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PAGE 16 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE February 21, 1986
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Mezuza, tefillin inspection
sheds light on ancient art
by Carolyn Gold
My assignment was to cover the
Mezuza and Tefillin Inspection
taking place at the Atlanta Jewish
Community Center. As I drove
down Peachtree 1 questioned,
“Why me?”
“All my experience has been in
modern issues, public affairs,
women’s rights,” 1 inwardly
wailed. “Now I’m supposed to
write about traditional religious
objects and the requirements of
Jewish law?”
Dressed in my most conser
vative suit, high-neck blouse and
low-heeled shoes, I walked into the
Center, my hesitation growing as 1
mentally questioned whether I’d be
expected to cover my head. The
sight of nursery school children was
reassuring. Things appeared nor
mal here. Senior citizens were
going about their activities on the
first floor and Yeshiva High was in
full swing on the second floor.
Upstairs, in what I remembered
as a modern dance studio, I found
the inspection proceeding. Four
trained scribes or sofrim sat
hunched at well-lighted tables
amid a clutter of pens, ink wells,
black leather tefillin and em
broidered velvet bags. All four
men looked immaculately clean,
three had neatly trimmed beards,
and all wore black yarmulkes.
Tzitziot strings were visible,
hanging below sweaters and vests.
Like the “fringes,” 1 hung
discreetly on the periphery of this
activity — not knowing how a
woman would be accepted. Shyly
the workers began to acknowledge
my presence. They invited me to sit
and watch. They explained that all
of them were from the metro
politan New York area, had
arrived on Sunday, and would be in
Atlanta through Thursday.
As they checked the small scrolls
from the mezuzot, one young man
explained that the two
paragraphs from the Shema
enclosed in a mezuza must be hand
written with special ink on kosher
parchment, and all the 714 letters
must be formed properly. Machine
printing on paper is not valid.
1 was advised that Rabbi Yakov
Basch, the executive director of
Vaad Mishmereth STaM, was
speaking in the chapel. I found him
and a class of Yeshiva High boys in
the middle of a slide show on the
intricacies of the Hebrew alphabet.
The discussion moved on to the
laws regarding tefillin, and then 1
realized 1 was the only female in
the room.
One of the students patiently
answered my whispered question.
He explained that the class was
about things in which only males are
involved. After warnings that hair
wet from a shower can ruin tefillin,
I waited for class to end—feeling I
had breached some precept, like
invading a male locker room.
Returning to the sofrim I found
them stitching tefillin with needles
and kosher thread from an open
surgical-looking kit. They showed
me the four compartments in one
of the tefillin boxes and the large
scroll in the other cube.
Rabbi Basch suggested that
might find their video tape in
teresting. High tech, in the midst
of antiquity! 1 watched as the
machine explained how weather,
moisture and new house paint can
mar the tiny parchment inside
mezuzot. It also described how
human error can make the writing
on the tefillin scrolls invalid or
“posul.”
Rabbi Basch explained that at
the Center over 500 mezuzot had
been checked by Tuesday. Over
half of these were found to be OK,
which he considered very good for
Atlanta. The sofrim had finished
inspecting about 48 pairs of tefillin
out of the 85 pairs which had been
brought to them. Seven torahs lay
on a table—yet to be examined.
As I considered the message of
the video and the systematic,
painstaking work of the scribes, I
realized that the experience could
be classified as an exposure to
consumer education/protection.
These scribes pursuing their
ancient art also were fulfilling a
modern dictum of seeing that the
consumer is not ignorant and is
protected from fraud—that the
buyer gets valid merchandise.
The Vaad Mishmereth STaM,
whose inititals come from their
goal of preserving the integrity of
Sifrei Torahs, tefillin and mezuzot,
is a 10-year-old group dedicated to
educational projects and the
maintenance of a school for
scribes. Their literature contains
the quote that the sofrim like to be
thought of “as the Ralph Naders of
the religious world.”
Rabbi Sternstein to be speaker
at ZOA installation on March 2
Rabbi Joseph Sternstein, presi
dent of the Jewish National Fund,
will he the guest speaker at the
Zionist Organization of America
(ZOA) installation dinner to be
held beginningat 6:30 p.m. Sunday,
March 2, at Congregation Or
VeShalom.
Rabbi Sternstein, a Zionist of
international repute, is past presi
dent of the American Zionist
Federation (umbrella organization
of the entire Zionist movement),
past president of the Zionist Or
ganization of America, a member
of the executive committee of the
World Zionist Organization and
the Jewish Agency board. He is
vice chairman of the National
{ Yow cah y,
Teeth intc
Be sure to read the instructions in your
tax package They can answer most of
your tax questions.
A public nervict meuxage from the IRS
Rabbi Joseph Sternstein
Conference on Soviet Jewry.
He was ordained by the Jewish
Iheological Seminary from which
he received a doctorate in medieval
Jewish philosophy. He also received
a doctor of jurisprudence from St.
John’s University of Law. He
presently serves as rabbi of Temple
Sholoni of Roslyn Heights, N Y.
Rabbi S. Robert lchay, spiritual
leader of OVS, will be installed as
president of the Atlanta ZOA Dis
trict, along with the executive com
mittee and board of trustees con
sisting of a cross-section of Jewish
leadership from all branches of
Judaism united in theircommitment
to Zionism.
The public is invited. Cost is $25
a person. For more information,
call 874-3018 or 355-8296.
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