Small Hole
How about the Bais of Uleovdo?
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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".
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
No need to change the yeriya, just do a little cosmetic surgery. First make very small tagin that end well before the hole. So it will look a bit funny but no one will really notice and it is still halachadic. Then take a shaving razor and peel a thin shred off a similar coloured piece of klaf. You can then put a tiny bit of PVA glue on the shred and stick it down over the hole. press it firmly so it blends in. Wait 24 hours and with 800 grade sand paper just lightly sand around so the edges will blend into the regular klaf. It should come up with a good result if done properly.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the advice, I will try and do my best to make it look good. Should the glue be "kosher"?
ReplyDeleteEli, one of the things I've been looking into for these sorts of small patches and particularly for joining torn k'laf rather than trying to get really think k'laf/sanding is using goldbeater's skin as many bookbinders use. However I haven't been able to locate a source of goldbeater's skin that is made lishmah. There is a Sefardi rabbi/shochet here in the UK I've been chatting with about trying to produce this. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteMordechai