The Torah scroll is the most sacred ritual object in the Jewish tradition, and plays a central role in Jewish prayer and learning. Yet many people know little about where Torah scrolls come from, how they are made, the methods and materials involved in their production, and the work of the individuals who perform this sacred task. Women have traditionally been excluded from being Hebrew scribes; Rabbi Motzkin is one of about a dozen women in the world who have written all or part of a Torah scroll. She will not only illuminate the process by which Torah scrolls are made, but reflect on the experience of women in relation to the Torah making endeavor.

Rabbi Linda Motzkin has served since 1986 as co-rabbi, with her husband Rabbi Jonathan Rubenstein, of Temple Sinai in Saratoga Springs, New York. Rabbi Motzkin received her bachelor’s degree in Hebrew at the University of California at Berkeley, and her master’s degree and rabbinical ordination at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, OH, where she also received, in 2011, her Doctor of Divinity, honorus causa. She is the author of the four-volume URJ Adult Hebrew-language curriculum: Aleph Isn’t Tough, Aleph Isn’t Enough, Bet is for B’reishit and Tav is for Torah, as well as co-author of The First Hebrew Primer and Prayerbook Hebrew the Easy Way from EKS Publishing Co. She is also a Judaic artist whose unique Hebrew calligraphic works on her own hand-made parchment have been featured in shows and galleries; some of her pieces can be viewed at https://breadandtorah.org/artwork/