Tuesday 19 May 2026 2:15pm to 4:00pm
Faculty of Divinity Room 3
Faculty of Divinity, Sidgwick Site, off West Road, Cambridge CB3 9BSSofer STa"M (scribe), palaeographer academic, designer, and lay leader Dr Marc Michaels unlocks his PhD findings to reveal Sefer Tagin's true meaning.
About
Abstract
Sefer Tagin is an Aramaic scribal manual that alphabetically lists about 1,914 places in a Torah that should have special decoration, but has been corrupted in transmission. Dr Marc Michaels unlocks his PhD findings to reveal its true meaning; what tagin decorations really are; when and why it was written; patterns behind the letter listings; and its deep relationship to the destroyed Temple.
Speaker
Dr Marc Michaels/Mordechai Pinchas is a Sofer STa"M (scribe), palaeographer academic, designer, and lay leader. His Cambridge PhD unlocked the secrets of the scribal manual Sefer Tagin. He was awarded senior scholar status in 2022, and a fellowship from the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe in 2021. He is a Cambridge Genizah Unit volunteer, and attached to the Memorial Scrolls Trust, as a scribe and researcher.
Series
The Religious Studies seminar is a Faculty of Divinity seminar series. The convenor this term is Dr Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz.
Contact
Dr Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz