Sêfer Torá: a escrita feminina entre tradição e transgressão

Abstract

For most of the history of the handwritten transmission of the Torah, the office of scribe was assumed only by men, who received the divine commandment to copy the Torah. Women were forbidden from participating in this tradition, due to a Talmudic prohibition. However, at the turn of the 21st century, under the influence of changes in the civil status of women in Western societies, especially from the 19th century onwards, this prohibition began to be questioned. In light of this, some women entered the office of scribes of the sacred book, embracing all the questions and challenges of this great rupture within tradition. In this dissertation, we seek to investigate the role of female scribes (sofrot) in the production of Sefer Torah in contemporary times, based on an iconic project that illustrates the transformations that have occurred in the last 25 years: Women’s Torah. This project, linked to the Kadima Reconstructionist Community of Seattle, culminated in the completion of the first Torah written collectively by a group of women scribes in 2010. The scope of this investigation is outlined by the contextualization of scribal activity within Judaism, by the relationship between revealed tradition and historical changes, and by the development of Jewish feminism, which has promoted the inclusion of women in religious practices. To present the movement of women scribes, this work is based on bibliographical sources and the testimony of scribes Shoshana Gugenheim and Rachel Reichhardt, who participated in the Women’s Torah project. Based on the scenario under analysis, it is clear that the movement of women scribes is incipient, but is growing. Female ritual writing still encounters barriers within Jewish orthodoxy, but is accepted by other branches of Judaism.