The International STa"M Forum

I know sometimes I don't write clearly, so if you manage to understand what i wrote, could you please give your opinion if what i wrote makes sense or if i"m totally off base. thanks in advance בדעת קדושים אות א' כותב וז"ל: הב"י בסי' ל"ו כתב שהיו"ד שלמעלה באל"ף יהי' לה עוקץ למעלה והיו"ד שלמטה יהיה לה עוקץ למטה מצד שכן הוא תמונת [כל] יו"ד עם עוקץ למעלה. צל"ע כעת אם בחסרון באחד עוקצין הנ"ל יש חשש בדיעבד לר"ת שפירש קוצו של יו"ד היינו עוקץ שמאלי למטה, משא"כ בלא עוקץ שמאלי [ימני] למטה פשיטא דפסול דהו"ל כגולם, וכיון דקי"ל שכשנגע גוף היו"ד להקו באל"ף פסול משום שנעשה כגולם ואינו יו"ד אולי גם בלי עוקץ יש חשש עכ"ל     ולכאורה דבריו צ"ע, מהו הפשט במה שכתב "משא"כ בלא עוקץ שמאלי למטה פשיטא דפסול דהו"ל כגולם, וכיון דקי"ל שכשנגע גוף היו"ד להקו באל"ף פסול משום שנעשה כגולם ואינו יו"ד אולי גם בלי עוקץ יש חשש", איך זה שאם חסר העוקץ שמאלי למטה ...

I really want to explore this issue further as I have never had it clear. From Yehushuah's teshuvah from rav Shammai it seems it is OK to cut before it is used for a mitzvah. This is common esp when putting in new parshiyos as sometimes cutting excess klaf can ensure a better fit. What about after? For example you are checking someoen'es tefillin and the parshiyos stick down in the shel rosh a little into the titurah which is not so mehudar but there is plenty of room on the top and bottom, is there any allowance to cut to ensure a better fit? or they are very tight and you want to make a looser fit by cutting excess klaf at front andor end of parsha to avoid future damage? I should think this is highly problematic but I would love a second opinion.

Here is a great example of a Reish that has a dot in it that turned into a Hei. This shailo came to the Beis Horah today by R' Shammai and I Baruch HaShem was able to get it from the Sofer afterwards. R' Shammai said it's pasul. "ובשעריך"

There is never a shortage of interesting shailos...Someone asked if it's muter to cut out the sides of mezuzah klaf in order to make it look like a "Crown" -- imagine special scissors that children use in order to make the paper look nice with a sort of design. In a way of course that the oisios are not messed up in any way (cut, mukaf gvil, etc.)

It says in SA Siman 282 that one must stand up for a Sefer Torah. The Rema brings a maklokes if it's the same din by "chumashim sh'lanu". The shailo was asked...Does one have to stand for Nach that was written on klaf?

I was checking a new Mezuzah and the word "et" looks pasul to me, what do you think? It is not touching, but is really close.

Yehoshua, would you agree to ask R' Shammai Gross Shlit"a the following questions? 1. The blackening ingredient in Dio Lanetzach is pure עשן. It also has עשן שמן זית. I have received a request to make a version of Dio Lanetzach in which the majority of the עשן is עשן שמן זית. Is there any Hallachic benefit to having a majority of  עשן שמן זית ?  If yes, why? 2. Most of the עשן I use now has a much stronger blackening power than עשן שמן זית. That's why Dio Lanetzach has such a strong black color. It can be diluted with a lot of water and retain its strong black color. עשן שמן זית does not have such a strong blackening power. The technical reason is that the current עשן is more than 95% black carbon and less than 5% foreign unwanted materials. עשן שמן זית on the other hand has about 60% black carbon and 40% foreign unwanted materials. In such a case is עשן שמן זית still preferred? Or, is the strongest black color preferred?  (adding a larger quantity of  עשן שמן זי...

