if they wrote a Sefer Torah, we would have to geniza it:
Idolaters, Non-Jews, Slaves, Minors
Who’s missing?
He left women off his list of those who are pesulim from writing a Sefer Torah.

...& the beat goes on. Shavu'ah tov - a good week to everyone, & may we reach a fair & just peaful agreement this week!

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MENACHEM AV, FATHER-COMFORT

2006-08-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

BS"D
10 Menachem Av

Written Wednesday, before the fast...
I'm actually working on Eycha right now, getting ready for Tisha B'Av & its transformative powers. The trope fills me with trepidation, so the challenge is to engage with it & just be present. Acknowledge the feelings it inspires & bravely stay with it. Wish me luck.

My aim is to utterly dump my spiritual viscera this Tisha B'Av so I am an empty vessel ready to soak up that holy vibe from my time & experiences here.
Ve-liYerushalayim irkha b'rachamim tashuv...
"And to Jerusalem, Your city, may You return in compassion..."

More soon...
:)

Written late at night, Wednesday...or maybe very early Thursday morning...

?????????
ne'alekha - "your shoes" (masculine)

On our dutiful march to the Kotel I was reminded of Parshat Sh'mot, Exodus 3:5:
?????????, ???-???????? ?????; ????-?????????, ????? ?????????--???? ????????? ?????? ?????? ?????? ??????, ???????-?????? ????.

Va-yomer, al-tiqrav halom; shal-ne'alekha, mey'al rag'lekha -- ki ha-maqim asher atah omeyd alav, ademat-qodesh hu
"And He said: 'Come no closer; take your shoes from off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.'"

The gematria/numerology for na'al, shoe or sandal, is 150; Nun (50) + Ayin (70) + Lamed (30).
The number 150 is the same for the word ka'as, anger (Khaf (20) + Ayin (70) + Samekh (60). It means to be vexed, angry or irritable.
The same shoresh/root can mean to fasten or bolt; enclose, lock, or shut up.

There is a midrash, a way of understanding the underlying meaning of this Torah text, which tells us that this is how a person must enter into sacred relationship. That in order to be successful, no barrier should be placed between oneself & one's Beloved. So Ha-Shem required before inviting Moshe to begin covenanting. We see this later - Kohanim serving in Temple, Yehoshua entering the Land...

In other words, don't cause your partner to give up their humanity in order to engage in relationship with you.

As we entered the Jewish Quarter - the smallest Quarter - of the Old City, I removed my sandals & stepped onto the warm, smooth stones. It was delicious, like G@d had installed radiant heating. I highly recommend it.

The sacred act of pilgrimmage is one we have to be careful with. There is an exquisitely fine line between actions performed lishma, for the Sake of Heaven, & those which are rooted in self-indulgence. The latter turns an offering of pure faith into fetishism.

Jordan, Danya & I all agree: "...considering religion in general is 90% fetishism, and pilgrimage = fetishism + tourism for the most part, how can you hit people over the head and say, "Be mindful! Stop being a caricature of yourself!"?...

With this attitude I approach the Wall

It's important to remove the tumah - the spiritual impurity - of fear & the soul-paralysis that leads to. It's a bad road & there's nothing but sin. I began this process by weeping through Ma'ariv, particularly at the point where we beg G@d to return to us on this holy mountain, the retaining wall of which I was clutching. I was surrounded by thousands of Jewish women crushing me into the stones, crying, "Sh'ma qoleynu!" "Hear our voice!"

I disassembled myself there, against the holy wall, in preparation for becoming the most receptive vessel that I can, what with my ego & all.

& I attempted to birth a new existence on the floor of the Isralight Centre later.

Afterwards there were shiurim by R' David Aaron & R' Binny Freedman were thoroughly inspirational. R' Freedman had just lost a cousin in the war up north. The boy had been married for only 2 weeks. Kol ha-kavod la-hem.

Cigal & I walked home in the deserted city streets.

An easy fast...

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THE TRANSFORMATIVE CALL OF TISHA BE’AV 5766

2006-08-03T00:37:00.000-07:00

BS"D
Tisha Be-Av

by Rabbi Itzchak Marmorstein - info@milayomit.com

Once again, we are approaching the fires of Tisha Be-Av.

That day of tears, the day of broken-ness.

The broken-ness of human conflict and error.

[As I write these words, Barak and Arafat are leaving the peace talks failing to find agreement on Jerusalem. I worry about the tears to come.]

Here we are six years later, the battle is raging in Israel, Lebanon and environs. And I pray that we find the way to true peace and harmony.

Why has it been so hard for so long?

Why so many tears in Israel?

The Torah states that at the inauguration of the Brit-Covenant, with Avraham G-d said, "Know that your descendants will be foreigners in a land that is not theirs for 400 years. They will be enslaved and oppressed...they will then leave with great wealth...The fourth generation will return here...To your descendants I have given this land." (Gen. 15:13-18)

In fulfillment of this divine promise the Israelites in the wilderness were about to carry their just-completed Tabernacle into the land, but fearful and anxious of the unknown, they approached Moshe to send men ahead to explore the land and bring back a report about the way ahead.

With divine consent the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel were sent to see what kind of land it is and to ascertain if it is טוֹבה-TOVA-Good or רעה-RAA-Evil.

The men returned 40 days later, on the afternoon of the 8th of Av.

