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.
I have heard in the name of Rav Elyashiv that a hollow “yud” is halachikly a small “mem stuma”.
ReplyDeleteThanks Etan. But does anyone say it's definitely kosher as a yud?
ReplyDeleteOur Tinokot Shel Bet Rabban.
DeleteThat "Sh'mu'a" in Rav Elyashiv's name seems odd. If we see a Mem Stuma with a strong Regel protruding from the bottom right, descending as long as the letter is high and then curving toward the left, and the lower left corner protruding downward, and the top left corner sporting a Makal, we might (at least) have to ask a Tinok is this is a mem.
ReplyDeleteRav Elyashiv always chose to fill in a Yud when given the kavod off filling in a letter because, as R' Etan writes, he held it was (or maybe was - I'm not sure which) a kosher Mem Setuma and hence by filling it in he was actually writing a letter and not just filling in an already kosher letter.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that it depends on the way it was done. if it has a nice outline with a short regel -yes it can be a mem stuma , just take a pen and draw a mem stuma and add a small regel-it will still stay a mem stuma-fill it up and you have a yud
ReplyDelete