During the holiday of Sukkes, we symbolically invite Jewish historical figures to join us at our holiday meals in the sukke. The ceremony for inviting these guests, known as ushpizin from the Aramaic, is frequently printed on posters and hung in the sukke, so that, when a person eats a meal, they can easily invite the appropriate guest. Usually, these posters are mass-produced. Several years ago, however, I decided to write an ushpizin chart on parchment, to be used in our family sukke. In this post, I’ll walk through the process of creating a custom piece of Judaica like this chart.
Kimpetbrivl
Illuminated Shir Hashirim
A client asked me to write a Shir Hashirim (Song of Songs) for his family, and to collaborate with Celia Lemonik (of Kosher Ketubahs), who would illuminate it. As is the case with all the megillahs I write, this Shir Hashirim is written on kosher parchment with scribal ink and is kosher for ritual use. Click on the images below to see the final product!
What does a sofer do?
Since you’re on this site, you know that I’m a sofer, and, if you’ve read the “about me” page, you know that a sofer STa”M (STa”M stands for sifrei Torah, tefillin, and mezuzahs) writes and repairs Jewish ritual texts and paraphernalia. But what does this really mean?