The International STa"M Forum

I received this as a sample of a sofer who can write a medium quality Afrizal script sefer torah. I noticed the pay in the word beginning on the 10th bottom lineis a little funny. I was wondering, s this pay kosher lechatchillah?

Below is their final email I just received . I have attached the whole correspondence in case anyone missed it Dear Rabbi Eli, Thank you for your good advice.  We will check this matter and maybe find a different sofer to purchase our scrolls from. As for the scrolls your community member wishes to return, if you let us know when you will be in Jerusalem and in which of our shops we will have the money refund waiting for you there. Sincerely, Ronit and Chaya "CHAYA" 13 Cardo St. Jewish Quarter Jerusalem ISRAEL Tel:  972-2-6280751 Fax:  972-2-6288098 Cell:  972-523-823-544 E-mail:  ronit@chaya.co.il Web:  www.chaya.co.il                          * 6 Yoel Salomon St., Jerusalem Tel:   972-2-6240720                           * Mamilla, Jerusalem Tel:  972-2-6253241 From: Rabbi Eli Gutnick [mailto:melbournesofer@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, December 25, 2011 2:51 PM To: chaya Subject: Re: Mezuzah Purchase Dear Chaya and Ronit, Thank you for your response to my email. I

What do you think of the kuf of "umilkosh"? do you think its just a fat tag or he wrote another lamed and was too lazy to erase it and turned it into a kuf without erasing the rosh?

Yehoshua, [shaylos for tommorow] Please ask Rabbi Shammai: A.  What is the law bdieved if the black paint of the retzua peeled off in some place. Is it kosher if the majority was left black, or the shiyur rochav of the retzua must be totally black, so if the width is less than the shiyur although the majority of the width is still black it is pasul, even bdieved. B. The M ishna B rura [27:42] וצריך ליזהר מאוד where the retzua is bent because of the kesher… Does this mean that it was bent and stretched permanently because of the kesher and therefore lost its minimum width, but the MB is not concerned about the width at the time a person puts them on since the retzua actualy has a shiyur – it is just that because he is tying the tefilin on, the retzuos are bent temporarily , so the shiyur is considered complete and intact. Or the MB means even if it is bent only at the time a person puts them on, he is not yotze yday chova ? And what is Rabbi Shammai's opinion l'ha

enlarge for better view Yehoshua, Please ask [and post the answers from] Rabbi Shammai shlita, in regard to this mezuza. [I gave one pic. of the mezuza, and a second the same, only I encircled the following questions]: 1. Is the revach in the word מצוך kosher, or not. May it be fixed? how? 2. Are the 3 end lines on the left (starting U'vesherecha) pasul as a kuba? 3. Are the yuds incircled kosher or not (since their foot is much longer than their head - around twice or more. enlarge to see clearer and also when you print! ) if not, may they be fixed? 4. Are the nuns incircled kosher, or they are shvura or shinuy tzura? Thanks for your help, and I hope this may be help to all the forum members. In any case anybody that wants to comment before R. Shammai's comments or after, please - as Yehoshua stated in his post, one of the issues of this forum is also to learn !!

I have started to take any shailo posted here on the blog to ask R' Shammai Gross Shlit"a. We are all here to share and learn and I figured this is a good way of learning more. I'm a talmid of his and speak to him on a daily basis so to print out 2 or 3 shailos to bring on a daily/weekly basis is not so much (hopefully the ink on my printer won't go so fast!) I will perhaps in due time go through older posts as well to find more shailos (might take a while.) Any of those shailos I will re-post with some sort of note and the psak. In the meantime anything that stays up on the first page here I will try my best to print out and bring in and post in the comments with the psak before it moves off into the archives. With this in mind when taking pictures, scanning, editing photos, etc make it the best as possible especially so I can print it out here on my home ink-jet printer Yasher Koach to everyone here and a Freilechen Channukah.

I did some decoloring - is this more accurate? The question here is it permitted to fix in tefilin??

The tes (is this is a mlo ois ketana underneath that would posul)?

Is the Alef of Acheirim missing the Regel of the Yud Ha'elyonah? Is it allowed to be fixed?

Are these dalet or reish??? Also the beis of v'avadtem?? I cut out these words from the mezuza psula that I posted last week.

Is this beis [be'eto] kosher? Is this caf [artzechem] kosher?

I’m in the middle of writing a series of educational posts about purchasing STAM on my own blog — trying to give potential STAM buyers as much information as possible so that they can be educated consumers, while at the same time not overloading them with too many extraneous details. The series isn’t done yet, but based on what I have so far I’ve developed a “worksheet” for people to use to evaluate the merits and weaknesses of STAM from different sources. Ideally, the worksheet is a supplement to the blog, but it should be able to stand on its own as well. I believe the worksheet is ready to release into the wild, but it would be helpful to have input from other STAM professionals first. Please take a look and comment on this post if you feel there is anything missing or extra that takes away from the effectiveness of the worksheet as an educational tool. The worksheet is free of charge for anyone to download, copy, and distribute without modification, subject to a Creative Comm

I think there is a need for a website that names resellers and retailers of fraudulent mezuzos. Perhaps mezuzahwatch.com or the like. If these guys won't listen to reason or halacha, perhaps if their businesses are threatened they may come to their senses.

So that everyone knows who they are conversing with, I have updated the Stam Forum membership list.  I would like to introduce the following new members: R' Ezra Kahfif User name: Ezra Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil R' Elad Rozenfeld User name : Elad Location: Palo Alto, California R' Yehoshuah Deitel User name: Yehoshuah Location: Jerusalem, Israel R' Etan Katz User name: Etan Katz Location: Beit Shemesh, Israel R' Yerachmiel Askotzky User name: Yerachmiel Askotzky Location : Israel R' Aryeh Schechter user name: aaa Location: Brooklyn, NY Some of the above members are noted authors and experts in the field of Stam. Welcome to the Forum and we look forward to your contributions!

I have an interesting reoccuring problem. Every time I have to do a Mechika, although I use a #10 blade, an ink eraser, and sand paper, and it comes out perfectly white at that moment, the very next day, everything that was erased reappears as a shadowy image of all those letters. I know this has to do with some chemical reaction; I just don't know what to do to avoid this happening other then erasing the first time like I always do and then putting the sta''m aside until the next day and then erasing it again after it reappears, leaving it completely white as I want it. This is very impractical when trying to complete a pair of Tefillin. By the way, the ink I use is Nahari. If anyone has any advice, I'd be very grateful.

Line 14 should end with the word את ,but השמים was also written on this line. From that point on, the mezuza was written in a different way as the tradittional(Keeset Hasofer, 27-5, Lishkat Hasofer-4). Does this make the mezuza posul, or it is kosher bedieved and just the soffer was not "metticulous"?

Is this nun posul?

Since we recently had a lot of talk about "Mr Metayeg", here is a "metayeg" who put Christian crosses on the first line and shem Hashem's. This was recently found in Israel.