כל העדה-Kol Ha’Edah-the entire community, gathered to hear their report. They began by briefly describing the good. "The land is indeed flowing with milk and honey”' and continued to speak badly about the land. “The land consumes its inhabitants. All the men we saw there were huge. We felt like tiny grasshoppers. That’s all that we were in their eyes" (Num. 13.27ff)

The Midrash recounts G-d’s reaction.

"You do not know what came out of your mouths."

'We felt like tiny grasshoppers'-that may be true

'That's all we were in their eyes'- on this I 'take offense'.

How do you know how I made you appear in their eyes?

Perhaps they saw you as Malachim- royalty, angels?...

I thought Le Tova- for good' and you thought Le Raa-- for the bad." (Sota 35a)

The fears of the tribal leaders immediately infected the people.

"The entire community raised a hubbub and began to shout. That night. the people wept" (Num. 14.1ff)

At that moment, Tisha Be’Av came into being!

"Said the Holy One Blessed Be He: 'they cried tears for no valid reason... this shall establish Bechiyah Le’dorot - weeping for generations". (Sota, 35a)

The Torah refers to the 10 tribal leaders who brought the bad report as עדה הרעה -EDAH HARA’A- The Evil Community, witnesses who testified to the רעה-RAA-the evil, the negative, and brought thereby the רעה-RAA-evil they feared, into their own community.

They assumed the inhabitants were רעה-RAA - evil. They assumed they would be enemies. They feared that the רעה-RAAof the other was so great that the טוֹב-TOV could not overcome it. Our leaders' רעה-RAA was fearing that the רעה-RAA of the other was too strong.

Their faithless tears seeded rivers of terrible tears.

On Tisha Be’Av we came to cry for the destruction of the First Temple.

And then on the same day for the Second Temple.

Tisha Be’Av 1492 was the final date for departure from Spain.

Germany signed the Alliance Treaty pitting itself against Russia and England on August 2nd 1914 - the Ninth of Av, 5764.

World War 1 led to World War 2.

Maaseh Avot Siman Lebanim - the actions of our ancestors are signposts for their children. I, as a child of Holocaust survivors, have been for most of my life deeply disturbed by the extent of רעה-RAA.

I soon learnt that the Torah teaches love.

Rabbi Akivah taught me and all of us : ואהבת לרעך כמוֹך -VE’AHAVTA LE’REYACHA KAMOCHA-And Love Your Neighbour As Yourself’ (Leviticus 19:18) is the Klal Gadol over-riding principle, of the Torah.

One Shabbat morning as I was meditating on these words I came to see what may be considered the Torah's teaching on the transformation of רעה-RAA.

The Torah itself is not written with any vowels or punctuation. The Masoretic tradition taught us how to traditionally pronounce the Scroll. The Kabbalah invites us always to look deeper.

The root of רעך-REYACHA-Your Neighbour (which in the Torah scroll is written lgr ) is רע Rey-Ah. It is the letters ר-Reish and ע-Ayin punctuated with a Tsere and a Patach. It can also refer to 'friend' and 'lover'. (This word also means 'idea, thought, meaning'.) I noticed for the first time (for me) that this very same two-letter root, whenpunctuated with a kametz is also the word רע-RAA-Evil, wickedness. The word spelled רע-Reish, Ayin can be 'neighbour, beloved friend' or 'evil'.

ואהבת לרעך כמוֹך-VE’HAVTA LE’REYECHA KAMOCHA -Love Your Neighbour As Yourself can also be read ואהבת לרעך כמוֹך-VE’AHAVTA LE’RAH-ACHA KAMOCHA-Love Your Negativity As Your Self.

One of the psychological mantras of the twentieth century has been 'love your shadow'. Earlier, the Baal Shem Tov alluded to this with the teaching that 'the reason we see wrong with someone else is because we have it in ourselves’.

To only see it in the other, in the outside and not in ourselves is a fundamental error. The spies - עדה הרעה-the EYDA HA’RA’AA - made this error. They stated that almost everything, except themselves, was wrong.

Perhaps the Torah is inviting us to honestly look inward first. To accept compassionately our own shortcoming, fears and insecurities. Not to project them on to others. As we love and accept our full humanity, we may be able to more clearly love and accept the other's full humanity as well.

In truth, there is no other.

We are all the children of Adam and Chava striving to return to the Garden. Let us learn to honestly look inward first. Accepting, and transforming our own inner רע -RAA.

3317 years later Tisha Be’Av approaches once more.

The first part of this transformation is effected by seeing that actually all is one. That we are all part of the human family and the human experience. The letter ע-Ayin-which means ‘eye’ and whose numeric value is 70 relates to the multiplicity, to the different things that we see. We therefore assume they are separate, different. True seeing in Hebrew is called ראה-RE’EH-See. It is written not with an ע-AYIN as in רעה-RAA-Evil, but with an א-ALEPH, the letter whose numeric is one and represents the unity of all life.

[Barak and Arafat leave Camp David with a sense of failure. For each the perceived רעה-RAA of the other is immovable.]

Rav Kook, the revered sage of our return taught that the path to reestablishing the Holy Temple, which was destroyed because of needless hatred, is for us to practice unconditional love - of ourselves and each other.

I pray that these words that Rav Kook wrote in 1908 come to fruition in our days: "The brotherly love of Itzchak and Ishmael will assert itself above all the confusion...Their love will overcome all and transform all to eternal light and compassion."

May all of us, children of Adam ve Chava, Avraham, Itzchak and Ishmael, be blessed to turn the 'bitter to sweet' and 'darkness to light'.

May this be our last Tisha Be’Av of tears.
Itzchak