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The Sofrut Chronicles part 4

mat — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:08:35 +0000

As I said I’m back to the drawing board. Literally. Really getting the forms of the letters to be consistent. Some pictoral evidence.

The Sofrut Chronicles part 3

mat — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 07:03:44 +0000

Well, I’ve officially finished the first full page of writing. Im writing at least three lines per day. Of course, for every line I write, there’s usually a mistake or two. These mistakes will require me to go back later (i.e. once I learn how) with one my blades to scrape away the ink, and rewrite the letter.

I met with a master Sofer names Rabbi Youlis. He runs an organization called Save A Torah. He does amazing work, finding Torahs that were thought to be lost, be it from the Holocaust, or from Hurricane Katrina, and he works to refurbish them and put them into use again. For an incredible story about him and his work that will have you in tears, click here:

www.rabbishmuel.com/files/torah_sermons153.auschwitztorah.doc

Anyway. I went to see him with the work that I’ve done so far, and his comment to me was that I should stop writing, and practice my letters some more. OY! I was hoping to have the megillah done by Purim, which is in March. But now I feel like I’m right back at the beginning. NOw Instead of writing my megillah, I’m just writing alephs over and over, as well as a few other letters. Still I love it, and the connection to the tradition of writing such ancient texts on parchment using a quill is powerful beyond words. I guess that’s the crux of it, I’m using words as a meditation to move beyond them.

More to follow.

The Sofrut Chronicles: Part 2

mat — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:14:48 +0000

After a week or two of doing some practice writing, to get in the swing of things, I have finally started working on the megillah! Very scary. Megilliat Esther is 20 pages worth of writing. And each page has 21 lines of writing. That means I have 24 weeks to do it, which means I have to do about 2-3 lines per day. Oy. So far I’ve got 3. The writing above is the actual writing, and the writing below is the photocopied version of the text that I’m copying from.

Also, here is a photo of the quill that I use.

It’s a goose feather that I’ve cut using some seriously sharp surgical knives

Very ancient technology.

The Sofrut Chronicles: Part 1

mat — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:16:00 +0000

For the last 6 years I have been learning Sofrut, the ancient Jewish art of calligraphy for the use of writing sacred texts, on and off. I started in Cleveland, continued in Jerusalem, and now in Maryland, I am going to being my first work, a Miggelah (scroll) of Esther. I’m very excited and scared about this endevor. My hope is to complete it by Purim, so that my students can read from it for the holiday.

This is a photocopied version of the text that I will be using as a guide. Beneath it is a piece of parchment. Very thick paper-like material made from the skin of a cow.

These are feathers from the wing of a goose. They will be transformed into a quill, called Kulmus in hebrew.

This is a special ink used to write on the parchment.