large Vav on a small mezuzah
In the word Uvichal, the ו is long. It also starts a little lower than it should be which makes it trickier. Is the ו around 4 kolmosim long?The mezuza is only 7 centimeters long.
How about the Bais of Uleovdo?
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shin in "Alter Rebbe" script
Both the Shulchan Aruch Harav and the Mishnah Brurah use similar terminology when describing the importance of the shin being "pointy" on the bottom and all three branches of the letter shin meeting at a point or "chad" at the bottom of the letter. There is a strong foundation in Halacha for this and for the bottom of the shin to be flat like a moshav (base) is considered questionable (Pri Megadim) and definitely not Kosher Lechatchillah. It is worse if the moshav is very wide, but it is still questionable if it is lechatchillah if there is a thick noticeable base rather than a chad. Even for Sephardim, who lechatchillah make an angular base, it is still important that the base is indeed on a (significant) angle. If the base is flat, even if all three branches of the shin come out of the base connected , as in the top picture, it is problematic. It is worse in the bottom picture below where the right head/ branch comes out of the right part of the base and the m
Not a "khaf"
This gave me a "Safrut smile"... OK, I realise that this is not Ktav STaM, however it is interesting what happens when graphic/font Hebrew becomes too stylised. Case-in-point, a colleague and I were visiting the mayor's office in the Gaza Belt region of Shaar HaNegev (adjoining Sderot). He is new to reading Hebrew and pronounced the welcome sign as " brooning " or " broobing " (instead of the intended " brookhim ". I replied that he was more correct than the graphic designer, as the letter meant to be a " khaf " was closer to a halakhic "Nun" or "Bet", and had this been Ktav STaM, the letter would likely be considered pasul as a "Khaf".
Instinctively I would say shailat tinok at most as a) the vav does start a bit low as you said, b) compared with this ksav it doesn't look much longer than his other vavim and compared with his אותיות פשוטות (kaf really but this is assuming his nunim are similar length) there is a great difference in length.
ReplyDeleteKeen to hear R' Moshe's thoughts?
Since it is on the boundry between vav and nun, this means to my sight it is not definitly a nun, it looks more like a vav, it would be a shaylas tinok.
ReplyDeleteAnd since it is obvious that a tinok will read it vav - it is kosher.
Dovid, this is according to my sight. If your sight agrees with the above you can machshir, if you dont agree (that means the mezuza before your eyes, the letter seems to look more a nun than a vav) - ask a tinok.
it is important to note the difference between vov and zein.mishna brura in letter zein writes not to make regel longer than 2 kulmusim,however in letter vov he writes not to make it "aruch miday".
ReplyDeletewhen viewing old ktavim i always found "very"long vavs,i met with rav samson from london who pointed out the alpha baisawho explains why vavin should be written long.see page 264 in the new print