The International STa"M Forum

Does anyone know where I can get kosher hide glue in New York? Thanks!

In the above picture we can see a schematic of the traces a scribe must make in order to write the above letters.  If one notices carefully, the top YOD in the Tiberian Style is done with one swoop. The scribe comes down in a 33 degree angle and then folds back over his initial stroke. The same movement is done when writing the foot of the ALEF or the nose of the PEH. A feather, due to it's greater flexibility is not well suited for this type of backwards movement which comes natural when writing with a reed.  It is this type of movement that causes the impression of the head protruding from both sides of the foot.  Our Rabbis described this shape as "Ke'ein YUD" i.e... similar to a letter YOD, but not quite. Today, we have become hyper-literal in interpreting many of the written descriptions of what constitutes Ketav Ashurit left by our sages of old.  But the truth is that a single picture can be more telling than a thousand words.   We are for...

In Ktav בית יוסף  the right hand head of the letter צ is a Yod looking forward. In Ktav  הארי  this head is looking backwards. In ancient writings this head looks like the letter ז   so it has protrusions both forward and backwards. I have a few mezuzot בית יוסף in which I want to add some ink and make the letters  צ   look like in the ancient writings.  Is it allowed? Or, is  there a problem of  שלא כסדרן  ?

Someone I know recently had his tefillin checked. His tefillin are about 15 years old. The sofer who checked it said that the parshiyos were written with very thick ink, and as a result the ink was "breaking" along the folds of parshiyos shel rosh. He said while there was only one noticeable crack so far (which he repaired), he suggested changing the parshiyos, as they would always be high risk and susceptible to future cracking. The person contacted me and asked me if I had any good parshiyos I could sell him. When he told me why he was changing his parshiyos, I suggested to him that he not change the parshiyos but rather go over the bruised ink with dyo lonetzach. This would ensure the ink will not crack again. Ideally, even to touch all the parts of letters situated on the folds of the shel rosh parsha. This exercise takes no more than 20 minutes and is extremely effective. Even if the thick ink does crack with time, the letters will never become possul because the upper...

Anyone have a parsha kadesh from shel Rosh written before תש''מ?

  השאלה היתה על הנו"ן שראשה נתעבה מחמת התגין, וכן ראש הוי"ו שבולט מעט לימין ואולי דומה לזיי"ן  ואז שמו לב שיש בעיה חמורה הרבה יותר חסר אות  בין עיניך

I wrote the Ayin properly, then the Bet properly but then when I made the lower back Tag of the Beit I made the Negia. Since the Ayin and Beit were written properly, except when writing the tag of the Beit, do I have to erase the whole Beit or just the Negia? Thanks YK

Yud?

Since many shailos in the STa"M world are forwarded to Rabbi Greenfeld from Mishmeres STa"M He shared with me that he is lately very upset at the new chabad sofrim that are trying to copy every pletat kulmus from Reb Ruven ZaTZa"L: סופרים חב"ד החדשים כותבים רגל דלי"ת ורגל ימין כמעט כרגל השמאלי של תי"ו, הם  בפירוש נגד ההלכה   יש תחת ידי פרשיות חב"ד עתיקות מאד, ואין בהם שום דמיון כלל כצורת רגל השני של התי"ו שעושים בימינו. : בס"ד כבוד הסופר ר' ..............................הי"ו הואיל וראיתי במשלוחי שאלותיך, ענינים הצריכים תיקון (כגון פסיעה ברגל ימין כמעט כמו רגל שמאל של אות תי"ו), וכן גם בשאר אותיותיך, אשר ע"כ טרחתי לשלוח לך כתב הסופר של אדה"ז שסידרו הדק היטב הרה"ג ר' משה ויינר שליט"א, וממנו תראה וכן תעשה לזכות הרבים.

Here are four issues found in a recent pair of tefillin. 1) white substance on some letters, probably from klaf when rolled up inside the batim. 2) Lamed of לאמר   3) The left zayin originally had no tagim. As the tag was added, this was done. 4) Mem of אתם

הכפי"ן רגלן קצרה מעט, ובתיבה 'מצוך' הראש רחב ודינה שאלת תינוק שמא תידמה בעיניו לרי"ש ואכן התינוק קראה רי"ש

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?