The International STa"M Forum

Hi Eli, Please find below an excerpt from Halakha Berurah detailing how the Parasha Setuma of Vehaya Im Shamoa' must be written for Sepharadim.  I have underlined below where he mentions that a space measuring at least 9 (large) letters should be left open at the beginning of the perasha. Best regards, Alberto

I often see sfardi Parshiyos with "Rambam" stuma for parshas vehoya im shemoa space less than 9 osiyos gedolos . If the shema goes until the end of the line but the sofer leaves more than 9 osiyos ketanos but less than 9 osiyos gedolos at the beginning of VI"S, what is the status of the parshiyos for sfardim (obviously for Ashkenazi it's fine). Thanks

I think the saving factors are that the yud is fat and short. I've seen many yud beis negiyos a lot worse... I really can't see a tinok reading it as a mem. However I still feel shailos chochom is called for...

What does the Olam think

I think someone once mentioned a chemical method of cleaning klaf of an older sefer without ruining the ksav. Does anyone know how this is done or have any other ideas? Thanks

Does anyone have any experience of the Keshet Hasofer computer checking program?

The following is really a response to Rabbi Eli Gutnik’s post about Rabbi Zirkind Z”L, as if his approach is a bit extreme, not “mainstream”. Thank you Eli for pointing out those principles that Rabbi Zirkind worked so hard to instill in his students. Please allow me to clarify. Rabbi Zirkind learned by Sofrim of the previous generation, including Rabbi Pollak of Williamsburg, and Rabbi Matlin who was the Rebbe’s personal Sofer. Rabbi Zirkind became the Rebbe’s personal Sofer after Rabbi Matlin’s passing. He checked and wrote Mezuzot for the Rebbe’s house, made Retzuot by the Rebbe’s request, sewed the Rebbe’s Tefilin (when the gid tore), and the Rebbe personally ordered by him tefilin for other people. The Rebbe recommended him to Horav Moshe Feinstein to write for him Rabeinu Tam Tefilin & later also wrote a Sefer Torah for him, and discussed with him all of the Tsuras Haoityot. So definitely he is someone we can all look up to and learn from. You write...

Around the same time Rabbi Bressman posted his recents concerns surrounding the issue of computer checking, I was receiving emails from friends regarding another online discussion on this issue. This discussion was being held in a closed forum for Chabad Lubavitch Rabbis (Achdus Shluchim Exchange), on exactly the same topic. While most members of this forum are not affiliated with Chabad, I think it's of great value for everyone to see the types of complaints and comments that were raised. Most Sifrei Torah reaching Chabad Houses (a substantial amount globally) are originally sourced from many of the mainstream sochrim in Bnai Brak, Yerushalayim, Ashdod etc and the issues they raised are the same as the one's I hear from the Litvish, Sefardi, Chaseidish etc rabbis as well. It started with a post from one rabbi complaining that he bought a new sefer Torah which was computer checked and found to have a spelling mistake. There were many responses and discussion with people ...

While there is a yerech, albeit thick and ugly, does the blob of ink make it a shinui tzura? If the oketz was a normal length I'd be less inclined to pasel but as is it only makes the tzura look worse.

I am aware of quite a few cases where there was  misspelled sta"M that had previously officially passed a "computer checking". One assumption I had of the reason to this problem was since some programs offer way too many "hearos", the person going over the computer screen gets too used to clicking "ok" that some serious issues get overlooked unfortunately. (Keep in mind, that some people consider computer checking a cheap service, therefore it is done very quickly, with alot of clicking.)  (Not a problem by the Mishmerit Stam computer system, nor by anyone that does the checking slowly and very carefully.) I think that a possible solution to this problem, is for the program to be designed in a way that it only leaves "hearos" on the most serious problems which is the actual  misspellings, and leaves out anything which is not 'way off' for the magiah who does a manual checking (Bedikas Gavra) to go over. I.e. for the programs no...

I tried to redo the picture s per R Zvi's instruction, hope it will work now, Good Shabboss everybody. Rabbi Zirkind Mezuzah:

I talked to a grandson of the famous Chabad sofer  R' Eliezer Zirkind. He said that his grandfather had a Massoret of Ktav Alter Rebbe which has some differences from the כתב חבד used by sofrim today. He did not know what these differences are. Does anyone know what these differences are? Can we see samples?

(Below is a cut and paste from an email I received) Yasher koach - wonderful blog! I'm getting started in stam, not yet ready to join you as a member (plus I see that you're maxed at 100 authors anyway). I do, however, have a question that I hope you'll consider posting yourself, as it's a common and critical one that I don't see dealt with yet by your chevra... When a near-negiah is discovered in a sefer Torah during kriah, and it takes young people with good eyesight getting their noses right down next to the klaf to see that yes, there seems to be a chut hasairah of white space between - do we call that a negiah? Near negios are judged l'fi "ayin regilah," according to Rav Wosner's zt"l teshuva ch' 1 siman 7 s"k 8, cited by the Mishnas HaSofer. I went to the teshuvah, and though he makes clear that you can't save such a situation with a magnifying glass, he doesn't explain precisely what r'us tivi (normal visi...

Hi all. I constantly get emails from people to join the forum, and am happy to send all new members an invite so that they can contribute. However Blogspot only allows 100 authors and I have exceeded that a while back. So I have been slowly dropping out some authors to allow for new ones. I have only been dropping out authors who don't post or comment. If I have dropped you out and you wish to remain an author, I apologise and I am happy to re invite you. Having said the above, being an author allows you to post. But everyone who has ever joined, even if dropped as an author, remains a member. The membership list is manually added to the side bar, and I apologise again, I have not updated this in a long while. (There are about 25 members who joined since I last updated the list and hopefully I will find the time to do this soon). I hope the above clarifies things. Thanks again to all those participating in this forum.