The International STa"M Forum

Hi, I have two questions- 1) This is officially a window, it was not designed as a door however people use it to get in and out. It comes up from the floor but not enough that you have to climb out as though you were climbing out of a window. is it chayev a mezuzah? 2) the daled with a healthy tag caused by the metayegs slipping a little. Shinu tzurah or fixable?

a relevant article on the reality of writing/buying/selling mezuzahs: http://www.jerusalemkoshernews.com/2013/09/the-stam-chronicle-2-mitzvas-mezuza/

http://www.bhol.co.il/Article.aspx?id=59578

Sefarim that are only ever used for one reading tend to wear out in that area. On Shabbos Chol Hamoed, we noticed some faded letters in the maftir sefer (not our maftir, but the one for Shavuos a little earlier on the amud.) While repairing them on Sunday,  I found many other letters beginning to peel. I also found out that the last yeriah in Pinchas and the first one in Mattos had already been replaced once due to this problem and I was fixing the new yerios. Constantly rolling over the same portion for decades takes its toll. Gabbaim can easily prevent that from happening by rotating their shul's Sifrei Torah. This is a cross post from my own blog where I wrote about it at greater length.

A Gut Moed, As you can see I spent some time tonight on updating the forum, I changed the template and updated the member list. Apologies to all new members for this taking so long. You may have noticed we started labeling some of the posts so that they can be more easily found, the topics are listed on the right under labels. Hopefully the labels will increase with time as we continue to go back and label old posts. Meanwhile if you could please label posts after you write them with a few key words on the side, that would be great. Wishing all contributors and readers a Gutten Kvittel!

This year I am doing a siyum on Chol hamoed. It's the fifth time I have done a siyum on Chol Hamoed . If the outline of the remaining letters is written before Yom Tov and the siyum involves just filling in letters,it is permitted to do so on chol hamoed because such work is not considered maaseh uman. It is for this reason that it is not uncommon for a siyum to occur on chol hamoed. My question is, if something goes wrong i.e. there is a smudge or mistake that needs to be repaired during the siyum process - and the skill needed to fix it is masseh uman  - ie we are not just filling in letters anymore, this is a proper tikkun - what is the din? Thankfully it has never happened to me, but I was wondering what happens in such a case and if anyone has experience in this matter. A gut Moed!

I was writing the name of hashem and went back to fix something and oy vey look what happened the regel became attached i was wondering if according to the tzemach tzetek this can be fixed

Someone asked me to fix there sefer torah that is missing all the dots on top of certain words in the sefer torah. I have never done this before and I was wondering over which words is it done and how

As several of you pointed out after I posted my כתב ע"ג כתב question last week, my writing is written in a "tweaked" Beis Yosef. I want to take a בחינה from the Vaad to receive a קבלה, but I am nervous that they might be wary of giving a קבלה with such an "interesting" כתב even if they hold that it is 100% kosher. Is this a valid concern? Weird things include: 1. No flat מושב on the למ"ד. 2. No head on the רגל of the קו"ף. 3. Pey Lafuf in פן. 4. I only put ziyyunim mamash on the Shaatnez Getz Tagin that are mentioned by the Rambam in הלכות מזוזה (i.e. special Tagin and not the ones that according to some rishonim are part of the צורת האות; or if you want you could call them תגים גדולים and תגים קטנים, as mentioned by the ספר התרומה and others) I was going to write a special, more standard מזוזה to present to the Vaad, but that seems very disingenuous.  (Sorry about the pics. They're from my wife's phone and not so clear.) ...

Does anyone know the earliest source(s) for the law of kesidran in tefillin and mezuzos?

I'm looking for a psak on  this yud, which is clearly lacking guf ( the only guf is the "kotz R'T)? And if it's kosher, is it mehudar after tikkun?   Reb Moshe, what  do you think? Is someone able to show this to Rav Friedlander next time they visit him? (Yehoshuah, Yerachmiel, Pesach)? Thanks!

