Harav Shlomo Amar Shlitah On the "half printed" mezuzah scandal, Rabbi Abadi and more...

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 that is his area.

With regards to the old mashuach (mostly possul)  6m mezuos sold years ago with the hechsher of the Israeli Rabbanut, he described this as "regrettable".

Finally, he agreed that there should be more uniformity and conformity so that sofrim are all on the same page, adhering to the same standards and quality. We discussed ideas how this could happen and I shared with him some of the measures enforced by Mishmeres Stam and others. He agreed that this matter was of great importance.