The International STa"M Forum

חצי התחתון של הנו"ן - שנכתב מתחילה על הקלף כדין, אחר שניסה הסופר לעשות איזה תיקון, חתך לתוך הקלף, ונמצא הנו"ן הזה [חציה התחתון] על קלף תלוי באויר. הדין שאות זה פסול, כי נחשב אינו מוקף גויל. וחמור דין זה של אינו מוקף גויל, מ(דין מוקף גויל של) נקב שמחוץ לדיו האות. כי נקב שמחוץ לאות, אם ניקב אחר הכתיבה כשר, כמבואר בפוסקים, משום שהיה מוקף גויל בשעת הכתיבה. אבל זו שאינה עומדת על הגויל כלל (כי קלף התלוי באויר נחשב נפרד מהיריעה), אינה מוקפת גויל (מתחתיה) גם אם אירע כן אחר שעת הכתיבה, וכן מבואר במהרי"ק וב"י ביו"ד סי' רפ. [פירוש, אות שאינה מחוברת לגמרי כדין לספר, חשיב סוג לא מוקף גויל]. תמונה של מושב הנו"ן הזו - כאשר הקלף מוגבה מהיריעה. לא ניתן לטלות טלאי מתחת לנו"ן הזו להדביקה חזרה ליריעה, וכל שכן שאין לקלף כל האות מהיריעה, ולחזור ולהדביקה במקומה. כי אין הכשר טלאי בס"ת, אלא כאשר טולה קודם הטלאי ליריעה, ואח"כ כותב על הטלאי (שנמצא כותב האות על ספר), דאם לא כן הוי פסול משום חק תוכות. כלומר, שהאות נעשית מאליה, ולא על ידי ...

Another question on the Safrut desk: Is the mem kosher if the leg of the vav would be added? Or is the connection between the chaf and vav of the mem needs to be bigger?

Well, I might as well post some basic questions involving STaM, giving everyone a good halachot review. (Of course, any comments / healthy criticisms on the ktav would be good also!) Here is one:

What are the line sizes for each Yeriah of a Sefer Torah? I was looking at a store and all the information they gave was only the length of the Yeriah.

To be written in Safrus lettering on klaf. (I just had a bunch of orders for these. Thought I'd share)

A sofer here wrote a kesuba for a wedding in two weeks time, and now, because of coronavirus, the wedding was brought forward to this week. So he needs a kesuba with a different date. Is one able to carefully and professionally erase the current date, so that the change will not be noticed? Or is it problematic to write the date on a mechika, even if you can't really see the mechika?

I'm sure many on this forum are feeling the affects of the Coronavirus in the respective communities. Here in Melbourne we have had members of our community testing positive and many people are in mandatory quarantine or self isolation. Everyone is feeling the effects in some way or another. So far the only "casualties" of the coronavirus that I have personally witnessed are pictured below: 1. I had a customer who was unwell, coughing and sneezing in my office. After he left we sprayed some Lysol, to disinfect the room. About half an hour later I noticed a beautiful mezuzah on my desk which had become ruined by the Lysol spray. I guess Lysol spray and STa'M are not a good mix..... 2. We were writing a kesubah in the office this week and the sofer doing it was using (a little too much) hand sanitizer. It dripped off his hands and onto the klaf. So just remember, it doesn't always evaporate, be careful with that stuff. We are living in strange times...

Due to the request that we should post more posts and Purim is tomorrow, I'd like to ask a question, (Since we are supposed to get ready for Peach 30 days before, and 30 days before Pesach is Purim... so I need to prepare how to ask questions!) What is the Funniest STaM incident you've experienced as a Sofer/Magiah/Socher/Batim Macher etc? And of course...  A happy Purim! 

