The International STa"M Forum

I did a shaalas tinok on the Daled of echad, he could not identify which letter it was, even after correctly identifying a regular daled as well as a large echad daled in another mezuza. Is there a sevoro to say that tinok would not apply for the large daled?

Looks like the metayeg botched the tug on the hay. Fortunately it did not go into the space of the chof pshutah but I'm a little worried about what it's done to the hay since its all connected. I think though, it's too thin and negligible to cause a shinuy tzurah of the hay.

see prim"gd siman 32 eishel avraham s"k 33 However we might be more lenient since there is no shita that this is a hay lechatchila as in the m'a cse where the rashb"a holds that foot of hay belongs inward

Short lamed as in last word on line 4,lameds that do not have head only kotz.I am a regular magia not chabad and i find these shailos very often however when I mention the problems to the chabad sofrim they laugh me off with some kind of "reb ruven bla bla bla"

Hi, Amatuer sofer here with 2 Q's on M''B! 1) 32:32 - Above each line one should leave enough space for the top of a lamed (which is a vav..so 3 kulmusim). After that shulchan aruch the rama says to leave "bain hashitim kimlo shitah". Is that referring to the same thing as the shulchan aruch. If not - the MB says that "the sofrim" arent noheg to leave a "kimloh shitah" for teffilin and mezuzos etc....So if the rama is referring to the additional top of the lamed (which the m''b said not to do by mezuzos), how would you write a lamed in the mezuzah? 2) 32::78 - m''b says that if letters keep their tzurah but touch, just remove the connection and it's kosher..whether before or after writing. Seems quite clear! 143:25 - If the connection is in the beginning of the letter, even though there's no shinuy tzurah but "the rest of the letter was written bifsul" (which from my understanding of 32 means u have to...

Reb Moshe, would you agree that a tzurah such as the one below ( where the shailo is that it is lacking a yerech but still has the the tzurah of an Arizal Tzadik) is fixable by adding ink in a way that creates a distinct yerech  such as in the red of the second image? UPDATED PICTURE - the previous one was not accurately representing the shailo I was asking

Why is it that only recently we in chabad started leaving space at end of shema in RT? Why the change from before when they finished until end of line?

I received an email this week from a frustrated sofer who is sick and tired of nothing being done to stop unscrupulous vendors selling below par STa"M. While he acknowledges that it is beyond the capabilities and powers of the Vaad and other rabbinical bodies, his idea was to create a website that would "Name and Shame" unscrupulous vendors. In doing so, anyone caught selling fraudulent STa"M would have their business name and a picture of the item sold. While I think it's a good idea in theory, and may act as a good deterrent, I see a number of problems arising from this idea: 1) Whoever does it will need to dedicate a lot of time and effort into maintaining and monitoring the site without remuneration. 2) There may be legal / defamation issues to deal with. 3) Where is the line drawn? Do people selling items that are bedieved (as mehudar or otherwise) also make the cut? If anyone has any ideas or thoughts on this please feel free to comment.

Is there an inyan to makpid on the angel of the end of the Yad kesher wether to the right or left?

I understand some poskim rule in some doubtful situations (when it is uncertain which side of the doorway the mezuzah belongs) to place a mezuzah on each side. Placing two mezuzos in such a situation is not Baal Toisif, according to these poskim. Can anyone please advise the makor for this practice?

A Sofer I know posted an image of a mezuzah he wrote to show off his proud handiwork. I noticed that the yuddin in the Heh's in the Shem Hashem are all written exactly the same as a regular Heh, ie as an upside down yud. However I learned that all the hehs in Sheimos Hakedoshos should be written distinctly and differently, for the first Heh and the second, ie first heh with a tag _ and second Heh with a tag | to be meshane the Sheimos hakedoshos as an added fence for kavanah LeShem. Is this a problem to be concerned with if I see a mezuzah like the one described above with all hehes written the same.  I asked him about it and he did not respond.  Maybe he wasn't taught it or doesnt know.

My knowledge of dio is pretty much limited to the MB and the Biur halacha in siman 32, so when I heard of dio lanetzach, I looked online and asked fellow sofrim. When I've spoken to sofrim here in Yerushalayim, it's usually shunned. It's not really carried in stores here in EY (i've heard that used as a support to it's illegitimacy). I've spoken to store owners who avoid the topic, and i even talked to members of a Sta''m kollel who spoke lowly of it. Some people use it for tagim but not for letters... Even on this very forum i've seen several posts which shift discussions from the public forum to private messages. If there are haskamos from the mishmeres stam and many gedolim, why is it so taboo? What am I missing? Is it questionably Kosher, or totally OK? Is the taboo-ness just because it's new? I'm even worried this post will get censored...

Berlin - Robot Writes Torah At Berlin's Jewish Museum I've met some sofrim who are robots, but never a robot who is a sofer... See it in action here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykGNb8dLb24 PS, I think the robot could benefit from some safrus lessons. Tagin would be nice too

1) is it kosher? 2) if its kosher, is there any thing to be gained by scratching?

I think it is pasul (and may not be fixed in tefilin or mezuza) - although a tinok read them beis and vav.

There is only a revach of one ois between the parshiyos does this downgrade the parshiyos to bedieved? The parshiyos were in very basic peshutim batim and seemed too good for the batim.

VUV?

I recently met with Rabbi Shlomo Amar Shlitah, former Sephardic Cheif Rabbi and noted posek. He was visiting Melbourne and wanted to see parshiyos I had for a pair of tefillin he was ordering for someone locally. We shmoozed for about half an hour and I took the opportunity to discuss some general STa"M issues. About the recent forgers and their attempts to legitimize their activities, his response was "Hashem Yerachem". He did not see any way that their technique held up in Halacha. Regarding Rabbi Abadi's silk printing, he was less vocal, but he told me "Tirchak mizeh". I asked him why there isn't some some sort of law in Israel that in the same way only legitimate and qualified Doctors can practice medicine, so too only legitimate and qualified sofrim should  be allowed to do sofrus. His response to me that it is simply too hard to regulate. I did not get into any "nitty gritty" shailos on tzuros haosiyos as I don't think tha...

Question: I have a customer, who, for all his children , ordered davkah a very small shel yad so that the tefillin can sit on the right spot on the arm according to as many opinions as possible. His children are on the shorter side and have smallish arms. Having said this, I am not so boki in these halachos. The customer is a Litvisher (Brisker I think) and asked me to research if what he is doing is indeed meritorious or OTT (Over The Top). If someone with a good understanding of these halochos could guide me / him on this , I'd appreciate it. Thanks