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It always feels desperately churlish to point out errors in articles about me. Journalists process a lot of information about a lot of things that aren't their own field, and sometimes they get things a bit skewy. I figure if it's so important to someone, they can email me and ask for clarification (preferably politely); better than publicly saying "Oooh, Journalist X got this-that-and-the-other WRONG HAHAHAH."
However.
On being described as "first woman to write a Torah."
I wouldn't expect most people to know or care about the difference between "first woman to write a Torah" and "first woman Torah scribe." There is a difference (writers of Torah are a subset of Torah scribes), and accordingly I never ever describe myself as that latter. And I generally append "that we know about" to the former, and sometimes "that we're proud of."
On my website I say: It seems pretty likely that at some time in history, there have been other women who have written Torahs. We know there have been women who worked alongside their sofer husbands, and who took over from them when they died, but we don't know what they were writing; it's quite possible to spend all one's time on repairs, tefillin and mezuzot. In any case, a sofer can't sign his sefer Torah, so unlike other manuscripts, we don't know who wrote most of our existing Torahs. Perhaps there were women amongst them, perhaps not. In any case, as far as we know, there are no women alive today who have written complete Torahs, and no Torahs which have been written entirely by women.
And in conversation, I say that I'm interested to hear evidence to the contrary.
It should come as a surprise to no-one that this doesn't always come across in articles. Journalism is like that.
On people being my teachers.
There are various people from whom I have learned a great deal, in particular Mordechai Pinchas, whose knowledge, philosophy, ethics, originality, skill, breadth of learning, and general awesomeness, have been and continue to be a source of awe and inspiration to me.
However, learning from someone isn't the same as them being your teacher, in the sense that being someone's teacher implies the existence of a teacher-student relationship. So for most of these people, in the sense that they would not say "She was my student," they were not my teachers. In the broader sense, in that I learned from them and respect them, they were, but I do not claim the honour of a teacher-student relationship, and when that doesn't come across in articles, it looks rather cheeky. This makes me sad.
On Going Back To England
Good grief people - it's not like "being on the other side of the Atlantic" is the same as "being dead." And I'm planning to make working trips over, anyway.
However.
On being described as "first woman to write a Torah."
I wouldn't expect most people to know or care about the difference between "first woman to write a Torah" and "first woman Torah scribe." There is a difference (writers of Torah are a subset of Torah scribes), and accordingly I never ever describe myself as that latter. And I generally append "that we know about" to the former, and sometimes "that we're proud of."
On my website I say: It seems pretty likely that at some time in history, there have been other women who have written Torahs. We know there have been women who worked alongside their sofer husbands, and who took over from them when they died, but we don't know what they were writing; it's quite possible to spend all one's time on repairs, tefillin and mezuzot. In any case, a sofer can't sign his sefer Torah, so unlike other manuscripts, we don't know who wrote most of our existing Torahs. Perhaps there were women amongst them, perhaps not. In any case, as far as we know, there are no women alive today who have written complete Torahs, and no Torahs which have been written entirely by women.
And in conversation, I say that I'm interested to hear evidence to the contrary.
It should come as a surprise to no-one that this doesn't always come across in articles. Journalism is like that.
On people being my teachers.
There are various people from whom I have learned a great deal, in particular Mordechai Pinchas, whose knowledge, philosophy, ethics, originality, skill, breadth of learning, and general awesomeness, have been and continue to be a source of awe and inspiration to me.
However, learning from someone isn't the same as them being your teacher, in the sense that being someone's teacher implies the existence of a teacher-student relationship. So for most of these people, in the sense that they would not say "She was my student," they were not my teachers. In the broader sense, in that I learned from them and respect them, they were, but I do not claim the honour of a teacher-student relationship, and when that doesn't come across in articles, it looks rather cheeky. This makes me sad.
On Going Back To England
Good grief people - it's not like "being on the other side of the Atlantic" is the same as "being dead." And I'm planning to make working trips over, anyway.