The MIKRA Research Laboratory is pleased to announce that Mordechai Vaintrob will be joining the MIKRA Lab’s Hebrew paleography team as our new Associate Paleographer and Specialist for Talmud, Halacha and Hebrew Codicology. Mordechai has a very unique background that has prepared him to bring authoritative experience to the academic fields of Talmud, Halacha, and Hebrew codicology.
ABOUT Mordechai
Mordechai is an expert in Rabbinic laws concerning the writing process of Torah scrolls, Tefillin and Mezuzahs (STaM), and in Hebrew palaeography and codicology. In addition to his academic education, Mordechai studied at orthodox Yeshivot in Jerusalem and Benei Berak for over a decade where he received a wide traditional Rabbinic education.
He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in biblical studies and Talmud from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His Master’s thesis, written under the supervision of Prof. Simcha Emanuel and Prof. Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, dealt with para-textual signs found in Torah scrolls from antiquity up until the modern era. He is currently writing his doctoral dissertation at the department of Talmud and Halacha in the Hebrew University on codicological aspects of Torah scrolls writing.
Some of Mordechai’s projects have included the following:
2022-Present. Researcher at the Hebrew Bible Manuscripts Research Institute
2017-2019. Researcher at the Hebrew University Bible project
2011-2015: Editor in the Jerusalem Talmud edition of the Oz veHadar institution
Mordechai has published extensively in his areas of specialization, most of which are in the Hebrew language. However, it was Mordecai’s 2019 article, “More Fragments of Early Torah Scroll Come to Light” published in The Newsletter of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, at Cambridge University Library, that initially gained the attention of the MIKRA Research Laboratory. This popular level, yet important newsletter, is the news publication for The Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge - the center for the most important Genizah research in the World. We are very excited to have snatched up Mordechai while still early in his doctoral program, and in advance of the launch of our new MIKRA View software platform.