beis from bom and lamed from leos

I recently started a blog called " Shimush Chachamim " (click to open in new window.) My goal with this was to create for myself an outlet to (like it says on the blog) bring discussions and insights in Halacha and other areas of Torah to the world. The internet can be a tremendous resource for learning. Hopefully I will add information that will be valuable to others in their learning. Although I haven't yet I do plan on posting many Shailos and Teshuva b'halacha that I have heard from Gedolei HaPoskim here in Eretz Yisrael (b'frat my Rebbe Muvhak R' Shammai Gross Shlit"a.) Along with anything interesting I found in my daily learning, anything I find in seforim, etc. Posts related to STaM I will exclusively put on the forum here simply posting a link over there to whatever I put up over here. STaM Baruch HaShem has been my main limud over the last year or so and will continue in the limud and shimush although Baruch HaShem I'm always osek in many a...

I have been asked by a synagogue if they could make some mark on their sifrey torah so they would be traceable if stolen and they wonder if marking them would make them unkosher. I recall reading halacha around marking k'laf with a series of holes in a pattern which would be acceptable. I have even seen a torah with a kind of hechsher stamp from the magihah, but they have asked about using Crimestoppers Property Marker kits to leave a small drop of clear liquid on each valuable item (one assumes the silverware too) as recommended by the police in the UK - I think this is some kind of invisible ink that shows up under ultra violet light only. Much of halacha around holes etc is regarding something visible to the naked eye. Would this fall under that category. What are other sofrim advising people who wish to protect their sifrey from theft/make it easier to identify/recover the sefer if it was - chas v'shalom - stolen. Interested in both the halacha and the practical options h...

The following shailo was asked.  A sofer had klaf that had a small tear in the middle. The tear made a sort of square that on 3 sides it was torn and one side still attached. Imagine a sort of "window" that could be opened and closed in the klaf. May such a part of the klaf be written on (without fixing it with a matlis of some type -- if it could be fixed.) As well if it's already written on what's the din?

I spoke to R' Shammai Gross about a few of the issues raised here over the last few days about selling STaM over the Internet. The conversation took place on the street when I was walking him home from the Beis Horah. Sometimes the teshuvas I get then are not as "clear" however I will try and give this over the best I can. 1) In regards to a frum person setting up a website and selling STaM over the internet when not knowing who the buyers are is for sure a problem. He said it could be a goy, it could be someone buying for a 'reform' woman to wear Tefillin (example he gave), etc. He didn't seem to like the idea at all. I asked further if it's ossur or perhaps one could require some sort of "proof" from those buying making sure it was going to the right places. For this I understood from him that you can't say it's ossur however as best as possible to figure out who the people are that are buying. I would say in general selling a me...

I thought this might interest the forum - the roof of the shel yad taped to the box !!

I heard the following shailo...Someone wanted to know if there was ever a minhag went writing Megillas Eichah to put a parsha pasuchah after every pasuk ?

Many of you may not have seen Benyomin's recent comment about selling Sifrei Torah to Reform. The general halachic consensus on this issue is that it is ossur, (although there may be exceptions, it would certainly need to be approved by a Rav and with great consideration). Yet here is Benyomins (highly disturbing) post, for those who may have missed it: Binyomin has left a new comment on your post " Selling STa"M to Reform ": Thanks for your comments. Despite it being ussur to sell a Sefer Torah to Karoim, I believe it may be the exception rather than the rule that sofrim refuse to sell a kosher Torah to Reform shuls. To better support my hunch I did a quick bit of research over the weekend to try to get a sense of what the current practice on this subject is among sofrim/STAM dealers in the US and Israel with websites. So, I sent an email to sixteen such sites asking for more information about starting a Torah writing campaign. In my fictitious request, I clea...

Sta"m may not be sold or given to everyone. One example are mezuzahs for goyim is assur see Yoreh Deah 291:2 Accordingly, how is one able to sell sta"m over the internet where there is no way of knowing who is the purchaser? The problem would apply not just to a Sefer Torah but to Tefillin and Mezuzahs etc... Appreciate your input.

