PIX

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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TORAH SCRIBE HAS FOLLOWED SACRED CALLING TO THE LETTER

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

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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A WOMAN OFFERS JUDAISM'S SACRED HAND

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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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