The Jerusalem Scribe: Kalman Gavriel

As part of my mission to introduce you to emerging Jewish artists, allow me to introduce you to Kalman Gavriel Delmoor, better known as The Jerusalem Scribe.

I’m sure you’ll be inspired by his powerful journey of self-discovery through art and Torat Eretz Israel and how he charmingly imparts his passion for Torah to Jews from all walks of life.

(Personal note - we did a collab on this Torah mantel that’s used in the US army- I saw this photo of a ‘psukim tree of life’ on Kalman Gavriel’s website and reimagined it as a camouflage Torah mantel for Dr. Neuwirth.)

Me: How did you get to this niche…? Not how did you get to safrus, but- how did you get into this art form… How did you become The Jerusalem Scribe?

Kalman Gavriel: No idea! I was raised in Minneapolis, in a Modern Orthodox blue collar community. My parents are baalei teshuva, they brought me up with their love and heart and dedication- those are the big middas I got from them.

They kind of gave my siblings and I over to the community. They realized that Jewish education is the most important thing.

The Rabbis were influential in shaping us. I finished high school, I wasn’t the best student, hahah, I kind of have ADD… I went to study in a small yeshiva in Har Nof, Israel during my gap year and here I was inspired by Yiddishkeit, spirituality, all of it!

The Torah of Eretz Israel is illuminating, colorful, flavorful and rich…!

After that first year in Israel, I decided I wanted to learn another year. I wasn’t serious, I was just a kid! I actually had a Rabbi who said that a good Shana Alef is a midlife crisis come early…

As an aside- I feel like a lot of the biggest neshamos are the misunderstood kids. They get washed out of the system which is really sad…

After Shana Alef, I switched to Ohr Somayach, which is a little more eclectic than the yeshiva in Har Nof. That was the only thing I had known, I’d never heard of the Israeli yeshiva system.

Ohr Somayach helped me bridge the gap - I love learning, but I needed something even more different.

That’s when I switched over to a hesder yeshiva and that’s where it all started to come together!
Okniel, in the south Hebron hills.

It helped me draw the connection
It was the first time I saw kids with torn jeans and long hair, but they were shtaygen and their Torah learning was on such a high level!

I was like, “Wow, this is so deep”.
I needed more color and diversity in my approach. (I wouldn’t call it Modern Orthodox. More Rav Kook, Torat Eretz Yisrael.)

I have a lot of hakaras hatov to this yeshiva - the learning has to affect you. It’s not dry notes.
I realized my personal learning and avodat Hashem are the most important things to me.

It was there that I got introduced to Safrus.

At that time I was in my 3rd year. At that time I had a lot of ratzon.

I hadn’t yet applied to colleges, my dad has a business background, I thought I would start a business… I was trying to figure it out…

At that point, I had a friend who learned safrus
He was writing Megillah Esther. Megillat Esther is a good starting point because Hashem’s name is not mentioned in the entire Megillah. So it doesn’t have the stringencies and difficulties of Shem Hashem.
When I saw his ksav, I was blown away!

It was one of those watershed moments.
It shook me.
I became obsessed.
I was like, “I need to learn this”.

I went back to the yeshiva, I convinced one of the Rabbis (he had taken a course in safrus) to teach me.

He was a huge spiritual mentor, mashpia for me, he is one of my Rebbes, ad hayom.

We learned slowly, one Halacha and one letter. One Halacha and one letter.
It all goes after the beginning.

He gave me a huge inspiration -

We’re not just artists and not just lamdanim, but a connection between the 2 worlds.
Safrus is an art form and a spiritual practice.

After a year, I had to learn from other sofrim.
What happened was, is that my art form had to develop on its own.

My writing is becoming more textbook as time goes on. It took 5-6 years for me to do large pieces.

I would try to practice every day. I would write a passuk that inspired me on a little klaf and a little design. I loved it, I started calling it my holy hobby, keeping me out of trouble…It was that year that I officially made Aliya and drafted into the army.

In the army, I didn’t have the attention span to work on megillahs. At that stage I realized how much I love this practice. It was almost a meditation for me, a millennial, ADD, sensory type. I don’t like reading books for hours. It was the first time in my life, I managed to write a passuk for half an hour and I was totally focused!

That was the sea that split.

