The International STa"M Forum

The lamed has no moshav. Although this is ok for sfardi csav, and some ashkenazi poskim (see SA Harav 36 ois lamed) are machshir, according to Mishna Berura (MS ois lamed & biur hallacha there) it is pasul, since it is lacking an essential part of the letter. At least for an ashkenazi, this must be fixed, and can not be left as is.

This new stuff called "Spray Klaf."  The claim was that it was Mei Klaf in spray form.  I have been using Mei Klaf(usually with an Eida Chareidit Hekhsher) for years.  I have never seen Mei Klaf do this.  The letters litterally are not davuk to the klaf.  I can erase them with a rubber eraser, and break them by running my fingernail over them.  Here is a picture of a Mezzuzah that I wrote with "Spray Klaf" treated Klaf.  The damage done occurred from simply rolling the Mezzuzah.

In the ל of Leahava, it has seemingly a double problem. 1) the head is short like a yud 2) the rosh of the lamed is like it is not existent, being that beneath it, there was dio added to it. The Lishkat Hasofer 5:17 is machshir bidieved (vitzorech Litaken) on each individual case (however when it is missing a rosh it is only fixable beshas hadchak , without making a bracha on it). My question is, when both of these problems arise on the same Lamed can and should we machshir it? I will note that this is for a Sefardi.

b"h hi ari my name is moshe weiner from jerusalem i would like to comment on your lamed - the source of kav mashuch is from the beit yosef and shulchan aruch ch.32 regarding the top yud of alef and resembling letters that have yudin (yudei shin, ayin etc.) Rabbi Wozner in his shu"t Sheivet Halevi writes that a diamond shaped yud (something like the lamed you have) is not obvious kav mashuch. He concludes that although there is place to machmir, one that is matir such a alef is acceptable [his lashon is: אין מזניחין אותו] i dont know to translate exact, but it means one cannot disregard such an opinion. [if anybody can give the correct english for this - thanks] i understand his psak as fitting what you were told, this is a case of safek mashuch (or maybe R. Wozner indeed thinks that we dont have permision to pasel such a kav mashuch, but didnt want to openly meikal) second: there is a additional dimension of the law of kav mashuch, since the rishonim (beit yosef above) ...

This is a great initiative! To kick it off, here's a shaila I sent a number of years ago. Answer I received was that since there's a little blita at the top of the Lamed and since it widens at the top it can be considered Safek Kav Mashuch and fixed. It was of interest to me as it taught me that R' Shtern in Mishnat HaSofer (a big reference source for me) is quite machmir regarding kav mashuch and that taking into account other poskim we can rely on saying that kav mashuch is really fully pasul when it's a straight line like a stick, not a diamond shape with a bend. May I also suggest that each person who posts add their location and credentials, just makes this correspondence easier! Kol Tuv, Ari Posner Qualified Sofer STa"M and Magiha Ba'al Keri'ah Perth, Western Australia www.klstam.com