Tonight I put the finishing touches on the 4th and 5th columns of the Sefer Torah.  Here are a couple of photos:

Second Sheet, Completed 4th & 5th Columns

The 4th and 5th Column

"Said Cain: 'I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" And HE said: 'What is this that you have done? Your brother's bloods cry out to me from the earth! And now, accursed shall you be...'"

Detail of the Ksav in the 4th and %th Columns

Thus far, these amudim (columns) have been the most important because the ksav is finally “settling in.”

Every set of klaf is ruled a little differently.   The difference may be imperceptible to the eye, but not to the hand.

The first few columns of a new Sefer Torah or megilla are “meet-and-greet” columns.   This is where you get you get your hand used to the width of the column and height of the line, slowly working out the correct proportions of the script against the strictures of the ruled page.

Most soferim call this the “settling in.”

I was starting to worry because things were taking an usually long time to settle-in on this Sefer.   The reason may be because I am trying a slightly different style of script.  My goal is to produce a sefer that is more “reader friendly” than many of the current trends in safrus.

To achieve this, I have had to cut the quill a little thinner (7 or 7.5 strokes-per-line  – See The Ingredients Part IVb), and re-proportion the letters some from what is in the tikkun (copyist guide) that I’m using.   It took some experimentation and stress in the first few columns, but  I’m breathing easier now because, at about five lines into the fourth column, I can feel the ksav settling in.

I always approach any new safrus project with a lot of apprehension and fear.  The turning point comes when I can clearly visualize the ksav I want to produce, and then reproduce the mental image exactly.   This starts first on a letter-by-letter basis; alephs, tzaddis, and ayins are the hardest.  After a while I get a sense of their correct proportions for the height of the shura (line).   Next is word-by-word.  I can visualize the form of an entire word and its proportion/position in the line.  This is the real milestone, because that is when the ksav really comes together and gains confidence.  Last Thursday this happened for the first time in this sefer with the word mibechoros from Bereishis (Genesis)4:4, which describes the offerings of Kayin.  I checked the spelling in the tikkun (copyist’s guide), visualized the proportions of the letters and overall appearance of the word, then wrote it:

The First Bulls-Eye

As soon as took the kulmus away from the klaf, I stared at the word and, yes I did, I actually teared up.

That was the first word that perfectly replicated it’s unwritten vision.  In that moment I realized that the starting speed-bumps were now mostly past.

Borukh ha-Shem!

Onto the 6th column…

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment