People often assume that discarding the trappings of traditional Jewish practice is somehow necessary and sufficient for gender-egalitarian Jewish practice. These people are often surprised to learn that there are Jews out there who observe the laws of kashrut, who observe the laws of Shabbat, who are essentially indistinguishable from your average American Orthodox Jew … Continue reading Egalitarian approaches to female scribes
The Drisha’s mysterious lacuna The Drisha observes an unexpected lacuna in the Tur’s codification of who may write sifrei Torah. From the baraita, this is what we would expect: טור אורח חיים סימן לט …תפילין שכתבן עבד או אשה או קטן עו”ג וישראל מומר פסולין וכל הפסול לכתבן פסול בכל תיקון עשייתן Tur Orah Hayyim … Continue reading The Drisha’s mysterious lacuna
Background The Talmud states “Sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzot written by (some versions insert “a heretic”), an informer (to the Romans), a star-worshipper (some versions substitute “non-Jew”), a slave, a woman, a minor, a Cuthean, or an apostate Jew, are unfit for ritual use” (Gittin 45b). The reason given is the halachic principle that one … Continue reading Sources: female scribes
Megillot and sifrei neviim Since megillot and other scrolls for ritual use are not explicitly described as being invalidated when written by women (or minors, etc), it is perfectly reasonable to say that therefore the rule does not apply. By analogy with tzitzit, any Jew could write a megillah. (By analogy with succah, a non-Jew … Continue reading Orthodox approach to female scribes
Concerning female scribes A sofer’s job is to write the ritual texts used by Jews: the tefillin, which are inserted in little black boxes and worn against the skin; mezuzot, which are affixed to doorposts; sifrei Torah (Torah scrolls) used for ritual reading in the synagogue and also for fulfilment of the separate commandment upon … Continue reading Halakha about female scribes
In addition to writing your community’s Torah, I can give you connections to your sacred scrolls via many other forms of interaction and education. Junior Education, Adult Education, Family Programming Educational sessions can be tailored to fit your group’s interests or curriculum requirements. If you would like an hour’s advanced text study on tefillin, we … Continue reading Programming
Phone, email, etc. Email jen@hasoferet.com. I have a rather vigorous spam filter, which sometimes eats real messages in its enthusiasm, so if I don’t get back to you within a couple of weeks please feel free to call me. Telephone: USA: 718-664-4296. Canada: 514-884-0199. Instant messaging and Skype: if we make an arrangement to talk … Continue reading Contact
Who is permitted to write and deal in sefarim, tefillin & mezuzot 1. It is taught in a baraita (Eruvin 13a): Rabbi Meir said, when I came to Rabbi Ishmael, he said to me “My son, what is your trade?” I said to him “I am a scribe.” He said to me “My son, be … Continue reading Chapter 1
This page describes the process of writing a get, from the uncommon perspective of a wife who is also the sofer. It originally appeared as a blog post at Hatam Soferet. See
Why did you become a soferet? Why? It seemed like a good idea. It relates to being simultaneously good at mathematics and crafts, because sofrut is a combination of calligraphy and dense talmudic reasoning. Arts and crafts were a hobby while I was taking mathematics at school and university. I never really knew what I … Continue reading Detailed FAQ