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In last week's Torah reading, Jacob wrestled with the Mysterious Personage. You remember the story? Jacob is rather jolly worried about meeting up with Esav after twenty-odd years apart, given the circumstances under which they parted (i.e. Jacob running away because Esav was planning to kill him). So he spends the night alone in the wilderness, having sent everyone else on ahead - maybe not the most sensible thing to do, strategically, but anyway - and a Mysterious Personage wrestles with him all night, and Wrenches his Thigh. Dawn comes up, and the Mysterious Personage says cripes, time I was off (rather like the trolls in The Hobbit), and Jacob is left bemused and limping. And so the Israelites refrain from eating the gid ha-nashe to this day.

Which, of course, is the ideal time for the post about Sewing, because the gid ha-nashe is identified by rabbinic tradition with the sciatic nerve, and we don't use it for sewing Torahs. We use other gid - "sinew" - tendons, usually - animal tendons, of course, not people ones, spun with glue (more about that).

( So here goes... )

Et voila!