The International STa"M Forum

I tried to find a common denominator to all the Machlokot on the subject of ink composition and properties. Here is what I came up with. Comments and suggestions will be appreciated. כל מה שכתבו חכמים בעניני דיו אפשר לחלק לארבע קבוצות:    א. הלכות מעכבות,  ב. הידורים,  ג. המלצות טכניות,  ד. סיפור מעשה או תאור מציאות טכנית או פגם טכני בסוג מסוים של דיו.  כשלומדים את הלכות הדיו צריך להזהר שלא לטעות ולא לערבב בין הקבוצות השונות.  הטעות הנפוצה ביותר היא פירוש דבר מקבוצה ב, ג, או ד, כאילו הוא הלכה מעכבת. בקונטרס תעלומות סופרים מסביר הסופר לוי יצחק מברדיטשוב את הסיבה לטעויות: "והסיבה לזה הוא מפני מיעוט בקיאות הסופרים בדברי הפוסקים ומיעוט בקיאות המחברים האחרונים דזמנינו בידיעת תכונות וטבע מיני הדיו."  (שאלה לט, א) יש בדיו רק מעט הלכות מעכבות, והן: שחור. לפחות שני מרכיבים, האחד משחיר והשני מדביק. מן המותר בפיך. לכתחילה צריך להיות שחור מעשן. בדיעבד, יש אומרים כשר ויש אומרים פסול אם בתחילת עשייתו אינו שחור, והשחרות מופיעה אח"כ מעצמ...

I have a PDF including 39 brief psakim of Rabbi Zalman Shimon on sta"m, put out by איגוד כותבי סת"ם קראון הייטס, תשמ"ה Since I can't (or don't know how to) download a PDF file on this site, anybody interested in this file, I will happily mail. moishebaz@gmail.com

Over the past few days I have received numerous emails and phone calls from panicked customers who are reading about this retzuah controversy on the Internet. I really think this whole thing is overrated. Here's why: 1) These retzuos are still mehudar according to many poskim such as Rav Moshe S. Klien. 2) It's not like the guy did something deliberately wrong to be machte es horabim, he simply made an honest error and did not choose the correct manufacturing procedure. If people are looking for scandals in Stam, then in my opinion, the following are far more scandalous: 1) Many  mezuzos and tefillin sold in Judaica shops around the world, many owned and run by by frum Yidden, are not written by sofrim with ksav kaballah. Based on my own research and experience, more than 50% of sofrim working in the "conveyor belt" safrus industry do not have ksav kaballah! 2) Many magihim operating both in Israel and the US do not have kaballa for "hagaha". Like i...

1. Is this hybrid between a tav and a hey kosher? does it have tzuras tav? 2. A vav or zayin that is too long and looks like a final nun, to be fixed does the whole letter need to be erased, or just the regel? (iow, m"m says to erase the whole letter (not because of the reda"ch), is that the halacha?)

If one added diyo to a mezuza and too much diyo came out so that the diyo is high in one spot may one draw out the extra ink through a napkin? I am referring when there is no shinui tzura but it might spread through time. On a bent tefillin corner may one add leather dust to fix it?

I always understood that to stretch letters of "Lehaderes" (Lamed, hay, daled, reish and tof) was acceptable lechitchillah. In the sefer torah above, the photo depicts some stretched letters of Lehaderes. Am I correct to assume that such a sefer, with the occasional stretched letter of "Lehaderes" is definitely kosher lechatchillah? Has anyone heard anything otherwise, and that the above sefer would not be kosher lechatchillah?

We know that many very small Mezuzot are very poorly and hastily written but the one below is possibly one of the worst examples I've ever seen where the letters forms are totally unacceptable in so many places - wierd pehs, tsadis that look like ayins, mems that look like chets (which is an amazing achievement - staggeringly bad!), k'shtey milim, negiot, no enlarged letters and more. The bottom two words are also right at the bottom of the parchment which has been trimmed very badly so that they are not mukaf g'vil.  I use it for demo purposes. Thought I'd share.

     Is this a kosher hei? The left regel is wide and rightwards; the akev from the bet makes a new regel .

What is the halacha about having Mezuzah cases of kids programs like Pokemon or Sesame street? Or having the logo of sport teams etc?(e.g having Elmo's face on the Mezuzah case) I have heard some Rabbonim say it's ok and some not..so whats the tachlis halacha?

http://www.vosizneias.com/112260/2012/08/23/new-york-the-tefillin-strap-retzuos-controversy There is a Hallachic difference between paint and ink. Paint צבע must soak into the leather. Ink דיו must stay on the surface and not soak in.

I was at someone's home yesterday putting up mezuzos and I came across a difficult shailah. There is a large opening between a kitchen and another room which has a mashkof on top and one doorpost on one side, which has a mezuzah. The other side does not really have a doorpost because the kitchen counter breaks it up (see pic), but there is part of a doorpost going up about one meter on the other side. Ideally the mezuzah should go on the side as one enters which would be on the right (yemin haknisah) since the front door is behind the photographer, but there is no full doorpost omn that side. chashivus is not really a factor here because both rooms are essentially the same and part of the kitchen. So practically the mezuzah was put up on the other side. Is this correct? Should it be changed, and if so, how or even taken off all together? Feedback appreciated.

I would like to hear some good eitzahs from the olam on fixing a warped titora tachtona (that is bending downwards) of pshutim mehudarim? Thank you

its a very small eikev and slightly round on the top and bottom of the eikev

Here is an excellent video explaining Sofrut and the importance of kavana. It was featured on Ha'aretz Online last week - which itself is a Kiddush Hashem. Yashar ko'ach Rabbi Rosenfeld!  http://bcove.me/iqyaswv7

Has anyone tried using dyo lonetzach for painting retzuos and would it be suitable or would it peel off?

What do you say on this yud? A thin long line extended down the regel with a thicker regel above it.

I wrote a series of educational posts about purchasing STAM on my own blog over a period of several months. The entire series has been edited, updated, and repackaged as a free ebook. The ebook is currently available in the following formats: Mobi for Kindle and Kindle apps. ePub for most other e-readers. PDF for printing or viewing on a PC, Mac, smartphone, or tablet computer. Before releasing it to the general public, I'd appreciate input from the members of this forum. Click the image above to go to the download page, and let me know what you think via the comments on this post. The ebook is free of charge for anyone to download, copy, and distribute without modification, subject to a Creative Commons license. For more details on usage, see the STAMink Press license . Since the ebook is very much a work-in-progress, please subscribe to be notified of updates. Looking forward to hearing from you…

We all know that in order to not be confused with a kaf, a bet shouldn't have a rounded corner and should have a pronounced heel (ideally with a little kots) but in older sifrey this isn't always the case. I've started restoring a Torah that was rescued from Germany just before Kristalnacht and throughout the bets are very rounded and the heel is not always that pronounced. When there is a kaf in the vicinity it is obvious which is which, but when there isn't a reader could very easily mistake this for a kaf (e.g. the middle ones) even with the light tag on the end. Above are some examples some with heels more pronounced than others. What do people think? I am adding ink to the heel where there is potential for confusion but am a bit loathe to square the corners since this is the style of the sofer and there is much history attached to this Torah.