Because I was writing this out anyway....

...you get to read some Useful Things To Know About Knives.

Sharp knives are an essential part of the scribe's kit, and sharp knives are dangerous. Here are some things to remember.

• Store knives safely. Don't just throw them into a box with your other stuff. You don't want to come across one unexpectedly whilst rummaging.


• You can plunge knives into an eraser to keep them shielded.


• Whilst working, make sure your knife is in a safe place - somewhere you can't knock into it accidentally.


• Carry knives pointing downwards and wear shoes. Don't carry them pointing upwards, forwards, or towards you.


• Always cut away from yourself. Ask yourself: if this blade shot out of control, what would it stab into?


• When cutting down, cut down onto some kind of cutting board. You don't want to slice into something important by accident.


• Make sure the cutting board can't slip (see above re shooting out of control).


• Double-edged razor blades are doubly dangerous because they cut both ways. (They're also thinner than single-edged blades, which makes them a better tool. But more dangerous.)


• When disposing of blades, wrap them up safely. You never know who may eventually rummage through the garbage, and you might hurt a cute little furry animal. Never ever ever toss an unwrapped blade into the bin.


• And from bitter experience: find out beforehand where to go if you do hurt yourself. You do not want to be messing about with your insurance if your hand is spouting blood.

And if you are storing your awl in your pencil pot, store it with the point down.

On a related note: different knife brands actually are different. I like Medicut blades or Havel blades. They're stainless steel, and they hold an edge for a good long time. They aren't cheap, but cheap brands generally hold an edge for about five seconds, which is very annoying - you get what you pay for here,and it makes a difference. You can also get carbon steel blades, which are even sharper but have a tendency to rust, and since they get wetly inky when you use them for quill work, they get rusty, which is also annoying.

And on a philosophical note: I think there are three stages with tools. The first stage is the one where your skills are so un-honed that it doesn't really matter if you have bad tools, because even if you had good tools you wouldn't do good work. The second stage is the one where if you have good tools, you can do good work. The third stage is the one where you're so good at handling your tools that you can do good work even if you have bad tools (and awesome work if you have good tools). I'm in the second stage, I think. I still can't cut good quills with anything but a really sharp blade.

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Have you ever noticed just how much of Genesis deals with Yosef? Fourteen out of fifty chapters, I make it. I'm approaching the end of the book, and I feel like I've been writing about Yosef forever.

It wouldn't matter so much, except that I find Yosef truly, truly objectionable, in so very many ways. Granted most of our ancestors had their bad sides, but Yosef's really awful. So why does he get so much space?

A psychologist friend of mine teaches the Yosef story in conjunction with the concept of individuation. She shows that if you take various concepts of a mature individual, Yosef hardly matches up to any of them. He stays pretty much immature and insubstantial right through to the end of the story, although he does grow up a bit towards the end.

I've been teaching my Purim bat mitzvah student an article by R' Aaron Lichtenstein, dealing with Vashti and Esther and discussing which was the stronger character. He doesn't like the notion that Vashti was the strong character because she asserted herself, and he demonstrates at length that Esther was the stronger character, with more power and more freedom, because she was able to define herself and set her own boundaries and expectations, whereas Vashti didn't have any self-worth and defined herself only by how other people saw her.

Well, whatever you think of that particular application, the concept is interesting - that true strength and true freedom come from inside.

The Yosef story comes right at the end of Genesis, right before the children of Israel get into being rescued from slavery by God. In the beginning of Exodus, the children of Israel get enslaved by Pharoah, who expects silk purses from sows' ears (more or less). They have a rotten time, and eventually God wangles their escape from Egypt. All jolly good.

We often say that the exodus from Egypt represents Israel's maturation from slavery into a free
people. In a status sense, yes. They weren't slaves any more. But still, every time God takes his attention away from the Israelites for a second, they start straying and going haywire. The Yosef story, and in particular its placement right at the end of Genesis before the Exodus, is making me think that the Exodus represents physical liberation, but the Yosef story represents emotional liberation. Yosef wasn't free inside, and his story is terribly unsatisfactory. Perhaps Israel's story is so unsatisfactory because they weren't free inside either.

We remember how God freed us from Egypt several times a day - even in grace after meals. It's an
integral part of being a praying Jew, and also rather a confusing one, since what exactly was so great about the Exodus that we need to remember it all day, every day, and more on festivals? Perhaps one could take it as a reminder that one of the main functions of religion is to guide people towards being healthy functioning adults in healthy functioning societies, and that we all have some work to do on that.

(no subject)

Here's something seriously impressive.

I can't make up my mind which is more fabulous - the craftsmanship, or the concept. People who like music, leading services, or bookbinding should all go see.