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.
If you're already down to chut hasaro between the letters, the sofer has gone too tight. Better to leave a wider nine yudin than try and calculate exactly the shiur with chut hasayro, which IMHO is a dangerous exercise (with a high chance of accidentally going a fraction less - which is possul)
ReplyDeleteI understand but I'm asking lehalacha (even though sometimes it becomes lemaaseh) if others have heard a shiur. Rav Morganstern holds another 1/2 Yud is needed but he doesn't recall if he heard it from Rav Elyashiv. I need to clarify what Rav Friedlander holds as what I recall hearing from him years ago and what I just heard from a close source are not the same.
ReplyDeleteCorrection, Rav Morganstern said to figure out the width of a chut hasaara. The measurent that a number of people have come up with i 1/20mm and in fact a hair is around that as well. Therefore, in addition to 9 average osios ketanos of that ksav (SR/SY each according to it's osios ketanos, .4mm is needed.
ReplyDeleteIt seems it can be either according to the Yuds or Vavs. The question is what if the average of 1 is more narrow that the other.