In a previous post, we shared some photographs of Mezuzah cases and mentioned the fact that my husband now writes Mezuzot. Being able to write a Mezuzah is actually an art with a tremendous amount of laws associated with every detail of the craft. From the parchment that the text is written on, to the specific quill used for the writing. The type of ink used to the formation of each letter, the details are numerous and the laws even more so. By laws I mean Torah laws of course.
Grip for Holding a Quill 
Quill in a bottle of ink
It has been an honour to observe my husband’s journey to become a Sofer, a Torah scribe. The path has had many kinks, bends in the road, hurdles and set backs. One of the first obstacles came when the Sofer who began to teach my husband took ill and was no longer able to teach. Not only was it a great loss when this first teacher returned his soul to Hashem, but the sudden end to that particular path created an array of challenges. Firstly, since I knew the Sofer, who was a special person, he had offered us an incredible rate and was prepared to help my husband to get from a rabbi with an interest in this ancient art of writing the sacral texts in Hebrew, to become a Torah scribe who was beginning to earn from his writing.
What were we to do when not only was this special teacher no longer able to teach but the incredible price he had quoted could not be matched by anyone? The journey has been interesting in deed!
Finally we heard about a certain Sofer and teacher who is an expert in everything he does, now the challenge became how to fund the lessons. To begin with, lacking the additional cost for these lessons together with having to travel quite a distance to and from the teacher, my husband began learning the basics with a young Sofer who lived in our neighbourhood. Although my husband mastered learning the necessary Hallachot (Torah laws) to begin writing, the young Sofer lacked the experience to teach how to actually write effectively.
One of the gifts that has come from returning to Jerusalem, has been a door opening up for my husband to learn with the expert Sofer, Dr Rabbi Michael Khanin. In the video below, we share a rare glimpse into the life and journey of Dr Rabbi Michael Khanin.
The story is an inspiring one. If you watch all the way to the end, you can see a glimpse of Dr Khanin teaching in Hebrew. Since we live in Jerusalem, that might not sound unusual. Keep in mind though, that Dr Khanin originates from Russia and did not know any Hebrew or even any of the Hebrew letters at age 30. Today he speaks a beautiful Hebrew, reads books and articles in Hebrew, writes Tefillin with a beautiful script and is truly a master of his trade.
Do share this video and post with your friends. Let us know in the comments below what inspired you about this story.