The International STa"M Forum

If I can shorten the ayin would the nun sofit be kosher?

The Nun from hotziyonu has a small kotz coming out the back of the bottom right, possibly a shailos tinok. I felt certain the child would read it as a nun, esp compared to the other gimmels. To my surprise, the tinok read it as a gimmel. My gut feeling is to show another few tinokim and go with the majority, since I feel the child may have erred on this. However at what point does one decide to negate the original tinok and show it to more than one tinok? Am I doing the right thing by showing it to other tinokim just because he surprised me? He is the tinok I usually use and generally fares well. What does Reb Moshe (or others) think? I never understood the criteria of using multiple tinokim.

My regular source for retzuos (I only use avodas yad) under Rav M.S. Klein is out for about a month. (I have plenty Edah retzuos.) I need a number of rolls and someone recommended retzuos from Rot also under Rav M.S. Klein. Does anyone have any experience with them?

AHRON TOUCHED A RAW NERVE BY ASKING IF THERE IS ALSO A MEKOTZETZ. The above parshios seem like decent tefilin however they were made on an assembly line and the sofer has no rebbe or no yiras shamayim, and the metayag is definitely a young bochur who has no idea what he is doing and  its very possible that he is not mekadesh -which again on tagim wouldn't pasel. None of the following pasul the parshios but are wrong : alef beis yosef in ksav ari eikev habeis to long gimel head should be square-it should be rosh not gag , eikev hadalet too long eikev hay too long sometimes right foot is in middle of gag as second hay of hazeh hay of shem not according to kabala -these are ari parshios vav missing tag-ari zayin-is long ,head is not square  לא יהא רגלה ארוך מב' קולמסים,וראשה- ויהיה מרובע ches makel too short הוא כמו תג גדול yud-MEKOTZETZ  for those who need source that tag elyon should be longer then kotz see pm"g kaf- square inside LAMED IS MEHUIDAR YAY IT H...

The bottom YOD in the above Alef differs from one that is usually found "TELUYA BEGUFAH" (lit. hanging from it's body).  In the above case, the bottom foot appears to be lacking a "YEREKH."  Is there room to be lenient, or would you consider it just plain passul?

Reish from "YISROEL"

Technically speaking we havespace for  a half of yud,  a nun which is one kulmus, a yud is one and the chaf is 2 so we have 4.5 kyudim on the bottom on top we have a vav 1, a beis which is 2. and mayne another half totaling 3 which gives us a total of 7.5 however if a sofer was to make narrow yuds we might fit

מזונות

I have heard that working with dust from sanding batim smooth and fumes from teffilin paint can be cancerous is there a proper way to exhaust work room and prevent damage to ones health ?

Hello All Just a quick question -must  the two tagim in the Lamed be clearly visible or it's ok as long as there are two tagim, and that the one in the right is higher? I've seen a few times Lameds with small tagim, that are properly done but quite small. I guess I can ask the same about all tagim, including Shatnez Getz. Can they be very small or is there a point of making them big and clear. thank you YK

A few weeks ago I posted a shailoh involving a chof pshutah that looked like a big reish, Below is an informative and comprehensive Teshuvah from Rabbi Chaim Heimlich Shlita on the matter. I Share it with members of this forum below:

בס"ד כבוד הסופרים והבודקים הנכבדים, מזכי הרבים, די בכל אתר ואתר שלומכון ישגא הגאון הרב מרדכי פרידלאנדר שליט"א  אב"ד ור"מ קרית שומרי החומות בעיה"ק ירושת"ו,  צלצל אלינו להודיע להזהיר ולפרסם על סופר בשם   בנציון זלמנוב   שנבחן לפני 10 שנים לערך וידע טוב מאד. אך  לצערינו הנ"ל סרח  ופרק לגמרי עול תורה ומצוות, הולך גלוי ראש, נוסע בפרהסיה ברכבו בשב"ק, לא צם ביום כיפור, הכניס את ילדיו לבתי ספר חילוניים ר"ל, ומתגורר סמוך לעיר חיפה. בינתיים אין לנו "תמונת כתב ידו" במזוזות או בפרשיות תפילין,  על כן כדי לאפרושי מאיסורא הננו פונים להסופרים והסוחרים שיש בידם דוגמא או צילום מכתב ידו, כדי שנוכל למנוע מכשלה רבה זו מאחב"י  והשי"ת יצילנו ממכשולות, מלבד ביטול קיום המצוה הוי "סכנה ואין בה מצוה" הואיל ושמות הקדושים אינם משמשים למצוה הוי סכנה  כמבואר באור זרוע (על תפילין עגולות) והובא בשו"ת שבט הלוי נא להעביר ידיעה דחופה זו לשאר סופרי וסוחרי הסת"ם די בכל אתר ואתר בצער ר...

Shalom to all, I am wondering if anyone can shed some light on the following issue: In Keses Ha'sofer 8,5 a scenario is discussed in which one wrote a rei"sh and subsequently changed it into a dale"d by adding an akev on the back etc. He concludes, that although one is not required to erase the whole thing, rather one can erase the akev together with one of the two limbs of the rei"sh, nonetheless " hamachmir... tavo alav beracha ". My understanding of this is: that since there are opinions (i.e. Rada"ch) who would deem it " miktzas ha'os be'chak tochos " to erase only some and leave some to be included in the final letter, therefore, there is virtue, albeit not required, to erase the entire letter before rewriting it. Now, just 3seif'im later, regarding " me"m pesucha shenistema " Keses rules, that although the me"m is written in two distinct parts (and therefore, only the latter part of the me"m...

I have checked a number of mehudar pairs of tefillin recently where the shel yad has been written on more than one piece of klaf. My understanding based on the Mishnas Hasofer was that this is kosher lechatchila but not mehudar. Looking again at the Mishnas Hasofer (Siman Chof - Biur Hasofer - Vehaminhag ledovkom) he concludes - Therefore it would appear that parshiyos that are glued are kosher lechatchila without any doubt, however they are lacking in hidur and mitzva min hamuvchar. Searching the forum I came across the following post from Reb Moshe Weiner a couple of years ago. (July 17 2012) Question:   Are parshiyot of yad on klaf that was glued from 2 pieces, [the kadesh, vehaya and shma, where on the first klaf, and the last parsha vehaya im shamoa was written on another klaf, and later glued to the first], are they kosher lechatchila? Answer:   They are kosher lechatchila. Although it is a mitzva lechatchila to try to write all 4 parshiyot on 1 k...

THIS PAIR CAME IN TODAY the inside was divided into 4 equal square compartments with klaf

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