Messianic sofrot…

http://soferet.webs.com/aboutme.htm

Oy…

A messianic soferet (who thinks the plural of “soferet” is “soferetim”).

Okay, people. This is a good example of why you need to know who your scribe was. This person’s work will probably look exactly the same as a Jew’s work. Looking at the site, you might think it was completely okay – and then you see words like “messianic,” and you start to wonder.

And yes, exactly the same principle applies for Orthodox Jews who look at my site. They might think it was completely okay, and buy from me, and that would be just as bad. This is why a) I try to make sure my clients are aware of the consequences of buying from me b) I write blog posts like this. Consumer education, it is good.

(Another warning sign, by the way, is the mezuzot on paper – selling paper mezuzot is not something done by people who care about Jews. The implausibly low prices are another red flag – if you see sta”m going for really low prices, someone’s getting screwed, and that someone is probably you.)

When buying mezuzot, or tefillin, or megillot, or sifrei torah – BE AWARE.

The sifrei kodesh are intimately connected to our communal identity. In having communal identity, we necessarily define some sorts of people as not members of our community. By their nature, we want our sifrei kodesh to be written by people inside our communities. Given any Jew, there exists a scribe who is outside that Jew’s communal boundaries; therefore that Jew could buy scrolls that aren’t kosher for her to use, and if she isn’t an informed consumer, there’s a fair chance that she will, by accident.

This example came my way because she’s female, but there have been Messianic scribes out there for simply ages (in our generation, of the Christian and Chabad varieties, but for a couple thousand years before that also). I often point to them as evidence that I, the Lady Scribe, am not the first person to make scroll-buying a dicey process for Orthodox Jews – scroll-buying, like used-car-buying or house-buying, is a dicey business, and that’s the way of the world. Be aware.

Mirrored from hasoferet.com.