[NFBJ] Scribes interested in learning about blindness

Thu Aug 20 01:41:08 UTC 2026

When I first started losing significant parts of my vision, I used one of the large prints, Kory and a Ruby to further enlarge it.  It was awkward, but it worked for me or at least I made it work…. They always made sure that there was a convenient option for me to handle all the moving parts.

My Congregation has been incredibly supportive and has gone out of their way to make unacceptable and welcoming place for me and my family.  I have been able to volunteer in the kitchen, although I’m pretty sure one of the older ladies watches nervously every time I use a knife   Lol.

However, I’m referring to the fact that the 816 page siddur sim  shalom in print translates to usually three or more volumes in braille  then you have the Machzurim and so on…  for the small two shelf bookshelves that we have lining our walls, it would take an entire shelf unit for one siddur and mocchzor set

Not meaning to be argumentative. I’m not feeling well the past couple days so I know my tone is going to be off.  I apologize in advance.  Just trying to clarify the situation.

We actually have several people with disabilities in our synagogue, which I love!  They recently recently made an interesting change, adding tables in front of each room of chairs and having fewer rows of chairs just so they could accommodate wheelchairs or walk and give me a place to put anything I may need.  too bad you don’t live in Pennsylvania! I cannot recommend my Synagogue enough.

-Rachael Everhart Hudson (She/Her)
 267-268-5780
"Do the hard things while they are still easy... The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."  -Lao Tzu
________________________________
From: NFBJ <nfbj-bounces at nfbnet.org> on behalf of Andre Zelvin via NFBJ <nfbj at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, 19 August 2026 21:24:15
To: in Judaism NFB <nfbj at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Andre Zelvin <l.andre.zelvin at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NFBJ] Scribes interested in learning about blindness

Rachel,
I’d like to encourage you to rethink your response to that query about getting a copy of the siddur, I assume it’s the one used by your congregation. First of all, it’s a bit of an exaggeration to say you’d need a whole bookcase. When I had more room and more passion and a multitude of projects,  I had full sets of prayer books for different denominations from JBI and there wasn’t one that needed a whole bookcase. I think mostly they’d take up one shelf in a bbbbookcase of rather typical width. I think their tanach in Hebrew took a little more than two shelves.  I also ddon’t see why it would be on you to donate a bookcase, but if this is an impoverished comgregation, you can for sure find something on Amazon that might not be the most attractive but which could hold all the texts you might want to access while there, with room for other things the congragation uses for sighted congregants. I’m sure I still have links to some. If you are uncomfortable with that being done just for you, do note that she spoke of it as something for anyone who might come and benefit. I do have a few adjacent concerns. I remember finding out that a synagogue I’d been going to for services for a while, actually had one of the JBI siddurim, presumably the one their congregation used. But there was a piece missing. There was no system for letting people know it was there who might use it, so I had no clue. Also, those JBI  books are rather bulky and difficult to handle while participating in a congregation. Really, they need to come with an instruction sheet for what kind of stand might be needed to hold them, and ideas for making sure people knew where they were and could access them easily. If that’s done in a more public way and regularly, like the Rabbi announcing every service where they aare, where an appropriate stand is, etc. then it sure would send the message more widely than any use the books actually got, that Blind people are real and are welcome and that our participation is expected. I remember one place I went to, the only synagogue in the neighborhood I was living in, and deciding with a partner to go there for the holdays. It was awkward because I had the relvant JBI Machzor which we wheeled there in a shopping cart and I think there could have been a better way but the rabbi’s way of dealing with me was to give me a table and put us sitting off to the side away from everyone else. What I discovered immediately, having totally different page numbers was that I just couldn’t use them to be in sync with that congregation. So, looking ahead to Yom Kippur, I spent hours sitting with my sighted partner and the Rabbi’s own list of pages she was going to be using, and mapping out the corresponding pages, and then also realizing I still couldn’t reference our list and then find the right page, I asked the rabbi if she could announce the braille pages also. It took a lot out of me to ask for something like that, being as it was only for me, and the response wasn’t fun. basicly she hemmed and hawed and finally said she was afraid it would bother the other congregants but she’d give it a try for one service. When she did, it sure worked for me, and afterwards she concluded that nobody seemed to be bothered, so she’d continue with it. It’s that attitude, though, that is why one can walk into any temple or synagogue and maybe see one visibly disabled person.
Anway I”m writing too much, that all was just to say, in my idea of these books coming with instructions, a nice addition would be a map of how the page numbers for prayers in the Braille volumes mapped onto the print books they use there. It’s a very do-able project.I also think there might be room to discuss making available volumes that aren’t so large and clumsy. it’s one thing to manage the hard cover books at home and another to figure out how even to hold them and, as you pointed out, how to make room for them in a synagogue. The hard covers may protect the books but if people would be more likely to use them in more manageable soft cover versions, isn’t that the real goal?
Y’know what else would belong on that theoretical bookcase? Large print volumes. One thing I know for sure is that in any congregation with a decent number of old people, there are people standing there holding prayer books they cannot read, but being perhaps ashamed of that, or just uncomfortable being seen without one. Such a significant number of older adults struggle to read even standard print, and many would need much better targetted lighting than most sanctuaries offer, that it just isn’t possible that all the old people can read the books they are given. I have an image of orchestral stands, the ones with lights on top so that musicians can see their music in darkened theaters. Or maybe all the people who can’t read the siddurs the way they are, just stay home. That would be something to study and learn about.
On Aug 18, 2026, at 1:22 PM, Rachael D Hudson via NFBJ <nfbj at nfbnet.org> wrote:

Also, interestingly, my Rabbi has been leading the conversation within our synagogue on how to make the services more accessible so that I can participate more fully on Friday nights and such.

