The International STa"M Forum

I was asked to check all the seams in a sefer Torah, and to fix any tsuras ha'os issues that I saw in passing, for a Torah with a number of damaged seams.  If anyone in the New York area could give me an idea of the going hourly rate for this in our area, either by commenting here or by e-mail to sofrus AT dovberger.com, I'd be most appreciative. A zisn Pesach!

Hello everyone, I want to prepare my own Klaf. I have been offered to take skins from freshly slaughtered animals. Fro a farm in Maryland. Does anyone want to get involved in this project? Kol Tuv, Yitzchock

Hello, I recently had a gentile ask me to write him a Song of Songs scroll. He wants it for himself to keep since this is his favorite book. I know we are allowed to teach Torah to a goy that wants to learn it for the sake of Heaven and so forth, but this seems like a grey area. If there is someone who has experience with this sort of thing please enlighten me. Thanks

I would greatly appreciate if sources can be indicated. Thank you.

This question is a bit random, but someone asked me (I guess in my capacity as a sofer) why a) by the Aseres Hadibros in parshas Yisro, all are stumos except the commandment of Shabbos (which is a psucha), and b) in the 2nd Aseres Hadibros in partshas Veschanan, all ten are stumos without exception. If anyone has seen an explanation for this, I'd be grateful if they could kindly share it...

An old friend of mine, (and former employer) owns a Tefillin store in Jerusalem. When he was a child, he contracted a very invasive form of cancer. It was already stage four by the time it was diagnosed. Doctors held out little hope. There was, however, a slight chance. An experimental treatment was to be tested. His parents agreed to have him take part in the first human trial. It didn't work. Of the 400 children treated, 399 died. Only my friend survived. The doctors called it a miracle. They cautioned, however, that he would never be able to have children. He s now the proud father and grandfather of many! When I worked in his store, frequently people with advanced cancers would come to him for counseling. He would put his work aside, and give these people his full attention, He gave them the feeling that there is always hope; not because he had READ it, but because he had BEEN there. As I have written before, divorce is sometimes necessary. But media make it seem almost tren...

The tinok read this as a tav.

An acquaintance is borrowing a Torah from a day school for his daughter's bas mitsve, and the day school is unclear whether their insurance covers the Torah while it's offsite; he asked me what sort of insurance one would need to get to cover the Torah while it's at his house.  (Apparently, Google suggested that he ask a sofer, and I'm the sofer he knows.)  Does anyone have any thoughts on the issue? Thanks in advance for any thoughts on the matter.

A clear shinui tzura - a mistake leading a Ayin look like a Tzadik. I will erase most of it

I recently returned from a 6 week tefillin and mezuzah checking campaign. In dealing with mostly balabatim, many seniors with minimal yeshiva education, the number of batim and retzuos that lack paint is staggering. (The number of people wearing their shel rosh too low is also a very serious issue and not easy to tackle when they've been doing it for years without anyone telling them otherwise. I'm glad I've been able to made a dent over the course of a number of visits.) I'm attaching a picture of a shel rosh that blew me away. The side of the retzuah that you see is the front!! Fortunately he now has properly painted batim and all black retzuos.

Rabbi Greenfeld from Vaad Mishmereth Stam published an article showing that the letter  פ   can be written in the "right shape" and can be written in a "wrong shape" which was invented by a Sofer from Minsk. The title of the article is pretty harsh: זיופי הסופר רא"ח שמאלעוויצער ממינסק Here is the link: http://theworldofstam.blogspot.com/2012/04/blog-post.html And here is the article in larger format (easier to read): https://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/88071125 There is reference to  משיכה לאחור   which is valid with ancient sources, and reference to a "broken פ "  which is invalid.  I could not understand the difference. Can somebody please explain? Is this            the  "right" shape or the "wrong" shape?

Does anyone know of a way to do computer checking via the internet, either via a website or emailing scans to someone?

I have now received unanimous psak from a number of noteworthy rabbonim on the negiya between the beis and the shin posted some weeks ago on this forum. As I feared, the negiya is unable to be scraped and the parsha needs gnizah. While the outcome of many of these tricky shailos are toloi leinei hamoreh, It reinforces to me how important proper training for a magiha really is. As mentioned in the first post, I first encountered this particular shailo when doing shimush years ago. The shailo only came up once (out of  thousands I saw and recorded) and I have rarely encountered it since. Please don't take this the wrong way, my intention is not to show off or put anyone down who made light of the shailo. Rather, my intention is just to marvel at the fact that had this shailo not come up that one time during my shimush 15 years ago, I probably would have just scraped the negiya of last week and not thought twice about it. For me, that's a scary thought and reinforces, in my mind...

Few days ago the Daf Yomi in Kesubos covered the Halacha that a person shouldn't keep in his house a Sefer that contains errors (Sh'eino Muga), be it missing words or misspellings, because somebody might interpret this sefer erroneously. I'm writing my Sefer Torah and some bigger tikkunim I'm leaving for later, because I'm looking for better equipment for erasing (ie machine). Is the problem of Sefer Sh'eino Muga applicable, and perhaps I (and all of us) should take care of any errors immediately rather than pushing it off? Thanks YK

What is the going rate for checking a Sefer Torah? Specifically a Sefer Torah that is generally in decent condition but with a lot of fading Tagin and occasional broken letters. Thanks.

My set up is a 24x18 drawing board on a DIY PVC stand. I started safrus a number of years ago in NY, but it fell to the wayside when I moved to FL. I've been trying to get back on track, but now since my job stabilized I have more time to devote to safrus. Right now I'm practicing on paper with ink thickened with gum arabic. I order klaf about a week and a half ago to write a megillah for myself and I still have half a bottle of nahari ink that is still good. As you can see, I still need some practice before starting on klaf.

I've never really gotten into the second hand sefer Torah business, however recently a shul here  bought a few new sifrei torah and couldn't finish paying for them. As a settlement, Rabbi Yurslavsky paskened that they could give me some of the older seforim and I could sell them and take the funds off what they owe. I'm not looking to get top dollar and this may be a good opportunity for someone looking to buy a second hand sefer. I plan on advertising them. However I have no idea what to charge.  This is the best one (pictured). Its alter rebbes ksav, (new it would be $35,000 -  $40,000), second hand I'm sure is a lot less. Its in very good condition, NOT a pre war holocaust sefer, the entire sefer is jet black ink with black tagin‎. Clear beautiful writing, see attached picture. Even the sirtut is strong. It's also smallish and light (I think 45cm klaf size) so its not like the older heavier ones. Any Ideas how to price something like...

Someone from Baltimore called me looking for a hand written ketubah for $400.00 or less, or else a nice printed ketuba in which the Sofer can fill in... If you provide this service please respond with your contact info. I will pass it onto him. Thanks