Today's Writing!

Am back into the full swing of writing now that my back is working properly again.  To ensure that I can continue to write comfortably, I built a new writing table out of birch.   The design is based upon one that I found in an old book on scribal arts.

The angle and height of the surface along with the cut-out part in the middle make it much easier to remain sitting upright while working.

Middle Six Lines of Amud 29 - Click to Enlarge!

Unfortunately, I suffered some terrible back problems over the past few months and had to curtail my writing.   After a good deal of physical therapy and medication, I’m easing back into writing and posting.

I am a little behind schedule now, but not badly so.   Sigh.

Now… where were we…. aha!  The tikkun…

Here is a  view of the Davidowitsch Tikkun (click to enlarge):

View of the Tikkun - Click for Full Size

I have inserted the red circles and numbers so that we can easily navigate the page together.

The left page is a facsimile of R’ Davidowitsch’s actual writing from his master scroll.   On the right side is a printed version of the same Torah text with all of the vowels and cantillation marks inserted.

Starting with Section #1 – These numbers indicate the particular line within the column.  For convenience, the 42-line columns are broken up across two pages with lines 1 to 21 on the first page and lines 22 to 42 on the second.    Since most new Torah scrolls are written using this tikkun, soferim now have a common way of referencing their work (i.e. "column x, line y").

Section # 2 – These Hebrew letters indicate the column number (keep in mind that Hebrew letters are also used to write numbers).  In this example, the letters are Lamed-Vov, or 36.   So, this page represents the first 21 lines of column 36.

Section # 3 – This is the name of the parsha.  Originally, the Torah was not divided into chapters and versus as it is now.   The chapter/verse division of the “Old Testament” was originally a Christian invention.  That the Jews adopted in the middle ages (the earliest Jewish manuscript using chapter/verse divisions dates from c. 1330).     The prevalent historical theory is that the Jews adopted these designations as a result of forced disputations. The Rabbis  unfortunate  enough to get roped into these debates had to be fluent in the Christian’s system of reference in order to argue effectively.

However, Jews traditionally divided the Torah into 54 sections, one or two of which is read per week.  Section # 3 is the name of the portion to which our segment of writing belongs.

Section # 4 – Rachav ha-Shura: The Width of the Line – these numbers are what make the Sofer’s tikkun so unique.   If a quill is sized properly, then one can fit 62 yuds side-by-side across one line of a column.  Therefore, we think of a line as being 62 yuds wide.   Now, with a few exceptions (such as between paragraphs), the entire length of the line must be filled from start to finish.    The Beis Yosef YD 275 explains that each letter of the Aleph Beis is a certain number of yuds wide as well.   For example, a vov is 1 yud width.  A ches is 2 yud-widths, while a shin is 3 yud-widths.   Ideally we try to fit exactly 62-yuds-worth of letters in each line.  That way, all the letters will fit perfectly without having to stretch or squish anything; each one will remain in its proper proportion and easily fill the line.   However, because you can’t cut words in half, add or drop letters at will, sometimes one will not have enough letters to fill the line and you will have to stretch or squish a little to make everything fit.  These numbers on the side guide the sofer as to how much he will need to adjust (stretch/squish) if he has to0 few or too many letters for the line.

For example, look at line 1 – the rachav ha-shura is Yud Aleph, which stands for yeser 1 – 1 extra – meaning that the total width of the letters in this line is 1 more than the 62-yud ideal, meaning that the sofer has to constrict his script slightly.

Now look at lines 7, 8, and 13 – the rachav ha-shura here is Shin-Tov – meaning Shalem ve-Tam – whole and complete.  In other words, the total yud-widths-worth of letters we are to write in that line tallies 62 exactly.    So, the sofer only needs in these lines to make the letters in their proper proportions and everything should go swimmingly.

Lines 5 and 11, though, are ches-dalet, an abbreviation for choser 4, lacking four.  This means that we only have 59 yud-widths of letters.  Therefore we will have to stretch the writing a little to fill the line.

Knowing by how much a line is lacking or overfilled is invaluable to planning your writing and producing a nice, even script.

