(no subject)

This morning I was at Scarsdale Reform Temple. They were having a Yom Limmud (=learning day), and I was the Hands-on Hebrew exhibit.

Giving people the chance to have a try at real proper writing with a feather is such fun. I love how something so simple can mean so much to people, and more, that I get to be the one giving it! You know? I don't have much to give to comgregations by way of donations and so on, but I can give this.

Erev Shabbat I found alum! at last! I've been looking for it in all the supermarkets round about, and finally found it in the Foodtown in Kingsbridge. Even now I have a bunch of quills boiling in a solution of alum and salt. It's supposed to cure them - make them more hardwearing and less inclined to go soggy when wet. We shall see.

(no subject)

The Lishkat ha-Sofer is a commentary on the Keset ha-Sofer, a summary of the halakhot relevant to sofrut. Although Lishkat can be distinctly tiresome (overenthusiastic use of acronyms being his main fault), he is occasionally charming, as in his comments in chapter 10, s'if katan 6.

He quotes a rule from the Keset, and then quotes another source against it. The usual procedure at this point is to quote the opposing source's subsequent discussion, to explain how the seeming contradiction is reconciled. Lishkat, endearingly, does not do this, but notes in parenthesis "I didn't understand his explanation."