The International STa"M Forum

Canadian Jewish News featured yesterday online. Also, a beautiful YouTube video showing a Sofer STaM: Click here .

Very old sefer Torah.  Has anyone ever seen this minhag of the inverted nun's  seems problematic to me.

I am very excited to announce this course. It is unique in that it is the ONLY course which offers both practical training in כתיבה coupled with a rigorous curriculum of הלכה, quizzes and tests, and Shiurim. I will be running this between Sukkos and Pesach as well B'ezras Ha'shem. Please email me for the full syllabus, cost, requirements etc.

Just went to one of the wealthiest families in the country to put up mezuzos. They spent thousands purchasing mezuzos from the finest galleries and boutique shops in Israel. As a traditional Orthodox family they asked and were assured everything was kosher. I decided to do a quick inspection and, believe it or not, every single mezuzah but one was a paper print! Very unpleasant explaining to these nice people that they'd been comprehensively defrauded... UPDATE Since writing the above post, I emailed this link to some of the vendors, with an explanatory email as to why their selling counterfeit mezuzos, while possibly not a concern to them, is unacceptable and shocking to some of their clients. I have added some of their names in the labels below, so that people searching for their products may come across this post and be warned . Am I wasting my time? Who knows. But the more people they hear it from the better. At least two of these are very popular Judaica artists and if I...

out of town sofer gave me this parsha to check while he was visiting. I found that he  wrote כי twice,  I  instructed him to 1.erase first yud and second kuf  2.widen the kaf  gradually. he corrected it and left town. As our minhag we recheck prshios that needed correction. I have a sofek as it looks currently, however since correction was done gradually we must also view it at every step of the way if it had a shinui tzura

On my way to the departure gates at Ben Gurion Airport, I noticed the mezuah on the wall before the duty free shopping area. So, my thought was what size / what kind of kulmus made was used to write these letters?

Thoughts on Reish?

I have always been in the practice of saying "kol mah s'hani osay hayom..." before switching on my desk lamp and working for the day, as a precaution lest I forget to say "leshaim" before making a correction or even a kesher etc. I have always understood that this is bedieved OK and covers you if you forget. I instruct my staff who sew tefillin to do the same. Yet recently, someone told me that this is not worth anything and if you forget you cannot be "covered" by a proclamation at the beginning of they day. He did not provide me with any sources but if anyone knows if there is basis to this, please comment...

It looked ok from far, but after a closer examination, is could well be a kosher zayin...

Is anyone aware or have sources for the mesora for yekkis as to whether they should make the setuma in parshios according to the Rambam or Taz?

When checking someone's private tefillin (or mezuzos) , is a  magiha obligated to amend Tagei Kabollah that are not written correctly? (i.e. add if they are missing, scratch out if extra?) Most people I have asked over the years including those I learned from say not to. But I consistently see (mostly in) tefillin where these have been altered, most likely by others who have checked before me. It seems some are definitely those out there who feel strongly enough to do this. (Sometimes I even see the kaballah tagin have been played with but seemingly more necessary repairs overlooked.) Id be interested to hear what others have to say about this?