A place for English speaking sofrim (scribes), magihim (examiners), rabbis and vendors of Stam (Torah, Tefillin and Mezuzah scrolls) from around the world to communicate, share ideas, ask questions and offer support and advice.
As long as the gahg is not touching the yerech sm'ol (which seems to be the case here although the picture is a bit fuzzy) it's kosher and it has ikar tzurah.
I received this question via email. I am not really a klaf expert, I was wondering if anyone could answer this question: Dear Rabbi Gutnick, I am writing to you because a good friend of mine has put the idea into my head that the klaf in my tefillin were not really tanned and therefore are not kosher. He referred me to Megilla 19a re diftera. From the research that I have done so far, it seems that the klaf that is used today is tanned only with a lime wash. On all of the tanning websites I’ve seen so far, they say that the lime doesn’t accomplish tanning but only the removal of the hair and some other pre-tanning effects. Would you be able to explain to me or refer me to a website that explains how the tanning process that is used today takes the hide out of the category of diftera? Thank you very much.
Dear Readers and Members, The forum has been down for over 6 months because the domain name (www.stamforum.com) lapsed and it is no longer available to re purchase. Although this forum is now defunct (it has morphed into several whatsapp groups), I have had many requests to put it back online because it contains so much information (over 1,800 posts and thousands of comments in the discussions, on a wide range of topics related to STa"M). I have therefore put the forum back online at blogger, so the address is www.stamforum.blogspot.com. The forum lasted for a decade...not a bad effort! It was pretty popular back in the days before whatsapp and managed to receive over a million hits in it's short life. It was one of the only organised forums in the STa"M world and definitely the largest in it's heyday. I would like to thank all those who cobtributed over the years, particularly the early members who helped build it up. Thanking you all, Eli
the picture is a bit blurry but I don't think its mamash a shinuy tzurah....
ReplyDeleteAnyway to get a better picture?
ReplyDeleteAs long as the gahg is not touching the yerech sm'ol (which seems to be the case here although the picture is a bit fuzzy) it's kosher and it has ikar tzurah.
ReplyDeleteMy camera gets blurrier the closer I get to it, i took about 10 pics and this was the clearest..(perhaps its time to get a new camera)
ReplyDeleteI played with the image on the computer and got it a little clearer. I did this to print it out to give it to R' Shammai.
ReplyDeleteR' Shammai said it's a shailos tinnok -- looks a little like a daled connected to a chof, or from the picture even a daled connected to a mem
ReplyDelete