The International STa"M Forum

Does anyone know when the practice of writing the letters in outline for a siyum sefer Torah began? And where / by whom did the practice originate? Thanks

I hope everyone had an easy fast. We discussed this once a while ago but does anyone have an official reason or explanation why the custom according to the Arizal of making the right side of the choteteres of the ches thicker than the left is largely ignored? Furthermore it is brought down in SA Harav so why aren't the Chabad sofrim makpid? Any insight would be appreciated. Tthanks

An ink Blot fell right on the Shem, and after carefully blotting the wet ink immediately, all that was left was a very light shadow, which would not be disqualifying at all. After cleaning it a little more with an eraser, nothing at all was left from the ink that fell, and the original shem remained as clear as before. What are your opinions on the matter, with sources/reasoning please?

This is not the first time I've encountered this problem in a mezuza. Again, I'll reiterate - it is not easy to distinguish between (1) a yud whose Rosh is slanted and also functions as a "kotz" אליבא דחתם סופר ודעימיה and between (2) and yud that has only a kotz and no Rosh. In this case I believe it's the latter. (Btw we've been here before www.stamforum.com/2014/02/yud.html though I think this case is worse)

סכנה: רצועות תפילין עם חותמת כשרות מזוייפת דוד קורצוייל כ״ו בתמוז תשע״ה 13/07/2015 http://www.93fm.co.il/radio/214311   סיפור עגום על זייפן תשמישי קדושה נחשף הערב במהדורה המרכזית של קול חי. מדובר על איש בליעל שבעבר נקשרו בשמו סיפורים על זיוף תפילין ועוד תשמישי קדושה. הערב דווח במהדורה על על חותמת כשרות מזויפת, כביכול מבית דינו של הגרמ"ש קליין שמתנוססת על רצועות תפילין שאינם כשרות. לצרכנים קשה מאוד לדעת שמדבור בזיוף כשרות. זה מוצר שנרכש פעם ב– ואנשים לא עוקבים חודשים אחרי לבדוק האם פרשייה שנחשפה קשורה למוצר שקנה אי פעם. הרב ישראל יוד ממכון פאר שוחח עם אבי מימרן ונתן 'טיפים' לזיהוי מוצרים שאינם כשרים. "מאז ומתמיד היו כל מיני יצרנים שהמציאו לעצמם תעודת כשרות פרטית ומפוקפקת. לאחרונה זה הגיע לרצועות שם יש בעיה קשה כי נכנסו מספר יצרנים לתחום. ברצועות יש יותר הלכות מאשר בבתים. הלכה למשה מסיני זה ברצועות. זה צריך להיות מעובד לשם קדושת תפילין עם צביעה לשמה. בשנים האחרונות זוהתה שיש בעיה ולכן אצלנו ב'פאר' יש רצועות רק בכשרות העדה החרדית או הגרמי...

I am presently learning hilchot safrut to the best of my ability, however, I would much prefer to learn with a sofer. Furthermore, the schul I daven at during the summer has three passul sefarim which need to be corrected, including a beautiful, small, Sephardi sefer which we used to use for regular k'riah and our former maftir sefer. While I know of one sofer, I have yet to hear back from him (and I feel uncomfortable giving his name because I'm not sure whether that would be to'eles). Kol tuv

I have been trying to learn the halachot of k'tivat sta"m, however, I am still looking for the relevant sefarim, seeing as the ones on Hebrewbooks.org are mostly illegible. One sefer that I've noticed is Likut Sifrey Sta"m. Does anyone know how good this sefer is? Is the type clear? The illustrations? Are there any alternatives which are likely a better choice? On talking with a sofer in the NY area, I was advised to wait on this sefer and to look instead at Mishnat Hasofer. Does anyone know if it's possible to find this for under $30US?

  ז  וַיַּךְ שָׁאוּל, אֶת-עֲמָלֵק, מֵחֲוִילָה בּוֹאֲךָ שׁוּר, אֲשֶׁר עַל-פְּנֵי מִצְרָיִם.   ח  וַיִּתְפֹּשׂ אֶת-אֲגַג מֶלֶךְ-עֲמָלֵק, חָי; וְאֶת-כָּל-הָעָם, הֶחֱרִים לְפִי-חָרֶב.  The sofer must have accidentally skipped a line leaving out the bolded letters above.  How would you go about adding it in?  

Regel and kotz but no Rosh?

From Facebook:

A friend of mine writes mezuzot by placing the klaf on a transparency. The length of the lines in the transparency is shorter than the distance from the right vertical  שרטוט  to the left vertical שרטוט . This results in a blank space being left at the end of each line between the end of the line and the left vertical שרטוט , as seen in the picture below. How kosher is it?

I recently did a Tefillin workshop with a Bar Mitzvah school group of a dozen or so kids. Besides for learning many of the halochos of tefillin, I did an interactive 3 session project where the boys made their own pshutim mehudarim batim. Of course the tefillin are not being used in real life but the project gave them a practical understanding of many of the halaochos they had learned about tefillin. The best part was that there was no cost , I was able to obtain the pieces from a factory in Yerushalayim who were happy to give me their seconds. Its the first time I did this and the boys enjoyed it very much. I think its a good idea for anyone out there who does school presentations and workshops, especially for Bar Mitzvah aged groups.

Hi, just wondering what people do with regard to inconsistent kabollah tagin in tefillin and mezuzos that they check. My policy in the past (based on my shimush) was not to correct them (many sofrim vary slightly) unless the discrepancy was very blatant. But I see some sofrim scratch and add and make a real big deal of it.

After I wrote the Shem, as I was writing the following line, the Hey got smudged. Is there any chance the Shem can be left as it is? Thanks YK

(I believe the klaf is about 5 cm, so it's small. Click to enlarge.) A 15 year old boy I've been encouraging to pursue safrus asked me to post his ksav and ask for comments. He also would like to know how much the finished pitum haketores would be worth. Thank you! 

My father-in-law bought this Mezuza from highly regarded Sofer in Netanya. He paid a lot for it - 200 dollars - and I wanted your opinion about it. I found that some Chaf Sofits are not long enough and that some Lameds are going into to letters above. Overall I'm underwhelmed about this one.

I am having gvil made for a Sefer Torah for myself and the gvil macher wants to know how to be m'sartet the Shiros. I have never written a Sefer Torah before and I have no idea! How am I supposed to cheshbon them relative to the other yeri'os? It is a 48-line sefer; does that make any difference?

I am looking for a sofer who can write very mehudar pitzponim in ksav Beis Yosef and has experience doing so with Dio Lanetzach. Any leads would be appreciated.