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.
I was wondering what the din is by sefardim in the case below. If Rabbi Michael or any others could guide me here I'd be much obliged. I know sfardim are more machmir when intrusion is from side than Ashkenazim.
The Angle is hard to see well, but to my eye that is possul. The halakha with any intrusion is that if it is just a little bit so that it does not change the letter, it is fine. If it is a lot, so that it does change the letter it is possul, and if there is safek it is a shailat tinok in which we don't have to cover the other letters.
On the positive side, if it is possul, and you can fix it without changing the shape of the Gimmel or Dalet that would be permitted because the sofer undoubtedly started to write it from the outide of the Dalet...
Kosher when letter goes into other letter we must look at 2 problems shulchan aruch 32-28 and m"b 1)was there a shinui tzura at any time-even if it was for an instant while writing the letter-if it was then its posul since the letter got its tzura back not by writing of this letter (chik tochos a"y ksiva) however our situation is similar to avnei nezer who writes that eikav of beis going into dalet since line is written from left to right is kosher. 2)no letter should enter other letters-however this is a "yesh lizaher"not a psul in our case it might even be mehudar since dalet has only2 sides and is not considered letter that has a toch. I recall a reb moishe that by dalet and chaf sofit we would draw a diagonal line between the 2 edges and if letter doesn't go into this part its not called in.
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 Angle is hard to see well, but to my eye that is possul. The halakha with any intrusion is that if it is just a little bit so that it does not change the letter, it is fine. If it is a lot, so that it does change the letter it is possul, and if there is safek it is a shailat tinok in which we don't have to cover the other letters.
ReplyDeleteOn the positive side, if it is possul, and you can fix it without changing the shape of the Gimmel or Dalet that would be permitted because the sofer undoubtedly started to write it from the outide of the Dalet...
From here it looks like the gimmel goes nearly halfway in!
DeleteCan sources please be provided?
ReplyDeleteI would be very appreciative.
Kosher
ReplyDeletewhen letter goes into other letter we must look at 2 problems shulchan aruch 32-28 and m"b
1)was there a shinui tzura at any time-even if it was for an instant while writing the letter-if it was then its posul since the letter got its tzura back not by writing of this letter (chik tochos a"y ksiva) however our situation is similar to avnei nezer who writes that eikav of beis going into dalet since line is written from left to right is kosher.
2)no letter should enter other letters-however this is a "yesh lizaher"not a psul
in our case it might even be mehudar since dalet has only2 sides and is not considered letter that has a toch. I recall a reb moishe that by dalet and chaf sofit we would draw a diagonal line between the 2 edges and if letter doesn't go into this part its not called in.