Posted on 08/24/2009 4:41:28 PM PDT by Coleus
Think you've got pressure at work? Consider Rabbi Avraham Bloomenstiel's day. His project will take about 18 months to finish, is guided by more than 4,000 Jewish laws and requires absolute precision. One mistake — or even a badly misshapen letter — and the offending page may have to be buried in a cemetery, according to Jewish law. "Unless the text is 100 percent accurate, there is no point in doing what we're doing," said Bloomenstiel, who was admitted to Harvard University at age 16 to study chemistry and later received a master's degree in music from the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
"In more than 3,000 years, Torahs differ in the neighborhood of eight to 10 letters, and none of those misspellings affect the meaning of the text." The Torah consists of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible and is the foundation for the Old Testament. The sacred text is used in Jewish religious services for ritual readings and teaching. Traditional Jews believe that — unlike the Christian Bible, which has been translated from Hebrew and Greek into thousands of languages — the Torah is a near-verbatim copy of God's word.
Bloomenstiel is a "sofer," or expert in the age-old art of transcribing Hebrew calligraphy, a job Jews believe began with Moses, the first scribe to put God's laws in writing. Since then, on parchment and using bird feathers for pens, holy men have been copying the document by hand. An elaborate system of editing and proofreading is designed to make sure the Torah is pristine. Most sofers live and work in Israel, the motherland of Judaism, where Bloomenstiel studied and was certified as a scribe. He worked for a while in Baltimore and then moved to Dallas with his wife and two children three years ago. They live within walking distance of their synagogue, which helps them follow the strict law against driving on the Sabbath.
A Hasidic Jew, Bloomenstiel wears conservative black clothing and a skullcap, and his face is framed by curled tendrils of hair — obedience to a commandment in the Torah, which is translated in Leviticus 19:27 as, "You shall not round the corners of your heads, nor mar the edges of your beards." The sofer is considered one of Judaism's most pious professions. "This is one of the most esoteric nooks in the Jewish world," Bloomenstiel said. "Most scribes are kinda like me, pudgy and sedentary, sitting in a corner writing the thing. And most people don't know anything about how it's done."
That's about to change.
Last month, Bloomenstiel and Rabbi Yaakov Rich, both of Congregation Toras Chaim, decided to use high-tech tools to let the public into the decidedly old-school craft of creating a Torah scroll. Rich, a graphic artist and Web designer, created ctc-torah.org to document the creation of the holy document. Videos featuring Bloomenstiel explain minutia — the preparation of the turkey quill for writing, to the mystical meanings of Hebrew script.
A blog features their thoughts, and links allow Jews to financially sponsor a letter or passage — or the entire document. "Next to the formation of the synagogue itself, this is the second biggest event in our history," Rich said. "All Jewish law and philosophy and ethics and morals are derived from what's written in the Torah."
Since its formation about two years ago, Congregation Toras Chaim has relied on ancient Torah scrolls donated by members. "To have our own is literally giving a soul to the synagogue," Rich said. Jewish law requires the faithful to write a portion of the holy book in classical Hebrew. Because that is impossible for most people, financial sponsorship is the only way to fulfill the last of the religion's 613 commandments, called "mitzvahs."
"This could potentially be very educational," said Rabbi Yerachmiel Fried, dean of the Dallas Area Torah Association. "It takes years of expertise to get to the level of writing a Torah scroll. "It is considered a very holy endeavor and there are few people who can do it. Now people have a way to get involved." A congregation typically pays between $25,000 and $75,000 for a Torah scroll.
Fried, Bloomenstiel and Rich all said they believe the holy book is the first produced entirely in Dallas, perhaps evidence of the city's growing Orthodox Jewish community. One rabbi compared the writing of the scroll to the birth of a child. "This is a huge deal for the congregation and for the community," said Rabbi Jack Abramowitz, associate director of synagogue services for the Orthodox Union. "A lot of women blog about their pregnancy, and this is kind of the same thing. It's exciting, and it's an opportunity to educate people."
Bloomenstiel wrote on his blog that the project was 2 percent finished two weeks ago. His days are ritualistic — each morning he takes a cleaning bath called a "mikvah" — and tedious. Hours pass in silence, with Bloomenstiel bent over a drafting table, peering through Coke-bottle glasses.
"This has always happened in cluttered little offices with men hunched over a desk with parchment and a quill," Bloomenstiel said. "I'm doing the same thing, except I have a parchment, quill, a Web cam, a Web site, a Web designer and an interested virtual world. "We're opening up the sofer's workshop."
This was a very interesting article. I am very pleased for the congregation that they will soon have their own Torah.
Thanks.
613 Commandments! Excuse the expression but - Holy cow! Did all those come before, or after Moses? Or both.
Don’t they write from right to left? Seems it’d be better to use a lefty for this work.
The 613 came with Moses.
BTTT! I have always found this fascinating.
Ping!
Okay, I didn’t know that. Not being Jewish, I guess I’ve only heard of the 10 “Commandments”. Of course maybe this is an issue of semantics.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Down with.
Thank you so much for posting this.
It will be a homeschool lesson tomorrow.
The 10 Commandments are only the center of the law in the Torah. Read your Old Testament, starting say in Leviticus...you'll find plenty of other official commands of God--which Orthodox Jewish people believe are all still in force.
. . .I believe, by turn; they give soul to the world as well. Am grateful for this effort; and for all those whose lives; efforts; good prayers create spiritual 'wellsprings' for civilization.
Not reading your Bible, eh? Naughty Freeper.
The 10 Commandments are the index.
Incidently, if not Jewish, the 10 commandments technically don’t apply to you. The Laws of Noah apply, which are fundamentally the same, less the Sabbath.
Great website, thanks for the link.
Jews are disproportionately left-handed.
But it started because it was chipped into rock, as opposed to written on parchement.
(Think how you’d hold a hammer if you are right handed -— hammer in right, chisel in left -— much easier to write right to left.)
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