Supposedly Stuma
I don't have a relationship with the sofer so I don't know if this is a fluke or if he and those who've been checking his parshios have overlooked it. He's been writing for decades. We sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture when focusing on individual letters/the smallest details so it's important we remember make sure the spacing is correct, the shiur parshios have the correct shiurim and that ends of lines don't form kuba/zanav. I've often found issues with these even by very good sofrim.
The parshios are likely pesuchos since there's more than 9 at the end of Shma and less than 9 at the beginning. While the Rama says that this is kosher, some disagree and the minhag is obviously not to make a pesucha so at the very best it's bedieved. (Some would at least be more mekel in the shel rosh but again it remains bedieved.) Making holes to make the shiur parsha smaller (to turn these into setumas according to the Taz) is also a machlokes if holes help so that's also bedieved and its even worse in this case as the Lishkas Hasofer (15/1) writes that if holes are made in only part of a blank space the holes aren't mevatel the space they're made on so it remains a Pesucha.
ReplyDelete...beginning of vehaya im...
ReplyDeleteIt's a kosher stumah, no need for holes
ReplyDeleteHow is it a kosher stuma as is? There's more that 9 Yudin at end of Shma and less than 9 Yudin at beginning of Vehaya. This is a kosher Psucha according to Rambam and Rosh. I've confirmed this with Rav Friedlander and consulted another young, well known posek. While according to the Rama its okay as he says to make this a Pesucha, we don't pasken like him and the Daas kedoshim says its pasul so at best its bedieved. Also, adding holes, at least according to some poskim including Rav Friedlander, is never better than a bedieved option. Finally, see Lishkas Hasofer 15/1 who says that in this situation the holes don't help so it wouldn't make it a Stuma anyways.
ReplyDeleteperhaps if we count taz with osios gedolos it is fine
ReplyDeleteat a second look it probably doesnt have 9 osios gedolos combined however I doubt it has 9 yuds at the end
ReplyDeleteThere's over 9 Yudin at the end of shema (based on the sofer's average Yud in yad/rosh plus allowance for spacing in between).
ReplyDeleteThis is kosher lichatchila!
ReplyDeleteThe loshan of the Taz is to leave less than a shiur parsha, less than nine letters at the end of shema. Whereas it appears the Mishna Brura is saying that the Taz is recommending less than nine Yudin, however, according to Moshe Feinstein and numerous other poskim, the pshat in the Taz is to leave less than nine large letters there.
In any event, it is surely a stuma according to the Rambam, because the loshan of the Rambam is that a Psucha le-olam matcheles betchilas hashura - a psucha always begins at the beginning of the line. And here parshas VeHoya begins in the middle.
Minhag Chabad is to leave 3X asher both at the end of Shema, and at the beginning of VeHoya. Only in such a situation does the end of Shema make it appear that the next parsha will be a Psucha. And for that reason, the Igros Moshe wrote in a tschuva to the Lubovitcha Rebbe, that he suspects it is tarte desatre (the two parshas contradict eachother), shema demonstrating that the next parsha is a psucha, and VeHoya demonstrating that it is a stuma. However, the Mishna Brura writes concerning the minhag Chabad that it is a kosher stuma.
In the case pictured above, since the space at the end of Shema is less than nine large letters, and since VeHoya doesn't begin at the beginning of the line, according to all interpretations of the Rambam it is a kosher Stuma. This was a common minhag and way of implementing the Taz, and it is kosher lechatchila.
Unfortunately, I can't discuss this with Rav Friedlander to reclarify as in fact it should be a stuma according to the Rambam. At a later point I looked into this most hold that this scenario is one of the shitos of stuma according to the Rambam because Vehaya doesn't start at the beginning, even though there's no shiur parsha at the beginning, as long as the shiur parsha is at the end of Shma. However, the MB, who says this is a stuma according to the Rambam does mention the Maamar Mordechai who disagrees.
ReplyDelete