New Scribe Settles in Bay Area

JWeekly.com

The inscribed parchment makes them holy –– the Torah scrolls, and the biblical passages contained in mezuzahs and tefillin — and no one in the Bay Area understands that better than Elad Rozenfeld.

The region’s only full-time sofer, or scribe, has set up shop in Palo Alto, where he’s rolling up his sleeves and rolling out the scrolls.

Rozenfeld, 25, spends his days at his desk, which resembles a drafting table, examining the parchments inside mezuzahs and tefillin, writing new parchments, and repairing damaged Torahs.

“People can just drop off their mezuzahs and tefillin, and in most cases have it back the same day,” he says. A Torah, for obvious reasons, will take longer.

Jewish law requires that they all be checked periodically for wear and tear. “A mezuzah can become damaged from sunlight, heat or water,” he says. “In some cases it can be fixed; in others, it cannot.”

The work is not easy. For example, the four sections of biblical text found inside a tefillin box have to be written in precise order. If even a single letter is not right, there is no correction fluid allowed. The sofer must start over.

That’s why a good sofer has to have more going on than mere calligraphy skills.

“The first thing is a dedication to Judaism, to Jewish life and a recognition of the holiness of the task,” says Rabbi Yosef Levin of Chabad of Greater South Bay, who counts himself as a fan of Rozenfeld’s. “It’s an art, but not just as art. It’s related to sacred writing.”

Levin met Rozenfeld and his wife, Sarah Leah, when the couple visited the Bay Area over Passover. They were living in Brooklyn with their infant son and had heard good things about California.

They were not disappointed. “We fell in love with the community and the area,” recalls Rozenfeld. “We liked the weather, the people and the general atmosphere. Then we found out that there wasn’t a sofer living in the Bay Area and that all work was being sent out.”

Rozenfeld’s interest in the art of the scribe goes back to his youth in Johannesburg, South Africa. Brought up in a traditional household, he liked to draw as a child. Once in yeshiva, he found himself fascinated by the letters of the Torah, from the first alef to the last tav.

“I started to draw the letters, and that’s where it started,” he says. “The Hebrew letters are beautiful, and I was very drawn to the spiritual aspect of that through my hands.”

He later moved to Brooklyn’s largely Orthodox neighborhood of Crown Heights, where he trained under a master sofer for nearly six years. Rozenfeld eventually received smicha, or ordination, from Vaad Mishmereth STaM, an Israel-based academy that certifies sofers.

If to the uninitiated every Torah scroll looks like the same black letters on the same white parchment, Rozenfeld sees a rainbow’s worth of unique qualities.

“Each sofer was different,” he says. “Therefore each Torah has its own charm.”

To write an entire Torah scroll can take up to nine months. Though Rozenfeld has worked on dozens, including some scrolls dating back to the 17th century, he hasn’t yet been commissioned to write a complete Torah.

As a Rozenfeld booster, Levin thinks the new sofer will manage to grow his business in time, drawing on local need and beyond.

“He’s been here a month and people really like him,” Levin says. “In general people want to work with someone they like. If someone wants to fix or commission a mezuzah or tefillin it’s easier now. It’s really going to help.”

Elad Rozenfeld can be reached via e-mail at bayareascribe@gmail.com or by calling (347) 489-3913.