September 21, 2012 – 12:59
In parashat Nitzavim we read: הַנִּסְתָּרֹת לַיקֹוָק אֱלֹהֵינוּ וְהַנִּגְלֹת לָנוּ וּלְבָנֵינוּ עַד עוֹלָם לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת כָּל דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת: Concealed acts are the responsibility of the Lord our God [to judge]; but overt acts are the responsibility of us and our children unto eternity, to carry out all the words of this Torah. In the […]
September 10, 2012 – 21:12
Shabbat 103b/Sifrei Vaethanan וכתבתם – שתהא כתיבה תמה; שלא יכתוב אלפ”ין עיינ”ין, עיינ”ין אלפ”ין, בית”ין כפ”ין, כפ”ין בית”ין, גמ”ין צד”ין, צד”ין גמ”ין, דלת”ין ריש”ין, ריש”ין דלת”ין, היה”ין חית”ין, חית”ין היה”ין, וו”ין יוד”ין, יוד”ין וו”ין, זיינ”ין נונ”ין, נונ”ין זיינ”ין, טית”ין פיפ”ין, פיפ”ין טית”ין, כפופין פשוטין, פשוטים כפופין, מימ”ין סמכ”ין, סמכ”ין מימ”ין, סתומין פתוחין, פתוחין סתומין. פרשה […]
But lots of Torah repair. It’s Elul, the season of repentance. It’s perhaps no coincidence that at this time of year, many communities want to get their Torah scrolls in good working order. This involves checking through each and every letter of the scroll, making sure that it’s kosher, and if we can, making it […]
It’s Shabbat Rosh Chodesh, so there’s an extra Torah reading this week. I bet most of you reading this have two Torah scrolls in your shul. There’s the one you read from every week, and there’s the Rosh Chodesh Torah. It gets used on Rosh Chodesh and festivals for the seasonal readings, and never gets […]
It’s been very busy here chez soferet. For the summer, I’ve taken on two apprentices who want to learn Torah repair. This means that in addition to keeping up with CBH’s Torah, I’ve been finding Torahs to fix, and then steering the apprentices through fixing them. Here’s a photo of us working on location in […]
I forget why I wanted her safely out of the way, but this worked nicely.
Bit of a different post, today. A request for feathers. See, I use turkey for writing, as you may recall. And so do my students. And when students are learning to cut quills, they use up a LOT of feathers. Goodness, do they ever. And I have two apprentices this summer, both of whom are […]
Learning to cut and shape quills is one of the most stumbly stumbling-blocks a newbie scribe has to negotiate. I learned to cut quills from a combination of websites (regia.org, liralen, and the ever-helpful Mordechai Pinchas), assistance in person, and practice. When you’re starting out, you don’t know what a good quill is supposed to […]
The other form of computer checking involves much more sophisticated software, and further reduces the chance of human error. In the process we’ve just been talking about, the letters were fed to me automatically, but I still had to use my brain to identify them and see that they were kosher. In this process, there’s […]
Well, it’s my Queen’s diamond jubilee weekend, so I’m going to post about jubilees this week. This is Bet Haverim’s fifty-year anniversary, their proper jubilee. The concept of jubilee comes from the Torah, from Leviticus. So when we were discussing which section of the Torah Bet Haverim would be writing as a community, we naturally […]