Rabbi Davidowitsch’s legendary skill as a sofer is that he can proportionally stretch and squish all the letters in a line so subtly  that one can barely tell when he has had to manipulate anything.   Compare the letters of line 11 with those of line 21, and you will see that line 11’s letters are broader and "breathe" more than the letters in line 21, which are a little narrower and close.   The reason is that line 11 is lacking 4 yuds, thus requiring stretching, while line 11 has 5 extra yuds, requiring squishing.

Now, you may have seen some letters stretched very looooooooooooooong in some Torahs.  This is because the sofer has tried to make up for lacking yud-widths all in one letter rather than dividing up the elongation among all the letters of the line.

Section # 5 – the small superscript kufs here indicate the word below is a divine name and must be verbally sanctified prior to writing.  Throughout the tikkun, one will also find a superscript samekh (indicating that there is a dispute as to whether the word is a divine name) or a ches (indicating that the word looks like a divine name, but is not actually such).   These three designations are VERY important to know – a mistake in understanding which names are divine can render an entire Torah scroll worthless.  We will do divine names in a future post.

Section # 6 – Again, the name of the parsha.

Section # 7 – is the Chapter number (31, in this part)

Section # 8 is the book of the Torah, which is Bereishis, or Genesis in our example.

A large part of being a sofer is simply learning to interpret the tikkun and copy from it swiftly and with complete accuracy.

Before I embark on a new section in my tikkun I first read through the page and highlight anything tricky (i.e. very lacking or overfilled lines, divine names, dots over letters, etc.) with bright yellow just ot make sure that nothing catches me by surprise!

My "Gloopy" Alef

The 7th yeria was just going swimmingly – no quill issues, good clean klaf, and then:

Blorp!

-  the quill just belched forth this massive amount of ink and my beautiful Alef  turned into, well, what you see above.

Usually, after dipping the quill in the ink, one can drain off the excess by touching the underside of the quill gently to the side of the inkwell and holding it there for a moment.

However, one in a rare while a tiny bubble forms inside the quill that, upon popping, results what you see above.   Sigh.

Time to shave, scrape, sand, erase, score and rewrite.

At least it’s only 1 letter!

The 22nd Column & Start of The Akeida (Binding of Isaac)

End of Parshas Vayera

The correction techniques I use rarely ever leave any marks (see here for more…).  After experimenting around with the klaf a bit and taking some discreet sample slices from the far edges, it seems that there is a darker layer of cross-pigmentation just under the writing surface.  I checked with a few colleagues, only one of whom had seen this sort of thing previously.  Apparently it only happens with extremely soft, weak parchment taken from near the flank section of the animal.

G-d Remembers Sarah

However, my parchment is “thickish” and very even.

I managed to remove most of the splotches by gentle sanding with various grades of sand and glasspaper.

Part of G-d's Promise to Avraham...

An interesting feature of this yeria is the appearance of the second small letter of the Torah, which is found in Bereishis (Genesis) 23:2 in the word “livkosah” – “And Avraham came to eulogize Sarah and to weep for her…”

Note the small "kaf" of the word "livkosah"

There are several different explainations as to why this word is written with a small “kaf” -

• The Ba’al ha-Turim explains that, because Sarah had died after a long, successful, life of righteousness Avraham’s grief at her funeral was somewhat reduced.

• The Rokeach cites a dispute in the Talmud (Bava Basra 16b) as to whether or not Avraham had a daughter.    In order to resolve the dispute the Rokeach explains that Avraham did have a daughter who, unfortunately, predeceased her parents.  When Avraham came to weep upon the death of Sarah, he also came to mourn the death of his daughter.  This is alluded to by the reduced “kaf” of “livkosa” – “to weep for her.”   If we read livkosa absent its reduced “kaf” (a valid method of interpreting words with reduced letters), the verse reads: “And Avraham came to eulogize upon Sarah and his daughter…“

• Additionally, the kaf may be reduced to draw attention something implied by the the letter itself.  When we spell out the name of the letter “kaf” in full, it is written: כף , which is the Hebrew word for the palm of the hand.    Rashi and the Metzudas Dovid to Yechezkel 21:19 both explain that striking one’s palms together or against one’s thigh (also referred to as a “kaf”) is a sign of mourning.

