A few people wrote in asking why I hadn’t posted superfabulous Tefillin Barbie since she was all over the Jblogosphere. I figured she’d gotten enough exposure, but that was until SomethingJewishUK posted this interview with Tefillin Barbie’s creator, Jen Taylor Friedman.

Far from some bar mitzvah girl who hasn’t outgrown her dolls, Ms. Friedman is training as a soferet, a female Torah scribe. She’s caused quite a stir in the Orthodox world since Torahs penned by women aren’t considered kosher, though Friedman has “written an halakhic justification that would fit into the Orthodox canon, but it’s more a matter of sociology, and the social construct that is Orthodoxy isn’t ready for that sort of thing.”

The Sefer Torah (a handwritten copy of the Pentateuch) she’s working on is promised to a large Reform community in St Louis, Missouri. “They are going to use it; it’s smaller, lighter, and more legible than their current ones.”

You can read more about her holy antics on her blog, or bid on Tefillin Barbie on eBay!