Jewish scribes

An honored profession that is far from obsolete, as this Jerusalem Post article explains:

The scribe writes the Torah, the parchments inserted into the boxes of teffilin and the parchment inserted within the mezuzot affixed to the doorposts of Jewish homes and premises. Thus, a scribe is usually called a sofer stam - the word stam being the acronym for sefer torah, teffilin and mezuzot.

Scribes are also employed to write gittin - bills of divorce, which must be written individually, by hand, for each particular case. A scribe writes with a quill made from the feather of a fowl and uses ink specially prepared for the task. His work is exacting, time-consuming and painstaking. No mistakes are allowed and in today's technologically advanced world, there are special computer driven programs that check the work of the sofer for accuracy and correctness.

Spotted via Palaeojudaica, which as usual is full of interesting material. Jim Davila's keeping a particularly close eye on the plans of Jewish extremists to mob the Temple Mount on April 10 -- which if they should come to pass, could have severe and unpredictable repercussions.

Posted by David on March 18, 2005 2:01 PM