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.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

A STILL, SMALL VOICE...FROM MYSPACE

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...
Soferet @ the St Louis Miqveh
(Community miqveh at the JCC in St Louis)

before I go here:
Soferet's St Louis workspace
(Conference room at B'nai Amoona, where I've been restoring Torahs)

One of my fave odd letters in the Sefer Torah:
Soferet's Gachon
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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2 Comments:

Blogger Evenewra said...

There's a big letter coming up in Nitzavim, isn't there? What's that about?

6:12 p.m.  
Blogger Soferet said...

BS"D
Yep, there sure is. An enlarged letter Lamed. I'll write about that this week, once my travelling soferet teaching fixing Torahs schedule slows down...
I'm glad to see your comments here, always, evenewra :)

9:08 a.m.  

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