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
Ink, Kosher vs. non-Kosher
We all know that there is no ancient source that requires ink to be מן המותר בפיך . Possibly, as said here before, because in the olden days ink was always מן המותר בפיך and the question was never raised. It was probably self-evident. Nowadays, no decent Rav will approve an ink which is not מן המותר בפיך . Who was the first one to raise this question? Was it raised because of animal ingredients or because of non-kosher wine?
Most likely it is just a byproduct of the haschola being done in a public ceremony. They honored a few important people to write the letters of Bereishis. Or they may have had a local sofer write the letters publicly and then had the rest of the sefer written by a different sofer. It doesn't look like it was done beshita because the beis is even bigger than the other letters.
ReplyDeleteBut perhaps I am wrong?
No this isn't a by product. This is most likely deliberate as there is a m'kor for this which is Masechet Sofrim 9:1 which says the bet should have four taggin and the letters of the WORD should be extended than all the other letters. This was an original tradition - I have seen this in a couple of other sifrey, one from Morocco. http://www.sofer.co.uk/html/large_letters.html has a picture.
ReplyDeleteThis fell out of use and is now just a large bet.
At the suggestion of my safrus rebbi in New York, I'm going to write the seller and try to get an appointment to look at it. We've been discussing it and expect some interesting variations.
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