http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Scribing-a-Torah-a-labor-of-sacred-integrity-12420615.php
Scribing a Torah a labor of sacred integrity
Rabbi scribing the Torah with only natural materials
Published 11:04 pm, Sunday, December 10, 2017
Saratoga Springs
For the last 10½ years, Rabbi Linda Motzkin has been doing what no other woman in the Jewish community has done. She has been creating a Torah scroll from scratch.
She is a scribe, soferet in Hebrew, and is writing out the 304,805 divine letters of the Torah. But her calligraphy is just part of the effort. Motzkin created her own natural materials in order to write the sacred text.
"A lot of people ask me why don't you give a list of what you need to a rabbi or scribe who can buy you the supplies," Motzkin said. "I don't because a Torah must be done with integrity. There has to be integrity of process. That's why I source my own materials."
The sourcing begins by making parchment from deerskin hides.
"I get them from local hunters," Motzkin said as she stands in her Wilton garage where curling deerskins hang on a wall. "I get them through word of mouth. Everyone around here knows a hunter."
From there, she scrapes the meat and blood off the hide, then soaks it in lime to loosen the hair, which she then scrapes away. Next she places the hide in her backyard stream for 24 hours to return material to its natural, suppleness. It comes out dirty, so she scrapes it down some more. The hide is then stretched on a frame to dry. As it does so, it is transformed into parchment that she sands three times for a polished finish. She then cuts out a rectangle from the center and another sheet for her five-book, 80-odd sheet scroll is ready.
"It has to be smooth and flat with no blemishes," Motzkin said, showing off a piece of her handmade parchment. "This sheet also has to be large enough for three columns."
Before placing ink to parchment, she makes a quill from a turkey feather. The tip must be a certain diameter, snipped at an exact angle and then hollowed out. She also prepares her ink. In her yarmulke and prayer shawl, she will line the parchment and begin the slow, careful work of penning what is considered in Judaism the perfect law.
Afterwards, three separate proofreaders check her sheet. If there are errors, the page is scraped. If it's deemed perfect, the new sheet can be stitched, with sinew, to the other sheets. Eventually, it will form one long scroll that will be wrapped around wooden rollers.
It's a lot of work. But Motzkin has help. The creation of the scroll, which she expects will take another eight years to complete, is part of the Community Torah Project. Thus far, 2,800 people of all ages have helped in various ways — scraping or stretching the hides, looking for turkey feathers, mixing ink and proofreading.
For centuries, it was forbidden for women to write the Torah text. But in recent years, more women have learned the ancient skill from other scribes such as the late Rabbi Eric Ray who handed down the tradition to Motzkin. It wasn't until 2007 that the first Torah was written by a woman. Jen Taylor Friedman, whose materials were purchased for her, had the honor and a special celebration took place in New York City.
"It was a historic moment," said Motzkin, who attended the ceremony.
Traditions are changing rapidly and women are now able to buy some materials from kosher shops.
"It's a don't ask, don't tell kind of thing," she said.
Still, there is resistance. Marjorie Ingalls, who writes for the online Jewish magazine Tablet, has noted in her articles female scribes are one of the last barriers in Jewish ritual practice.
In a 2015 article, she wrote that female scribes were "isolated and without community when they began; they pretty much experienced a calling" and "Finding teachers was a challenge; because most soferim (male scribes) wouldn't take on a female student."
While the pool of female scribes grows, Motzkin remains unique as she continues to make, not buy, her materials. And when her Torah scroll is finally complete, she will donate it to a Jewish community in need of one.
Motzkin and her husband Jonathan Rubenstein have been the spiritual leaders of Temple Sinai since their ordination in 1986.
"We don't need (the new Torah) at Temple Sinai because we already have two," Motzkin said. "Some people ask if we can give away one of those and keep the one we are making. We are human and we become attached. But it's my intention to give it away."
wliberatore@timesunion.com • 518-454-5445 • @wendyliberatore
