Super thick kulmus
A rav I know overseas emailed me today that he has a balebos who wants to commission a giant one meter mezuzah to donate and affix to a school front gate (that is 5 meters tall).
He has someone who will make the case but he wants to know if I have someone who can write such a mezuzah.
I did the math and for such a mezuzah I would need a kulmus that is about 65 mm thick. I would write it myself if I knew what I could use to make such a thick kolmus.
Perhaps bamboo? does anyone have any ideas?
He has someone who will make the case but he wants to know if I have someone who can write such a mezuzah.
I did the math and for such a mezuzah I would need a kulmus that is about 65 mm thick. I would write it myself if I knew what I could use to make such a thick kolmus.
Perhaps bamboo? does anyone have any ideas?
The only one I know who has written one like that is Avraham Borshevsky - he learn by the same Rav that I did (R Michoel Chanin from HaSofer)...
ReplyDeleteThe one that he wrote was at the time the Guiness record for the largest mezuza (probably still is)...
http://www.borshevsky.com/worldmezuzah.htm
There is no way to 'write' such a Mezuzah. Let's say you would take a plastic pipe and make it into a kulmus, you would need a pipe with a diameter of more than 10 centimeters so that you could get a tip of almost 7 centimeters. It would be impossible to hold such a pipe in one hand and write normally.
ReplyDeleteThe only way to make such a Mezuzah would be to create a kulmus that is at least one third the size and do every movement 3 times over, al derech making the large dalet in a Mezuzah. You basically would have to draw each letter.
I certainly can imagine a shayla if this is kosher since we passul a mezuzah written by a righty with the left hand since its not derch kesiva. It would seem that this would be just as much of a problem, but I will leave that up to the Robonnim to work out.
I meant to ask this question a while ago when the jumbo Mezuza 's kashrus was discussed.
DeleteAren't the Daled and Aiyin Both drawn as opposed to written?
Why is the kashrus being questioned by the rest of the Mezuza if written in the same manner?
Who says the thickness of the lines needs to be proportionately thick? Wouldn't it be more kosher to write large letters with relatively thin lines? אין שעור לעובי האותיות .
ReplyDeleteIt's been outdone...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.inn.co.il/News/News.aspx/208813
I want to do it without "drawing". I was once invited by the Jewish Community Council here to give a safrus demo at an event organized by the city council where the the different calligraphy styles of the world were being shown. My booth was next to the chinese calligraphy artist. He was writing these jumbo letters with some sort of bamboo quill. It wasn't round, it was flat. He was able to hold it in one hand and write in a way that would halachically be considered writing. Such a quill would be ideal for this project...
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ReplyDelete2 points:
ReplyDeletea) Concerning kvias mezuza on such a pesach of 5 meter the correct location is to place it by the shoulder height (Mordechai quoted by Taz 289:3). Halachikly it is not allowed to have even a portion under the shlish haelyon (see ibid). This rule does not apply to an extra high doorway therefore the bottom of the mezuza should start no lower than the shoulder height (lichora). Accordingly a one meter high mezuza the Sha-kai part of the mezuza would be above sight for any person. There is an inyan to see the Sha-kai. Is there still so advantageous to making such a massive mezuza?
b) Lichora it is better to search for a Jumbo size turkey feather and carve it as least as possible in order to keep the writing to the minhag to using a notza (keses Hasofer 3:6)( as is minhag ashkenaz). Even if that means that the mezuza will not be to the desired size through some other drawing utensil.
Doesn't the Rama agree that a קנה is more לכתחילה as that was used in the times of חז"ל and it has more symbolism in it (הוי רך כקנה, etc.)?
DeleteIf I had to do this project, I would try using a 7 cm wide paint brush and cutting the bristles short enough so that they are pretty stiff. I would then get a small trough and fill it with ink and experiment with this on the klaf. You may be able to get a satisfactory effect with it and you could write each letter with natural strokes instead of drawing them.
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