One of our matriarch in our community, who is obviously on the board as well, came to me and asked me if she could get a braille copy of Cador Simms shalom to keep the Synagogue for use and that of anyone else who may happen to need it.  I told her that I absolutely loved her for asking I would have to donate an entire bookcase to the synagogue just to hold it.

We had a good laugh, and the rabbi encouraged me for a personal accommodation with our Synagogue, use a braille device.  For him, the mental health aspect of being able to follow along and be seen as a fully capable member of the community is very important.  So I charge my charging block overnight and make sure the braille device is fully charged, and then it gets plugged into the charging block just before candlelighting, and it will last through Shabbat. At least through Shabbat morning.  it gives me two services and that means a lot

Still, if I were to visit another Synagogue, I would simply bring along the small booklet on which I have railed just the major prayers and not be able to participate in the readings themselves.

-Rachael Everhart Hudson (She/Her)
267-268-5780
"Do the hard things while they are still easy... The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."  -Lao Tzu
________________________________
From: Daveed Mandell <daveedmandell at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 18 August 2026 12:38:05
To: hudson.rachaeld at gmail.com <hudson.rachaeld at gmail.com>
Cc: nfbj at nfbnet.org <nfbj at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [NFBJ] Scribes interested in learning about blindness

Shalom:

I agree with you, Rachel. I prefer a Braille only Torah scroll. I think that as blind people, we need to reach out to all Halachic authorities throughout the Jewish world. I think some things need to be changed.

I'm sure you know that some Orthodox Jews are now riding scooters to synagogue. You might have also heard that there are Orthodox Rabbis who have come out as gay. You probably know that for reasons of Pikuach Nefesh,
Orthodox Jewish diabetics use such equipment as glcometers  on Shabbat. Of course, people who use wheelchairs often have power chairs with motors.

I would like to see Orthodox Halachic authorities allow the use of refreshable Braille devices in Synagogues, because having to work with multiple volumes at one's seat in the synagogue is quite difficult at best and takes up a lot of room. You can put hundreds of volumes of sacred texts on a refreshable Braille device.

Yes, I think that both Orthodox and Conservative authorities should be consulted and should consider some extremely revolutionary changes to make disabled Jews much more welcome than we are now. I am very excited about some of the trends that we are witnessing. I think it's time for disabled Jews to speak out, to organize and to be heard and respected and taken seriously by all Jewish movements.

Kol tuv,

Daveed
                                       Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 18, 2026, at 7:18 AM, Rachael D Hudson <hudson.rachaeld at gmail.com> wrote:

                                         good morning,
                                         It's very interesting to me as well. I personally like Rabbi Lenny's approach using just the braille itself.. I will definitely be wanting to ask these gentlemen questions of my own…

                                         For instance, we don't touch the Taurus role because we don't want to smudge the letters – especially the Divine name! G-D forbid! So I'm very curious about their plans and look forward to learning more from them. I also greatly value Rabbi Lenny Sarko's input on this discussion and on any meeting we might schedule with the group here.

                                          -Rachael Everhart Hudson (She/Her)
                                          267-268-5780
                                          "Do the hard things while they are still easy... The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." -Lao Tzu
                                        From: Daveed Mandell <daveedmandell at gmail.com>

Sent: Tuesday, 18 August 2026 10:13:08

To: in Judaism NFB <nfbj at nfbnet.org>

Cc: Rachael D Hudson <hudson.rachaeld at gmail.com>; nfbj at nfbnet.org <nfbj at nfbnet.org>

Subject: Re: [NFBJ] Scribes interested in learning about blindness

                                         Shalom:

This is very exciting! Torah reading is something I have longed to do all my life. I was just recently thinking about a Torah with both print and Braille. Wouldn't that be something? By the way, does anyone have information on Braille trope signs for both Torah and Haftarah chanting?

Kol tuv,

Daveed

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 17, 2026, at 4:32 PM, Rachael D Hudson via NFBJ <nfbj at nfbnet.org> wrote:

Shalom y'all,

A friend recently met a group of scribes at a maker space in Minnesota. He connected them with me in the hopes that I could pass them on to this group to help begin facilitating conversation. It's my understanding that these are orthodox or ultra orthodox scribes who are inspired by Rabbi Lenny's approach to a braille Torres scroll, but want to create something with the traditionally prescribed in and so on. It is their hope that we can also perhaps put together a call in which they can learn from users of Hebrew Braille… Obviously, sometime after the high holidays.

I agreed to send their message (below)

A new project is exploring the creation of sacred Jewish texts that combine traditional handwritten Hebrew with Hebrew Braille, beginning with a prototype Megillat Esther and working towards a complete, kosher Torah scroll with Braille. The goal is to make communal ritual texts more accessible to blind Jews while preserving the rigorous requirements of Jewish scribal tradition. The project is feedback and suggestions from the blind community to help shape the work, which is being developed through the Kedusha Project:
                                          www.thekedushaproject.org<http://www.thekedushaproject.org><http://www.thekedushaproject.org<http://www.thekedushaproject.org>><http://www.thekedushaproject.org<http://www.thekedushaproject.org><http://www.thekedushaproject.org<http://www.thekedushaproject.org>>> <http://www.thekedushaproject.org>

-Rachael Everhart Hudson (She/Her)

267-268-5780

"Do the hard things while they are still easy... The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." -Lao Tzu

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