It dawned on me when I was in the army, that I could make this into a profession. I could not be a professional Sofer Stam, I’m slow and make mistakes. But I could make this into an art form:

Blending Torah, authenticity and personal creativity into an art form. And to also teach and do workshops.
Workshops has hands-on Torah learning…Workshops have a big affect on me.

Listen to this idea:

You can hear the Torah,
you can read the Torah
or you can write the Torah.

Think about what goes on during the Torah reading in shul- You hear the reading of the Torah, the Baal Torah actually reads it, which is a deeper connection, but the Sofer actually writes the Torah, which is the deepest connection in my opinion.

The Sofer - has the world of kavannah.
Lechaven - to direct- I am directing my attention to the exclusion of everything else.
If a Sofer doesn’t have intention when he writes Shem Hashem, the whole mezuzah becomes passul.

That’s where the journey began about ten years ago.

I think of the world of art.
Art is a complex thing.
Art is amazing.
Art is universal.
Art is non-threatening.
Art can be interpretive.

It’s more in the world of Bina, the remez, like take what you want from it…
I find it a very powerful tool, to connect, I’m not there yet, you should bless me.
It’s a fine line.
I’m more of a vibe person, I have a pretty strong intuition for things.

A lot of art is shtuyot, its emptiness.
I think that’s what a lot of this post modern art is.

I think where I would like to go, I try to be as authentic as I can, I trust my own intuition in this process.
I try to take an existing idea, a passuk, and try to show it…
Torah is en sof… I have endless gold material to work with and be a shaliach to express it.
In a way that can excite a person etc. to illuminate an idea.

The process- what’s the passuk? what’s the design?
Say, “Modeh Ani” is it a sunrise, a circle, warm, based on the concept.
I try to stay true to that concept.
I don’t invent things.

So with customers that’s how I work- “What’s the passuk, or what’s the theme. And- what will the design be…?” That’s the process for dividing these 2 points.

I like for my own things, to build it systematically.
I don’t know exactly how it’ll look like when it’s done…
I like to trust the process.
Say, there are 10 different psukim.
That’s my favorite, because I feel like there is whee Hashem is helping me with them…

Each of us has a yeud…
I remember one birthright group participant said:
“You have such steady hands, you could been a brain surgeon!”
But I said, “Yeah but there are so many brain surgeons…”

Me: How do people find you?

Kalman Gavriel: I’m in a new studio with a storefront in the old city…

People know me through the old city, and also on social media, on my Instagram.

Me: How did you get such a cool name- “The Jerusalem Scribe”?

Kalman Gavriel: The name “The Jerusalem Scribe” is really big, it’s a huge responsibility. Honestly, I don’t perceive myself as THE Jerusalem Scribe… It’s a concept I’d like to aspire to. I would like to turn it into a brand with true Torah integrity.

Now I’m building a little boutique line of little products.

The direction for me is to take on more exclusive custom orders and also establish a product line, as a business model.

Me: Tell us about your latest projects. I saw a Bar Mitzvah event on your Instagram.

Kalman Gavriel: I’ve done workshops and I started doing events.

I’ve seen lots of people giving out chachke gifts at events. I’ve found people who want more authentic gifts for the attendees, so I set up a booth, and I write people’s names, passuks.

I feel like davka in Eretz Yisrael, everyone is craving Hashem.

And for people who are less involved, it’s a way to interact in a more nonchalant way.

I saw that I wrote emunah on a klaf for someone… kept it in his pocket for 10 years!

So my latest event was at a Bar Mitzvah for a very wealthy guy in Bnei Brak. I wrote a Perek Tehillim, people helped me complete it, and then they donated it to an army base.

Me: Any closing words, a story?

Kalman Gavriel: Sure. Here’s a simple story-

I’m from Minnesota, the Midwest, I went back after the army service.

I had decided that this was my direction— Art.

I spoke to the middle school art teacher, Mrs. Weismann, a giyoress, very eccentric, fun, and a deep person.

Once, she was at an art fair with lots of tents. Each artist sat in a tent and displayed his/her art outside the tent. So when she saw a painting of an ordinary landscape, she got very emotional and started crying. She saw another landscape outside the same tent, and also started crying. She thought, “There’s something up with this art, it’s not me, I’m ok.” She approached the artist and asked if she had a clue why she cried when viewing the landscapes. The artist looked at her in shock, “that’s crazy, because when I painted these paintings - I was crying…”