The International STa"M Forum

Last week I posted some thoughts in response to a public lecture given by Rabbi Reuvain Mendlowitz regarding  Ksav Chabad (the Alter Rebbe's ksav). I felt he did not represent the issue fairly, and since I had received questions about it from a number of people I felt it made sense to write a general response. After I posted my response on this forum, Rabbi Mendlowitz reached out to me by email and we ended up having a respectful and productive email exchange regarding the relevant issues surrounding Ksav Chabad. His position is a lot clearer to me now, and I think he also took certain things on board that I clarified with him. The purpose of the Stam Forum (at least back in it's heyday before all the whats app groups took over)  was to connect sofrim from around the world, to promote achdus and build bridges, as well as to offer support and advice. In that spirit, I felt  I should write a follow up post, to clarify some of the issues and misconception...

I have received the above recording from several people over the past few months and I probably should have responded to this earlier. It is indeed disturbing to hear such a distinguished personality in the STa"M world speak with such obvious exaggeration and overt bias against Ksav Chabad* (the Alter Rebbe's Ksav).  Before I respond, here is the background to the recording. The person speaking is Rabbi Reuvain Mendlowitz. He is a popular American sofer and posek residing in Israel who wrote a very well-received  book called "Inside STa"M", available in both English and Hebrew. On the whole, he seems to be quite a learned and sensible person, and I often refer people to his book.  This recording was taken from a talk he gave to a group of Rabbis at Yeshivah University on the topic of "Basics of Hilchos Sta"M For Rabbis", (as a guest of Rabbi Arieh Lebovits). The entire lecture is available online at YUTorah.org. About 15 minutes into his talk he d...

 Received this question: what are your thoughts:

 As I'm sure all in the business know, the price of Sifrei Torah, Tefillin and Mezuzos have gone up lately. Furthermore there is a big shortage of items available and sofrim are getting offered more money by desperate wholesalers and retailers who do not have enough stock to meet their demand. Below is a link to an excellent article from a Chabad news website that really explains whats going on in layman's terms. Safrus Shortage Has Caused Serious Lack of Mezuzos, and Sky High Prices • CrownHeights.info – Chabad News, Crown Heights News, Lubavitch News I found this article useful to forward to balebatim and customers who were upset or querying the increase in prices.

Wishing all forum members and readers a mighty Shabbos Beraishis and a successful year ahead! It's been a few months since I've checked this forum, and I see now in the counter we have somehow surpassed over a million hits, which is quite remarkable. I think that with the advent of safrus WhatsApp groups and their ease of use for discussions and shailos, there is no question that this blog has seen better days.  However I should note that this site still gets a healthy amount of visits, mostly because of the nearly 2000 articles and discussions which have been posted over the years, with many hits coming from internet searches on safrus topics. I guess that's one advantage over WhatsApp, the discussions are available for all to see and benefit from, even years later. It was exactly ten years ago, October 2011, when five of us turned an email chain group into an online forum. I'm told that it is now one of the largest safrus resources publicly available, both in Hebrew o...

  There is a small hole under the yud of v'yitzharecha. When looking at against the light with the naked eye it looks like it is touching the yud but when you blow up the picture or look through a magnifying glass, you can tell that there is a separation and the letter is in fact mukaf g'vil.  Does it need to be corrected, presumably by scraping off a bit of the bottom of the yud? (MB 32:60)

Very interesting and very helpful video I found on YouTube.  Many times when pulling the Sefardic shel yad knot through the Maabarta, especially when dealing with Pizponim (really small 22mm Batim), the shel yad bais tends to at times open up the bais requiring to redo the sealing.  One way of avoiding this is to first loop the strap through the Maabarta and then tying the knots as needed.  How does one do that? Here's a video showing you how:     

Can the experienced sofrim out there post advice on how to quicken the speed of writing w/o compromising on quality. Also, it would be informative of what is considered to be a good pace, and what is the natural progression.

  Found on a door of a Jewish home in Sydney, Australia.  Purchased in Jerusalem.  Read until the end.

What do you think of the shin of 'asher' in the middle of this picture. Is there a top to the shin? If it is a problem, may it be corrected?  

 

I have two questionable mezuzahs submitted to me by a local client  1) the ר may be mistaken to be a ד in the first ukshartam  and in the other mezuzah 2) the כ has a little line above it that's possible to be mistaken as ל in levavchem. Possul or she'elas tinok?

  I saw this mezuzah hanging on someone's door post. While the intention was good, this is not an acceptable way to hang a mezuzah - flat, with the writing facing out. It needs to be rolled, with the writing facing inwards. (I was thinking, however, that if the writing was facing out - on display for all to see - perhaps people would care more to buy higher quality STa"M. We live in a society where people like to show off and display expensive and designer items like clothes,  art, cars, furniture etc. If the writing of their mezuzah was on display for all to see, I'm sure many more people would opt for higher end, beautiful writing! Of course, it's not possible....but it would certainly encourage people to buy more mehudar mezuzos.)

Many are aware of the shocking story circulating about "Rabbi" Michoel Tzadok Elkoen, a Charedi sofer from Jerusalem who was found to be a non Jewish Christian Missionary. While the story itself is very concerning, some people are worried that may have ended up with his STa"M (Sifrei Torah, Tefillin or Mezuzos), since these items often go through many hands until they reach the end customer. Well, the good news is that he did not write in large quantities, he was involved in many other things besides Safrus. Furthermore, he wrote Sephardi Ksav, so if you don't buy Sephardi ksav then you definitely have nothing to worry about. For those interested, I am posting a picture of his ksav below. (He posted pictures of his writing several times on the internet.) If one is really worried, an expert sofer can tell if a suspected item is a potential match to the said ksav. (There are certain nuances that are different here to your typical Sephardi ksav.) Certainly if there is a...

 Hi - another question I received and was asked to post on the forum: " What is the minimum width of a Yud (by kulmus and cm) and how would that translate in a Shiur Parsha?"

 Hi - I received the following question and was asked to post on the forum: Can a mezuzah be written in a way to have a Stumah that is according to the Alter Rebbe and Ta"z (simultaneously)? Thanks

A careful examination of the above Parasha of Tefillin reveals the Daled of the word Echad to be written with an excessively long foot.  Likewise, the foot is overly slanted to the right causing one to perhaps mistake it with a KHAF PESHUTA.     Can this DALED be redeemed by the reading of a TINOK as halakha recommends in many parallel cases, or is this REGEL so overly long that the letter has lost its shape and the reading of a TINOK is rendered useless and to no avail, even if read as a DALED.  Your informed insight is welcomed.

 Someone recently purchased "Avodas Yad" retzuos, black on both sides. Looking at it closely, it appears to be shpalt leather. Is there such a thing as shpalt avodas yad?? It makes no sense to me. Why would someone go to the trouble of making avodas yad on such low level retzuos? And why would someone buying shpalt want avodas yad? Surely if you see shpalt that is supposedly avodas yad, it reeks of fraud and likely isn't avodas yad. Is this a fair assumption??

 Hi everyone, I need a tikkun for yeshayhu that I can get sent to me in Florida. It is not the ben asher version. Anyone have a number of someone that ships or emails a tikkun? Thanks for any leads

Am wondering if anyone has a nice ksav and available now to ship to Canada in time.  The budget is not high as needs to be in Canadian $ under $1k. if you have something please post image of ksav. Thank you