The International STa"M Forum

I wrote in a Hebrew blog  פורום לנושאי סת"ם: קרע ברצועה   that if the retzua was torn half way, and is lacking the shiur of width [1 cm] so that it is pasul, it is permitted in a needed situation (שעת הדחק) to paste [with glue] the parts together, and the retzua is kosher.

What is the halachcik status of this bent titora? Is it still kosher?

Click on pictures to enlarge: The samech is bdieved because the left line is centered - and not at its left side [as mentioned by the hai]. The nun, and both cafin are very wide. The yud of yemechem is pasul [it has no guf/regel], and the yud of kimai should be fixed.

According to the Tzemach Tzedek a yud without a regel  is a shalos tinok because it didnt loose its tzurah legamri, however im not quite sure what geder this is... any thoughts?

Is vellish really bedieved for ashkenazim? At least it's an accepted kabollah and perhaps a decent sefardi mezuzah (while in the first instance probably shouldnt be sold to ashkenazi jews for the same reason sefardi jews should not be sold ashkenazi sta"m ) is not really worth making an issue to the  "amcha " customers  that so often end up with whatever they were given. I would sooner make an issue about bedieveds within a  certain kabollah (such as short lameds) than a perfectly written mezuzah that just ended up in the "wrong" hands... I seem to recall a teshuvah from r' Shlomo Zalman Aurbach specifically about vellish. Obviously it would depend on the customer but I thing in general for "amcha" customers, we have bigger battles to fight as magihim...

could it be argued that changing a tzadi beis yosef to arizal or vice versa could be allowed because of the following tziruf: 1) ponim chadashos (sofek) and 2) kav moshuch (sofek)?

A trainee sofer in South Africa has asked me whether it would be permissible to write with carbon fibre pens that he makes. R. Ganzfried aside who permits barzel even though this is tantamount to engraving according to many, I have also seen the plastic nibs with the built in reservoirs. I actually have no idea what a carbon fibre pen is. Would this be counted as similar plastic or would it be considered as engraving?

What is l'maseh if there is a problem of zanev by tefillin? Is this din only by a mezuzah or are there times that it could be a problem also by tefillin?

R' Shammai Gross goes to the "HaSofer" store in Yerushalayim at least once a week to pasken shailos on STaM that has been checked there. Below is a shailo that he dealt with this past a week. A Beis that the tag on top was placed at the far left and longer than it should be. R' Shammai said it was pasul. R' Moshe Flumenbaum was nice enough to let me keep the parshiyos (he cut of the first 2 and gave me the last 2 -- how I was able to bring to you what I have below.) Please comment with your thought and opinions. I was a little surprised since I've seen R' Shammai be more makil with these sorts of shailos in the past. The chevra by the shop there were quite "happy" to hear that he said it was pasul since that's what they all seemed to believe it was going to be.

The beis in the second line is to short and lacks a true moshav - I think it is pasul, and cannot be fixed. The beis in the third line is also to short - but may be fixed after a tinok reads it as a beis.

Can I have the publics opinion on this "End-Mem"?

How does it look now?

This shailo was brought to R' Mordechai Friedlander last week after this persons tefillin (tefillin from a young avreich) were checked. This is from the Shel Rosh and was the only problem found. The vav of "והגדת". You can see the same problem happened with the left regel of the Tav (although not a problem in the kashrus.) R' Friedlander pasuled it. My chevrusa who is friends with the guy offered to send it to me to bring to R' Shammai. I did and R' Shammai said it's a shailos tinnok (He said that the Mikdash Ma'at writes that if you are in sofek if the rosh is going over to the right side then a tinnok would help. He believes this is the case here. You can see that it's a vav.) I said that R' Friedlander already pasuled it and the guy was planning to buy new tefillin. He said although it's a shailo since he already pasuled it I believe it's a shailos tinnok and if the tinnok calls it a vav then b'seder, he can do how he pleases....

Hi all, Someone brought me  a megillah to decorate the sides and top margins with designs and illustrations. i know that this is done in megillos but wouldnt this be a  problem of "marking" kisvei kodesh which is certainly problematic in other areas of stam. Why is it accepted by megillah and not other kisvei kodesh in stam...

What does everyone say about the nun in דגנך? Referencing Mishnat HaSofer, on the one hand he says as long as it doesn't look like a bet, even if the moshav is shorter than the rosh it's kosher, on the other hand he brings kol sofrim and daat kadoshim that say its a sheilat tinok.

nun from venossati reish from yirbu thanks

Hi all, I recently had a situation where I ordered a sefardi sefer torah and the sofer left only a few letters to be filled in by the shul. the shul wants more for donors and want to know if i can scratch out some letters, to be filled in at the siyum . The sefer has osiyos nifsakim at the end, not osiyos challalim, so the sefer is definitely NOT kosher. Furthermore the yeriyos are not sewn together yet, so it is a work in progress. Question is, can one make more small nifsakim to accommodate the extra donors? Obviously hashems name cannot be touched but what about some other words / letters? Feedback appreciated...

Am just fixing a very small torah from Canada - fortunately only minor repairs. However I have noticed that the discs of the atsey chayyim are all lose. I have dealt with individual loose discs before and repaired them. However the fact that all four are loose and by the looks of the disc hole size were deliberately made so gives me pause for thought that his was a deliberate thing because the Torah is so small. Should I fix them or leave them as is. Has any one any thoughts/experience of this? Todah.

This is someone related to my previous post however I'd like to keep this separate. If someone wrote tagim that became connected at the bottom is there a problem just to erase what is connecting them in order to separate them? I know there is a discussion about chok tochos by tagim. R' Shtern in his Sefer writes if they were simply connected one to the other then it wouldn't be a problem to be mafrid them. However here in this case it formed a very very small shin seemingly this would go into the discussion he brings there if in a "normal" case of chok tochos by tagim if there is such a problem or not. (See Mishnas HaSofer Siman 5 Sif 4 in Biur HaSofer d"h "Shatnaz Getz".)