Torah Scripts Must Be Cursive

The Deuteronomic law commanding

the inscription of Torah words on doorposts of the house

foreshows the New Jersey law demanding

that writing without any computer guided mouse

be taught to every child,

in New Jersey styled,

like Biblical documents, by sophrimi, scribes, whose skillful script

must cursively be hand-written, so that their content

be not in pixels that require cyber-literacy to decrypt,

like Deuteronomy’s precontemporary intent.

In “Cursive Makes a Comeback in New Jersey Schools: In one of his final acts in office, Gov. Philip D. Murphy signed a bill on Monday requiring third, fourth and fifth graders to learn cursive,” NYT, 1/20/26, Sarah Maslin Nir, writes:

With a swooping P, a curling H, a slanted I and a looped L, Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey — on his last full day in office on Monday — signed into law a bill requiring that all third, fourth and fifth graders in the state learn cursive.

Though script is little used these days beyond checkbooks and autographs, New Jersey joins roughly two dozen other states that have inscribed similar rules in recent years, bucking a drop-off in cursive instruction that began in 2010, when the federal government removed it from the Common Core Standards for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Proponents of cursive cite studies that link handwriting to better information retention and writing speed, and say — as Mr. Murphy did in a statement released as he signed the bill — that knowing script can help people read the original U.S. Constitution.

Learning cursive will provide New Jersey students with “the skills they need to read our nation’s founding documents,” as well as write checks and improve cognition, Mr. Murphy said on Monday, a day before relinquishing his office to the state’s new Democratic governor, Mikie Sherrill.

I suggest that Ps. 45:1-2 explain why Shoshani, the mentor of both Elie Wiesel and Emmanuel Levinas, chose to be called “Shoshani”:

לַמְנַצֵּ֣חַ עַל־שֹׁ֭שַׁנִּים לִבְנֵי־קֹ֑רַח מַ֝שְׂכִּ֗יל שִׁ֣יר יְדִידֹֽת׃

For the leader; on shoshannim, for the Korahites. A maskil, love song.

רָ֘חַ֤שׁ לִבִּ֨י ׀ דָּ֘בָ֤ר ט֗וֹב אֹמֵ֣ר אָ֭נִי מַעֲשַׂ֣י לְמֶ֑לֶךְ לְ֝שׁוֹנִ֗י עֵ֤ט ׀ סוֹפֵ֬ר מָהִֽיר׃

My heart is astir with gracious words; I speak my poem to a king; my tongue is the pen of an expert scribe.