Hi everyone The International STa'M Forum has received several requests from sofrim around the world, wanting to join to become a contributing member. As previously mentioned, we have a limited amount of those members that can author posts and as such I am requesting that if you are an active member then please post or comment periodically. If you are not, then please private email us, so that we can allow more contributing members in. Either way, you will remain a listed member of the group and be able to see all the posts and comments, all it means is that you cannot post yourself. On that note, if you are a member, and do not appear on our list of members (on the side bar or on the 'members' tab), please do advise so that we can update this. Thank you very much.

Thoughts on “hayom”?

Just completed. Ksav Ari, 5cm tall. It can fit into the palm of of ones hand. What's most incredible is that the ksav looks halachic. Very unique.

I hope all the Soferim, Magichim, and Sochrim, are successful in making and selling Megillot for this coming Purim. I recently ordered a Tikkun Soferim for a Megillat Esther, and is an Ashkenaz copy of Megilat Esther. I know there are textual differences between a Sephardic and Ashkenaz Megillah but I forgot where the differences are. Does anyone have a list or remember what they are? I want to add some notes on the tikkun so that I will not make a mistake As always, thanks for the help!

So I was looking at different STaM videos on YouTube, and I found this video giving the main ideas on how to write STaM quicky. The two ideas that stood out were: Writing a line in 3-4 mins and the need to downgrade a Ktav by 20% in order to write faster. Now I understand that the main idea is to write faster, but it does not make sense to me that you should downgrade a ktav just for that. It almost in a sense disregards the idea of זה קלי ואנוהו. Here is the actual video:

Someone asked me to source them various mezuzos but only wanted to spend a minimum amount (and therefore wanted basic mezuzos). i could offer them basic ARI mezuzos or mid range BY. I know that they have some mezuzos up which are BY. They are not observant yet so don’t really have a minhag. Is it problematic to have different mezuzos with different csav up in the same house? Should I push for them to have the mid range BY over the basic ARI ? Would appreciate your opinions. Thanks

A Mezuzah was brought in for inspection today, when unrolling we realized that two thin klafs were rolled as one. Is there a difference between afixing 2 mezuzos  where according to most is over baal tosef   or roling two klafs as one is fdifferent since it was afixed as one. 1. was he yotze 2.should bracha be made when reafixing 3. should he do tshuva for baal tosef 4. does he have to search for seller and return your thoughts please

They're in Bnai Brak. The fact they're selling tefillin on Amazon, etc. starting at $157, leads me to be suspicious. I am on a campaign and I told someone that his tefillin were pasul. He ignored what I had to offer and went online to shop for tefillin even though I warned him that Amazon, eBay and Judaica shops are not the place to purchase Stam. When I saw he didn't care and was more interested in the price I offered to contact the seller and request specific information about their basic gasos. He ignored that offer as well. Amaratzus.

what’s with the אות צ in these mezuzos ?

This video shows a sofer writing a sefer Torah. This sofer has a good hand, writes at a nice pace, and can ask a decent price. But one can also tell how the sefer Torah industry has commercialised the process, allowing for better productivity. Note the following: 1) The sofer is writing on a light table, which means he does not have to worry about planning the spacing and can just trace over the letters. This saves a lot of time. This also minimises mistakes and saves time of repairs. 2) The quill is a plastic kulmos with a repository, which means you need to dip it into the ink every few lines instead of every few letters. Also you do not need to sharpen it and make new quills. Both of these save time. 3) The klaf today is more refined and smooth, easier to write on. Not uneven and rough like the old days. I'm sure lots of "mei klaf" is added. This enhances writing speed and quality of writing. 4) Double sirtut. Again this enhances quality and nea...

Are tefilin sales taxable in NJ. Clothing is not, accessories are. (I would prefer an opinion that was asked and confirmed by a professional.) Thanks, Yitzchok Weinberger

The lamed of lecha... I was given back these parshios from the koneh who went to someone to show them he said this lamed was to short since the vav on top never left the tzurah of a yud. I always have heard that as long as the foot of the vav is bigger than the kolmus of the rosh of the vav it was lechatchila. Any thoughts?