The International STa"M Forum

On Friday morning I started writing parshiot for tefillin shel rosh. I didn't anticipate having any problem completing at least the first two, but it both took a lot longer than I expected and I had to stop twice to wait for letters to dry so that I could correct them. I ran out of time and was only able to finish the first parsha. All the sources I've seen say that you need to write at least the first two in one sitting. What is the status of the parsha that I wrote? Is it kosher but not lechatchila? Should I start from the beginning but save it in case I ever need a first parsha written at an earlier date? I saw the Lishkat Sofer brings down an opinion that if there is a sofer who is not robust and will likely make mistakes if he writes for long periods, that it is better to take breaks. But I could not be certain if he was talking about breaks after finishing the second parsha (as opposed to writing all four at once), or breaks in general, and whether he is just talking abo

הכ"ף פשוטה בסוף השיטה ענקית - אמנם נראה שמבחינת צורת האות היא כשרה, אך יש להסתפק שמא הוא מפסיק את הריוח שלאחר ובשעריך. שהרי כעת הריוח אינו פתוח לסוף השיטה. או לאידך שמא נעשה בעצם כאן פרשת סתומה במקום שאינה צריכה להיות פ' סתומה? אמנם מדובר בתפלין של ראש שלדינא אינו מעכב בה צורת הפרשיות פתוחה וסתומה [וכמו כן יש לומר - אם הניח ריוח פ' סתומה במקום שאינה צריכה].

Does anyone know where I can get  a ketores with the words as they appear in a nusach Ashkenaz siddur? or where I can get a tikun nusach Ashkenaz?

Where can i get a Pitum Haketores Nusach Ashkenaz. Ksav Ari is ok but i would like the nusach founnd in an ashkenaz siddur. Thanks, Yitzchok Weinnberger

Anyone ever see or heard of this?

The black dot under the mem is a hole in the klaf is there a problem with a small letter that isn't one of the list of small letters? Also any comments on the Yud of עשרים a number of them in this sefer are written like that almost long enough to be a Vov.

I recently got a tikkun for a 48 line meggilat Esther. The last two columns were made narrower, presumably to make sure the writing ended at the bottom of the column. Is this a requirement for a megillah? If so, what's the source? I have seen an older 50 line megillah where the writing ended in the middle of the column. Is it perhaps preferable to write columns that are all equal rather than have it end at the end?

Interesting video!

A Chabad Rabbi asked me to post this: The Alter Rebbe writes in the Piskey Hasiddur as we know, in Hilchos Tefilin that the Shel Rosh has to be between the eyes “Mamesh”. Meaning that we need to make sure its align as perfect as we can,  due to the reason he gives,  that according to Rashi’s shita,  two parshiyos are on the right and two on the left, and based on the Rosh’s pirush -  its on one’s head that two have to be on one’s right side of the head and the other two on the left side of the head etc.  (checkout the leshon in the siddur below) . "ואח"כ יניח את של ראש בגובה הראש ויזהר שיהא באמצע רוחב הראש ממש שהרי אמרו 'קדש' 'והי' כי יביאך' מימין ו'שמע' 'והי' אם שמוע' משמאל, ובתפילין דרש"י שהפרשיות כסדרן אין בין ימין לשמאל אלא משהו דהיינו החריץ שבין והי' כי יביאך לשמע , על כן צריך ליזהר בזה מאוד". However, the Alter Rebbe writes in shulchan Aruch siman 32 seif Nun Tes , (based on the Baruch She’amar)  that the

מה דין הצ' פשוטה הזאת? לכאורה אין בה פסלות, מכיון שיש בה צורה נכונה, אע"פ שאינה יורדת מהשיטה. בלי קשר להאם יורדת מהשיטה או לא - יש אומרים שהיא פסולה כי היא בעצם מין עיי"ן  הפוכה . זה לא נראה לי נכון.

While looking through an old Sefer Torah and some old tefillin and I found that consistently the second hey in the four letter name is rounded like a reish on the top right corner (example attached).  None of the other heys are like this. According to the Mishna Berurah these would be b'dieved heys. Does anyone happen to know the source for this?

Does anyone happen to have or know where I can find a tikkun for a 48 line Megillat Esther with only parshiyot setumot (both of these being requirements mentioned by the הגהות מיימוניות) with bnei haman the same size as the rest of the ktav (like the Gra)? Also I keep getting mixed answers about this but some soferim have told me the columns after Bnei would need to be a different width. Is this an absolute or preferable? Is there any problem with the columns being different widths? Also, while looking through some old megillot from the Israel national library, I found that there were quite a few varying traditions when it came to smaller letters in Bnei haman. (They all had the bigger vav of course) If anyone could suggest poskim who discuss this matter that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

What does everyone think of the yud in לבניך? It's not clear if the light part is actual mamashut dyo or if it's just a roshem.

Does anyone have knowledge of this Rov? I recently checked a pair of tefillin and the parshiyos are definitely not mehudar. The customer would like to go back to where he bought them and ask for a refund.

Is there a resource available that lists instances of shem Hashem in a given text? To be more specific, I'm writing Megilat Rut and I'm wondering about 1:16, where Rut says "Elokayich Elokai." Since she's speaking generally, I would guess it isn't considered shem Hashem, but I'm wondering if there is a place to look these things up? Thanks.

As per my previous post, this door frame is structured as follows (picture taking standing on the outside of the house looking in, by the left door post):  - an outer door frame  - then a sliding fly screen on the outside of the house  - then an "inner door frame"  - then a sliding glass door on the inside of the house. In the previous post, several suggested the mezuzah should go on the inner door post, which as now confirmed is between the fly screen and glass door. I would like to argue that the mezuzah should go on the far right outer door frame, as this is the most outer door frame. What are your thoughts?

I've been at this for many years and have been satisfied with Rotring. (I tried multiple brands and this is the best.) However, recently I'm having far more than normal trouble with air bubbles that is forcing ink out and making it very difficult to work. I switched to a new head and still have the problem. I cleaned the other head and tried it again and nothing has changed. I even switched to a new cartridge. I open and pop the air bubbles and put take the head on and off a few times to release the air. Ink is still often coming out the tip. I'm using Dio Lanetzach (I don't want to use over the counter ink and I had been using Hadar 17 but it was very difficult to work with.) Could the ink be the issue? The bottle is a few years old and maybe something to the remaining ink in the bottle?

הר' קטנה - דינה שאלת תינוק. [לי זה נראה כרי"ש, אבל בכל זאת היא קטנה, ואפשר תינוקות יטעו בה ביחסה לגודל שאר הכתב]. כמה תינוקות נשאלו, אחר שהראו להם רישי"ן ויודי"ן מכתב זה, וכולם [פרט לאחד] קראוהו יו"ד - ופסלוהו.

The red is where you add a stroke of ink so now the left רגל is now clearly coming out of the right רגל and not questionably going right up to the back of the גג. Then  you can scratch a little from the גג  to perfect it. The area to scratch is marked in green. Whether or not you choose to fix it is up to you , but it is definitely kosher even without fixing...