Netivat Sofrut: diary of a Soferet

Adventures of a female sofer learning to heal the world by doing Holy Work...writing a Sefer Torah

נחזיר את השכינה למקומה בצייון ובתבל כלה

"Let us restore the Divine In-Dwelling to Her Place in Zion & infuse Her spirit throughout the whole inhabited world."

So wherever we are, let us bring the Peace of G@d's Presence.

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Location: Vancouver/London, British Columbia/UK, Canada

SCRIBAL EVANGELIST As the only living certified Soferet (סופרת - female Jewish ritual scribe) & the first woman to practice sofrut (creation of sacred Hebrew texts) in over 200 years, I feel an obligation to blog about my experiences of The Work. I am also currently researching the foundation of a lost tradtion of women practicing this holy craft. For more on the services I provide, please see Soferet.com; Sofrut Nation. I am now available to engage with students, male or female, wishing to enter into the preliminary stage of learning sofrut. You are welcome to join me on this path. "Tzedeq, tzedeq tir'dof - Justice, justice you shall pursue." Devarim/Deuteronomy 16:20.

Sunday, May 15, 2005

YAKIMA!

בס"ד


Taught at the Richland Hebrew school this morning, which was a lot of fun. First I drew out the Sh'ma for the kids (& some adults who joined in) in Ashkenazi Torah kativ & they copied it out on paper with felt pens. I explained that we were writing 2 Yuds & Eloqeinu" instead of G@d's names & why. Then I passed out quills & scraps of parchment for them to write with. It was great - some kids were totally into it & others I heard cursing under their breath :)
"I NEVER want this job!"
Which is important information for them to have, of course, & part of their Jewish experience.

We said goodbye to Janine, who packed us a lunch for the road & sent us off (I was a bit teary).

We drove through Hanford, where Oppenheimer & his Manhattan Project lackeys developed the A-Bomb...later Cold War experiements were secretly executed on the local population by tainting the municipal water supply. Apparently, the number of innocent American civilians you can make sick or kill will give you a good idea of how many Soviet citizens you can cut down in the same manner.

Such a beautiful range of rolling hills & open sky punctuated by concrete nuclear test bunkers...should have brought my geiger-counter.

We arrived in Yakima - The Palm Springs of Washington, as the billboard reads as you swing into town - where I gave my "Netivat Sofrut" talk followed by a short Hebrew calligraphy class. Alex & Amanda & Elaine were very cool, as was Joe Brown's (Joel's ex-roomie) mum. I was really pleased to meet them. When Joe Brown told Joel that he was a Jew from Yakima, who went to a shul on Brown Street headed by a Rabbi Brown...well, he got twitchy.

Alex & Amanda turned me onto this group, so I'm totally jazzed to get involved!

Headed back to Olympia & had STEAK for dinner with Sherri & Neal! The last time I had real, fresh steak was at Shor HaBar in Yerushalayim in '98. It melted in my mouth.

Went for a walk after dinner to grab a beer at the Fishtail Brewery. C'est domage, it was closed already (silly Sunday blue-laws) so we just went to a local tavern. I had Pyramid Hefeweizen, one of my all-time faves. Heading to bed now so I'm fresh for the Torah-checking I'm to do tomorrow...

Leylah tov!

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Aren't Hebrew schools cuties?

OK, are you going to be passing by New York on this tour of yours? Cos we should totally meet up, if you are.

7:15 p.m.  
Blogger Soferet said...

בס"ד
Oh, they totally are! There was this one beautiful little girl named Olga who was probably around 6 or 7 & her lettering was just astounding, especially for her age. & she was so into it that if any adults walked in between her & the board where I'd written the examples she was copying, she'd yell out, "EXCUSE ME, PLEASE!" in this slip of a voice...
...& this other little boy about 5 who was *so* focused on writing that he kept announcing that his mother was "messing it all up".
Totally adorable!

We are passing through NY, absolutely, & I'd love to meet up! Let's make plans off the blogosphere...

5:04 p.m.  

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