Mazal Tov !! 2nd Birthday of the Forum !! The letters [begining the lines] are broken - nifsakim. I think the hay and last vav may be fixed in tefillin and mezuza, but the middle vav has totaly lost its tzuras ha'ois, rendering this mezuza pasul, without any possibilty to fix. I wish a good and successfull year to all friends of this forum.

This came out to be a nice mezuza...except for the erasure of the yud and vov in v'hayu (l'totafos). The impression of the yud and second vov are still visible, even though there is no actual ink left. The Mishna Brura quotes a Pri Megadim who says that it is a חשש פסול אפילו בדיעבד when there remains a רושם דיו. 1. Is this the case that the Pri Megadim is referring to? 2. Do we pasken like this Pri Megadim?

I received some mezuzos with a gold sticker from MISHMERES STA"M,is anybody familiar what this shows?

To all those writing Ksav Admur Hazaken: Usually, the customer that wants an Alter Rebbe Ksav Mezuzah, would also want the Shiur Parsha to be the way it's brought down in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch Siman 32, Kuntres Acharon 12; 9 Yudin after Uv'shearecha and 9 Yudin before Vehaya. not like this one.   

1. Does anyone now a days write teffilin/mezuzit/sefer torah/megilla on Gevil? 2. Are there a lot of Gevil 'forgers' out there? 3. Who can i buy gevil from that is reliable? 4. Are there any claims in the name of certain Rabbanim that certain things MUST be written on Gevil. any claims that they are BETTER to be written on Gevil 5. Are there any Halachik advantages to writing on Gevil. (ex: me'ubad ext..) That may make Gevil better to use.(putting aside the technical difficulty of writing on it due to its leathery texture) (PLEASE  PROVIDE CLAIMS OF THE  BENEFITS OF USING GEVIL EVEN IF YOU DONT NECESSARILY AGREE WITH THEM) PLEASE EXPLAIN FULLY. When answering, please respond by indicating which question you are addressing, for organizational purposes. Your time is much appreciated!!

I had finished a mezuzah and in one place I came back to finish off a mechikah and only after I cleaned it up I realized that a very thin line was in the sirtut touching the back of a vav possibly making it look like a zayin even thought at the moment it did not seem to me. my question is is that I once had a simmilar shaloh and someone was maikel mitzad chok tochos derabanan from a tsuvah of the tzmechach tzetek. I was wondering if the same would apply here. or is there any other kulah that can be applied your input is much appreciated. Thank you and may everyone have a sweet new year written in the book of life.

Can do a shaalas tinok on Daled of Yodecho?

DISCLAIMER: I would like to know the answer to my question below for educational purposes.  As I have said before, I am still in the learning stages of safrus. There are TWO shailas in this post, please give mareh mekomos when possible, I like to look everything up: FIRST: This shailah came up in my shul recently.  A few letters in a specific area had minor cracking.  Definitely passul but easily fixable. My shailah is, as it is before erev yom tov, there is no time to do a full computer checking of the sefer (which was checked before, was from a competent sofer and never had significant problems before--fairly new). Assuming the issues found are fixed, can we use the sefer for yom tov? What is the practical effect on the chazaka most stam has once its checked.  Is there any practical halachic effect of finding these (now fixed issues)? SECOND: A section of the torah is clearly written by a different sofer and this section has almost no tagim. A close review ...

Books for sofrim, at hebrewbooks.org Credit: The list is copied from Or-Lasofer forum. קול יעקב קסת הסופר פתחי שערים קביעת מזוזה כהלכתה לקט שאלות בהלכות מזוזה ספר סת"ם כתיבת סת"ם ברוך שאמר דברי יעקב מאיר עיני סופרים קנאת סופרים למען פארך קול סופרים תעלומות סופרים כתוב לחיים כתיבה ברורה נטעי גבריאל אות אמת