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Illustration taken from “Tradition” - Life
in the Shtetl - ULPS 1980.
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Elisha ben Abuyah said: He who learns when a child to what is he compared? To ink written on a fresh sheet, and he who learns when an old man, what is he like? Ink written on an erased sheet.(Avot 5:20)
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Said Rava the son of M’chaysa, in the name of Rav Chama, son of Gurya in the name of Rav: If all the seas were ink, and all the fields were overgrown with quills and all the heavens were folios and all the people scribes- they would still be insufficient to descibe the complexities of administering a government. (Shabbat 11a)
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Given the influence the scribe has had on the development of Judaism it is not unsurprising that some have waxed poetical about the sofer and his craft. This page attempts to bring together some of those literary gems. If anyone has a favourite that they would like me to include, please contact me and I will add them.
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Eternal Strength is His
beyond description -
Were all the skies parchment
were all the forests quills
Were all the seas ink
and all the gathered waters
The dwellers of the earth, scribes
and recorders of initial letters*
[still they could not record]
The glory of the Master of Heaven
and Ruler of earth.
* initial letters of the books of the torah
(Akdamut Milin verses 5-9)
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It was taught - R. Meir said that when I [i.e. R. Meir] came near to R. Yishmael, he said to me, ‘my son, what is your work?’ I said to him ‘I am a scribe.’ He said to me, ‘my son, be careful in your work for your work is heavenly work - perhaps you would omit one letter or add one letter, and we will find that you have destroyed the whole world.’ (Eruvin 13a)
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Mordechai Pinchas
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