Article Contributed on: 3/10/2008 2:01:50 PM
Learn about the holy work of preparing a Jewish sacred text with Rabbi
Kevin Hale at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 19 at Congregation Beth Evergreen, 2981 Bergen Peak Drive, Evergreen. The public is invited to attend this free Ellen Diesenhof Scholar-in-Residence Event in celebration of Purim.
Rabbi Hale has completed a Megilat Esther, a handwritten scroll with the story of Esther, for Congregation Beth Evergreen, donated in the memory of Ellen Diesenhof, a beloved teacher and congregant, by her family and friends.
Rabbi Hale lives and works as a sofer, a Torah scribe, in Northampton, Massachusetts. A graduate of Yale University, he was a craftsman and toymaker before enrolling in the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where he was ordained in 1997. After serving as a congregational rabbi in rural Ohio and in Massachusetts, he followed his dream of training to be Torah scribe. He studied for four years with Dr. Eric Ray, a master scribe and world-renowned authority on Torah scrolls. In 2003 Rabbi Hale had the honor of restoring a 250-year-old Westminster scroll.
Rabbi Hale also serves as the part-time Jewish Chaplain the Veteran's Administration Medical Center in Leeds, MA, and is director of the Ray Torah Institute.