Very apt. comment

Beis Hastam said...

I would like to take the oppurtunity to vent my frustration here in this blog.It should be posted all over "if you cannot afford mehudar tefilin do not purchase ksav alter rebbe". I go through this nonsense on a daily basis the satmara need mezuzos bli bchiros, the lubavitchers need alter rebbe and the litvaks need avodas yad , however 120$ for a mezuza is outrageous in their opinion.There are so many am haratzim out there that think tefilin or mezuzos are a commodity -the worst of all are the judaica stores where the an haaretz salesman with a long beard sells the unknowing jew the mezuzos that match his chasidus.I refuse to sell any chumros on a mezuza thats less then mehudar.please chevra lets here your horor stories

December 8, 2011 3:47 PM

I find this comment by Bauis Hastam very relevant and  noteworthy.

First and formost: I have said this before on this blog and I will say it again - If you are selling to lubavitchers with a limited budget, better advise them to get a halachically sound arizal ksav than alter rebbe ksav which is poor. For $90 you can get really mehudar Arizal, but at that price the Alter rebbe ksav will usually not be mehudar. Sometimes even the more expensive alter rebbes that are written aesthetically  not halachically sound, how much more so the cheap ones that are qritten quickly and poorly. The owner of the parshiyos in the previous post by nachman would have been far better off with a mehudar arizal than an alter rebbe with serious shailos if it is even kosher. He probably would have ebven spent more on the inferior alter rebbe than the superior arizal.

Secondly, Judaica shops: I encounter countless problematic mezuzos from Judaica shops looking to buy cheap. these include, klaf mashuach, klaf temani, no kotz on yud, many missing tagin, and mostly ksav which is not up to standard bichllal, and which has clearly been written by a sofer without ksav kabollah, and definitely not checked by  anyone with any semblance of achrayos whatsoever. We are not even talking about giving the right thing to the right person, we are talking about basic kashrus. I have been dealing with this problem for years as have many sofrim here before me, as I'm sure many sofrim are around the world.

the best way to combat the above problems is by public awareness and spreading knowledge in your community about the relevant issues and guiding consumers in an informed and professional manner.