Women's Torah: writing at the limit of (im)possibility

Abstract

The Torah is the founding book of the Jewish tradition, and as such, it was and still is transmitted from generation to generation in the same way and with the same materials as in ancient times. The continuity of the parchment manuscript finds its basis in the sacred character of the book, which is emphasized by rules directed to the maintainers of the tradition: the scribes. For most of this history, the office of scribe was undertaken only by men, who received the divine mandate to copy the Torah manuscript. For women, the possibility of subscribing to this tradition was censored, due to a Talmudic prohibition. This prohibition began to be questioned and some women entered the profession of scribes of the sacred book, embracing all the questions and challenges of this endeavor. This article tells the story of the Women’s Torah project, which brought together six female scribes who wrote a Sefer Torah for a Jewish Synagogue in Seattle.