The International STa"M Forum

In preparation for restoring a sefer Torah or part thereof, one needs to check if there's loose ink. This is typically done by lightly rubbing over it with a cloth. May one do this over entire amudim or is there a chashash of mechikas Hashem? If the entire amud can be done with a few swipes of the rag, a complete sefer can be gone over in under an hour. If one may not touch the Shemos it becomes a daunting task. One might think that mima nafshach, if the ink is attached to the klaf, going over it with a cloth won't do anything and if it lifts it off the klaf, it's because it's already loose and not considered attached to the klaf/pasul. However, based on my initial research, both Harav Elyashiv and Harav Mordechai Eliyahu held there's a problem of mechikas Hashem. According to Piskei Halachos, Harav Elyashiv said to leave the Shemos untouched and if and when the ink falls off on it's own then it must be fixed. (Until then you don't have to assume it's

Someone wrote that there's no need to be machmir by ribua hatefiros, particularly Sephardim and this doesn't require any tikun and can be worn with a bracha as is. So he's claiming that there's no need for the corners to be 90 degrees/square. This is news to me. I've no doubt that Rav Friedlander would have paseled this. Someone else suggested fixing it without opening the bayis even though it's sealed with glue. On top of the issue with correcting the ribua once sealed, if one would fix without opening it, the hole needs to be extended and the charitz widened without tearing the gid and that would leave a considerable gap between the corner tefiros. If opened, the hole can be widened then the original side filled.

What are your thoughts? 

There's some discussion among experts about this. The assumption is that it's not connected.

As some of us are aware, the primary issue with this (and a few other) computer programs is that they aren't limited to identifying textual errors. Hence, there's many results to review and while the program is about perfect in finding errors, it may place them in the wrong category. This makes review of the results more difficult. Is there a way to limit the Duk program to identifying textual errors only?

My yeshiva asked me to reink some letters in a Sefer Torah that they have. It is a very old Sefer and I am unsure how old is it... Does anyone know where this Sefer might be from? I am not an expert in Ashkenazic Sefrei Torah Also, this Mem Sofit has an interesting tzurah. Any thoughts?

Is it necessary or just a nice thing for a metayeg to do? What about tiyug of Shaimos? Yerios Shlomo chelek 4 page 362 says it's a good thing to do. Many times when making tagin, the metayeg doesn't stop at the edge of the letter but continues into the head. On a Shatnez getz letter, if this is done with all 3 tagin, a good part, if not the majority of the head, can be covered by this ink. If the metayeg doesn't do it lishma is there an issue? I've just started to look into this but I've heard from one posek that as long as if the part of the letter he's covered weren't there it'd still have a tzuras ois we could be maikil. (And even if not, one could be maavir kulmus lishma). I was told by a good metayeg that a posek told him that since the letter was already complete and mekudash and his ink isn't adding or detracting then it's fine. Has anyone seen or heard from the poskim on this matter?

head of zayin should be square ,regel shal not be long

I recently tried this kosher ink for my rapidograph and I am extremely pleased with it. It does not clog the nib like other kosher rapidograph inks, and it's very dark and strong. It's at least as good as the Rotring commercial grade rapidograph inks (of course these can only be used with batch numbers that have been lab tested and  approved kosher),  and in addition you do not need to add a drop of regular Sta"m ink (as per the instruction of the Shevet Halevi, which is messy and time consuming).  I was wondering if anyone else had an opinion or comments with regards to their experience with this ink...

אני חושב שהס' הזו פסולה משום שינוי צורה, היא יותר מדי מרובעת בגופה

I write Eshet Chayils (paper and quill) to practice my Ktav most of the time. Thoughts? (Everyone's input will be appreciated very much!)

ב׳׳ה There are several passages in Zohar Hakadosh  ואתחנן  that are first makor for writing the shem Shakai on the outside of the mezuzah. In chelek gimel 266 A, it states: “when bad things (sheidim) draw close to a persons door, they lift up their head (since they are compared to a snake they have to “lift up their heads” to see it. -Ramaz) and see the holy name on the outside, that is Shakai, as it is crowned, and rules over all of them, they become fearful and run away. R’ Yitzchak asks, if so, why do you need the whole parsha, just have the name?! In answer, it is specifically when the name is “crowned” by the parsha(s) it is as a king who comes out flanked by his entire army... it is then when they fear him. Come and see that the name  והיה  is spelled from bottom up (the tziruf is not the order of Shem Havaya) so Shakai is on the outside corresponding to this name,  והיה  is on the inside while Shakai is on the outside. Thus a person is guarded from all sides, inside and out

Great food for thought and a must watch!  In accordance with the Kabbalah of the Arizal only the Kotz Elyon of the letter YOD is to be inscribed, and NOT the KOTZ of Rabbenu Tam.

The stitching is loose, some of them are not in the charitz or completly touching the bayis. Yet the bayis is hermetically sealed. It seems obvious that the bayis is therefore being held closed by the glue and not the stitching.....thoughts?

I know of the halacha that a מגילה אסתר is similar to the halachot of a Sefer Torah, but i noticed that my brother's megillah's top and bottom margins are two cm on top and 3 cm on bottom. 1) What is the halacha Lemaasah? 3 and 4 or 2 and 3 for the top and bottom margins? 2) Is there any hiddur with the 2 and 3 mesurement?

Fixable?

Does anyone have a template of a standard Torah contract?

In addition to those noted who speak English, Rav Zions speaks English as well.