]]> http://www.ctc-torah.org/2009/12/6th-yeria-done-see-end-of-post-for-some-scribal-oddities/feed/ 0 http://www.ctc-torah.org/2009/12/new-klaf/ http://www.ctc-torah.org/2009/12/new-klaf/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:54:46 +0000 Rabbi Avraham Chaim Bloomenstiel, Sofer http://www.ctc-torah.org/?p=790 This week I got a very large shipment of new klaf, parchment.

The quality of the klaf, ultimately, contributes most to the longevity of a Sefer Torah.   For that reason, I am exceptionally finicky when it comes to vetting my parchment.  I first grade the parchment by color as either…

1) White

2) Medium

3) Dark

A perfectly white roll of klaf

The perfect, creamy-white surface of White Klaf

The parchment’s color depends mostly upon the color of the cow from which it came.  White klaf comes from very white cows, Medium from tan or brownish ones, while Dark klaf comes from black or spotted cows.  These colors aren’t related at all to the quality of the parchment…

Exterior of medium colored rolls of Klaf

Surface of medium colored Klaf. The brown line in the middle corresponds to the place of the animal's spine

White klaf is the rarest of the three and almost no Sifrei Torah are written entirely on white klaf.  After all, there are few purely white cows.

I do my best to sort out the colors, trying to arrange them so that the transitions in color are not terribly noticeable as one reads through the scroll.

Dark klaf rolls set out on my writing table

Dark Klaf from the front - you can see what remains of Bessie's dark spots...

Once the colors are sorted out, the next step is to examine all of the sheets for imperfections that could either A) Affect the writing, or B) Affect the longevity of the parchment.

Each sheet is checked front and back, then checked again while back-lit by a fluorescent light, and then lastly while back-lit by an incandescent bulb.  Fluorescent light is closer to the blue end of the spectrum, while incandescent bulbs are toward the red side.   Each type of light reveals different problems in the klaf.

A hole right in the middle of a line renders this sheet unusable

Holes are the first problem.   These must be checked for against back-lighting, preferably sunlight.  The Gemora in Chullin 119b states that “Any hole the ink seals over is not a hole.”  From here our sages learn that it is permissible to write on parchment containing holes  as long as the holes are so small that the ink can cover and seal them.

If holes any larger than this occur in the “writing space” of the klaf, then it is prohibited to write upon that parchment (See Orach Chayyim 32:13).

Another problem are smooth spots.  While the klaf has a natural, slightly rough nap to it,  sometimes there are glassy smooth spots mixed in across the surface.   These can be terrible traps while writing and even throw off the best soferim.

Smooth spot resulting from dried moisture damage

Same spot, this time back-lit - The water damage makes the spot translucent

These spots can only be clearly detected if they are the result of moisture , the arch-enemy of parchment.  These show up brightly when back lit by a fluorescent light.

Smooth spots are also very likely when dealing with heavily striated klaf.  This klaf often comes from the softer parts of the animal’s hide and contains numerous natural imperfections.   I usually try to avoid these sheets.

Heavily striated klaf

Three parallel smooth lines on the surface - a tricky smooth spot that severely downgrades this sheet

Discolored spots are also bad and usually the result of scar tissue or staining during the tanning process.

Stain as a result of tanning

Abnormally dark spot - probably scar tissue. These spots are often exceptionally smooth or can become weak spots over time

Lastly, the klaf must be checked carefully for weak spots or thick, stiff spots.  These areas can often create tears or creases as the scroll is rolled and unrolled.   Creases are problematic because they break letters and “self-posul”  Torah scrolls.   From this shipment of 60 sheets I got a little over 30 that are good, all of mixed coloration.

A natural crease at the edge of a very weak, flimsy section. No good.

The Fifth Yeria & Columns 16 to 19

The fifth yeria is done and the the sixth is well under way as I type – There was a few days down-time this week as I awaited a new shipment of klaf (parchment).   I mostly used the time to proofread what had been written so far and to clean up a few passages.   Enjoy these pics, and check back soon!

Column 19

Detail of Column 16

Yeria #5 - Almost complete...

Today I wrapped up column 19 and made some edits to the earlier columns.

Tomorrow I will have to check the whole yeria against the tikkun (copyists manual), make any corrections or edits, and then complete adding taggim and dots….

The Completed Column 19

Today's Writing - The Bottom of Column 19