I showed this to a few people. I got the whole range of answers, from "I don't see any problem" to "in sefardi ksav this wouldn't be kosher" , what do you think? (these are different pictures of the same letters)

Minhag of the sofrim is to shorten retzuos that are too long: is there a difference if they were worn or not does any sefer discuss this?

To further enhance the accessibility and ease of use of this forum, you can now access the stam forum directly through www.stamforum.com rather than going through blogspot. However will still access it even through blogspot.com if you want. Apologies to those who tried to access the forum during the transition of hosting which did not allow access for some time.

Someone had to write a daled and by mistake wrote a hei. However the gag of the hei was written like a reish. Once they erase the "yud" of the hei and are left with a "reish" may they simply add an eikav onto the reish and make it into a daled. Or must they also be mavatel the tzurah of the "reish" before now writing the the daled. I have tzaddidim l'can u'l'can however I'd like to hear from the olam first.

In our families we rely on the K9 Internet filter. http://www1.k9webprotection.com/ It is a filter which is easy to set up and fine tune to specific needs. The best part - it is free. By tuning it ourselves, we can filter out what we don't want to see, and we are not subjected to censoring which is part of other filters. After the filter is set up and tuned, under the wife/mother supervision, the wife/mother chooses a password and does not tell anyone what it is. This way it is impossible to "cheat" on the filter. If a certain kosher site happens to be blocked, the wife/mother enters her password, the site is added to the kosher list or the filtering parameters get corrected. Then, the filter gets locked again. Highly recommended.

The tefillin (pshutim)is a little roundish on the top corner I hope the pictures help a little, any advice to square this corner. Wetting does not help by thin pshutim. Are these tefillin still kosher lebracha? The Aruch Hashulchan is very lenient in this issue.

We had an argument in shul today if it is permissable to sell Stam, particularly Sifrei torah, to reform and conservative shules. can anyone please shed some light on what is done and accepted in this regard amoungst heimishe sochrim and sofrim in the USA?

I just got an email from someone who was asked to paint a design on a megila. She would like advice with regard to the type of paint that can be used. I personally have never done anything like this, but I assume there are people in the group who can advise…

Last Thursday, Rabbi Frand spoke about the inverted Nuns of Parshat Behalotcha in his popular weekly shiur. This is a very important topic for all sofrim and I got his permission to put up his shiur in my blog for one week (you must pay to get his weekly shiurim so this was a very big favour). I will eventually put everything he said in writing so I can keep it available but I would not miss this chance to hear a Safrut shiur from one of the very best orators out there. The link  http://lavlor.blogspot.be/2012/06/inverted-nuns.html

The Yudim of beisecha and vimai (are the worst of these yudim), what is there status? Kosher as is etc...

reish                                                                                   tof? Obviously this guy is a maschil

Have come across this a few times I need an opinion for this one Shelas Chochom. Lammed of Al

The Yudim of the words Yifteh and Vahayu? Besides for the Aleph of Af.

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b71f69e20163061ac560970d-pi I just got mailed this article, what are your thoughts?

Shalom all. Am currently repairing a torah and have reached parshat Pinchas - always the worst condition as we know. However I think someone may well have got there before me as you recall the erroneous 'chametz - chamin' repair that someone had made that I uploaded recently. Well I think someone has also repaired the vav k'tiah in shalom (see below) as there is a little blob of ink on where the break would have been. Now technically this is not pasul as all of the visual midrashim ( as I like to call them - i.e. large, small, broken, bent letters etc) are just minhagim passed down from sofer to sofer, but we are nonetheless enjoined to 'fix' them if we come across them not being there.Now if this is kasher as it stands then what is the best way of fixing? Making a break would constitute chok tochot. Scraping the entire regel and writing afresh is the obvious answer, but here I am scraping a technically kasher letter to create a deliberately broken letter (tho...

shailos tinuk would be problematic because the tagin would throw him off

Its the vov from uvechol

A sofer by mistake wrote צורישדי as 2 words and was makadesh the "שדי" before writing it. The question is now what should be done. They want try and be makarev the oisios so it should become one word. However if they were already makesh the second word perhaps it's a problem then of being mochek the Shem?