Art and halacha a good fit for Rabbi Uzvolk

SUZANNE BELLING

Surrounded by turkey and goose feathers or bamboo, from which he fashions his quills, and bottles of ink, he puts the finishing touches to a mezuzah. He is able to write a sefer Torah from the beginning, create tefillin and repair, check and write mezuzot.

“Although I have given up my part-time kodesh teaching career, I know I will never be bored and lack something to do,” Rabbi Uzvolk said.

Being a scribe requires a variety of skills – fine-motor co-ordination, an artistic bent and a thorough knowledge of Hebrew and halacha.

His father, the late Benny Uzvolk, recognised his son’s talents. While Rabbi Uzvolk was a student at Torah Academy, one of the first intake of pupils at the school’s inception, his father sent him to the Yeoville Recreation Centre for adult art lessons.

It was a varied journey for Rabbi Uzvolk since matriculating. He toured art galleries with his parents. His formal studies were at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he obtained a B Sc degree in computer science and economics.

For a year, he studied at the Har Etzion yeshiva near Efrat in Israel and at Shilo, as he believes “the frontline of Jewish survival is in the classroom”.

He furthered his Jewish studies at the Chabad Tzemach Tzedek in Israel and the Kollel Yad Shaul in Johannesburg under Rabbi Boruch Grossnass.

He obtained smicha from Rabbi Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg in Jerusalem and for many years taught half days at his alma mater, Torah Academy, founded by his late father-in-law, Rabbi Nachman Bernhard. He is married to Laia, Rabbi and Joan Bernhard’s daughter, and they have eight children.

Included in his career was being youth rabbi at Yeshiva College, associate rabbi to Rabbi Yossy Goldman at Sydenham-Highlands North Hebrew Congregation, being rabbi of the Beit Mordechai Shul in Gallo Manor and teaching at the high and primary schools at TA from 1989 to 2015.

“Two years ago, I was burnt out and lost my passion for teaching. I needed a second job to supplement my income and strongly considered going back into computers. But then I decided to combine my love of art with halacha.”

It was a tough road. He studied at the Va’ad Mishmereth Stam in Israel and “it wasn’t so simple”. He was given both oral and practical exams, but found he was not totally proficient enough to qualify and “went back to the drawing board”, assisted by Rabbi Ryan Goldstein, who writes ketubot, and scribe Rabbi Yisroel Drutman.

A sofer cannot make one mistake as the Sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzot have to be perfect or they are rendered pasul (not kosher). “Sometimes if there is a letter which cannot be easily identified, we bring in a child, who has good eyesight, to judge.

“There are so many fields – preparing the parchment, the ink, the quill, making the battim – boxes which house the tefillin, preparing the straps, binding the parshot in the tehillin, and mezuzot, writing and checking. Each one of these areas is a speciality in its own right.

“The same can be said about life and I am grateful I have found this particular vocation – a path which is both holy and productive, artistic, yet exact.”

• The other six scribes in Johannesburg are Rabbi Chaim Klein, Rabbi Dov Kazilsky, Rabbi Simcha Frenkel, Rabbi Gary Braude, Rabbi Yisroel Drutman and Rabbi Yehoshua Abrahamson.