The International STa"M Forum

1. Can I erase corners that spread to the right of the מ and ו in ומה? Or do I need to erase the whole letter? Is this still tziras haOs? 2. The א  in ראו enters the ר a bit, is this a problem? Should it be fixed? Can I just short the א leg? 3. The ש in פרמשתא is after one erasing and the ink is spreading, can I keep this one? Thanks, Robert

I received this for a friend who lives out of town (no local sofer): My 16 year old son is interested in learning safrus. He has tremendous artistic ability and has read and watched many videos. He has been practicing on paper with ink and quills with what he knows. What would u suggest he do to learn it properly? Any specific books or videos etc?

ב׳׳ה So, the Rama Mifano in  Yonas Eilem perek צ׳׳ב describes the knots of the head and hand Tefilin as having a certain number of "חוליות." He describes the knot of the hand Tefilin as having three חוליות on one side and 3 (or 4) on the other side. The head Tefilin has "two that are four" חוליות, two on the top knot and two on the bottom of the knot. מִי כְּהֶחָכָם וּמִי יוֹדֵעַ פֵּשֶׁר דָּבָר? It seems to me that this has to do with the number of "loops" used when tying these knots. I would be grateful in anyone can shed some light on to this description what is meant by  חוליות here .

As some of us may have a little more time on our hands, it would be a good opportunity to review the halachos of Stam. I can across some online shiurim in Hebrew on www.kolhalashon.com.  הרב ברוך כחלון  Rav Kachlon is the co-author of the 2nd volume of Yalkut Kisrei Haosios.  הרב שלמה וינטרויב Rav Weintraub is a mo"tz and rav in Modiin Ilit. I'm told he was close to Rav S.Z. Ulman zt"l.

Rabbi Grannetstein was in hospital with Covid-19 before Pesach, however Baruch Hashem he has improved considerably and is now out of hospital. I spoke to him today and he is in fine spirits and sounds much improved. We wish him a continued refuah shelaima and good health to continue his holy work as the head of the Mishmeres Sta'm in Israel.

There was a song written many years ago by Abie Rotenberg, in his Album Journeys 1, about a Sefer Torah that survived the Holocaust.  The Torah was found all alone in a place that it didn't belong.  These days, our Sifrei Torah find themselves alone once again.  However, there is a major difference.  The scrolls are in the precise place in which they belong.  This time it's us that find ourselves in a place that we don't belong.  I hope that you will all enjoy this new beautiful and meaningful new composition from Abie Rotenberg.

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