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

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(Kulmus cutting continued…)

We last left off in the last post just having marked guidelines for cutting the nib:

And now we go on to finishing cutting the kulmus (quill)…
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In the second column of the first yeriah you will find the first of several letters that must be written small.  This is the letter  “hey” in the word behibaram, “…when they were created”:

Why is this letter small?  What must any letters be written small?

There are  several different ways of interpreting these small letters…
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Our little corner of the web is starting to turn some heads!  This past week there was an article about the start of our Sefer Torah in HaModia, a national Jewish paper.  Additionally, other blogs and webzines have become interested in our site.

See the recent article about us posted here:

http://asimplejew.blogspot.com/2009/07/mysteries-of-ancient-art-revealed-in.html

Please keep spreading the word about the kind of work that we are doing here – the more people that know about it, the better!

Tomorrow I will post the article from HaModia.

[This is a big post, so I will split it into two...]

Finally we get to the kulmus, the quill – the real “beating heart” of safrus.

Becoming a sofer has more to do with cutting and maintaining the quill than it does with writing.  Similarly,  becoming a shochet has more to do with the technique of preparing and maintaining one’s blades than it does with the act of shechita.

Mastery of  cutting/maintaining a quill is ultimately what separates the professional scribe from the dilettante.

The sofer’s relationship to the kulmus is complex, to say the least.   If you treat your kulmus well, and pay close attention to what it needs,  then it will reward you.   Treat your kulmus poorly, and it will betray you.  Badly.  Very badly.

Soferim spend so much time caring and maintaining their quills, that the whole subject of kulmus becomes something of a personal one.  I know this sounds terribly romantic, but it is true:  that I am about to describe my cutting technique feels a little like baring my heart, like sharing some deep personal secret (I guess, in a way, that’s the purpose of this whole project…)

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