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
Yes there certainly are tikkunim available. Contact your klafmacher, he'll probably either have them or be able to get one for you. I use Klaf Roseman in B'nei Brak and they were able to get me a tikkun for a sefer tehillim I was asked to write as well as tikkunim for the five megillos. A word of caution, sometimes these tikkunim can be really expensive.
ReplyDeleteI really wish someone would devise a computer program that would create tikkunim for sofrim on demand that would include absolutely everything a sofer would ever be asked to write. Then we could simply select the appropriate minhag, ksav, size, etc., print it off and be ready to go. I've seen these kinds of programs to teach leyning where the computer will sing to you in eighty seven different nusachim, switch from this ksav to that ksav, print, export itself as an mp3 and I just wonder if something like this couldn't be done for sofrim.
If I'm not mistaken, I believe that there are such programs, but I would imagine that they are not sold commercially, for the simple reason that whoever made them has a right to make a profit off of tikkunim made from them. A friend of mine wanted a tikkun for a Ben-Asher Esther (no need to comment on this...he also knew the Ram"a, Raavy"a, etc. about stumos) and he contacted someone who emailed him a tikkun made to his specifications on the computer. It would be awfully convenient though.
DeleteThanks. Now I just have to find a good source here in New York.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll write myself a program like that. The tikkun I'm using for my current project has no minyan hayuddim and was photocopied off of an old scroll with bad spacing. Not something I enjoy dealing with as a beginner who has more than enough trouble as is.
ReplyDeleteI would get in touch with Rav Tshinagel from Bnei Brak. I don't have his number, but I'm sure someone on this forum does.
ReplyDeleteThere is this guy in Bnei Brak called Nachmani that can print actually any tikkun of anything at any size with any ksav (he uses his own computer generated fonts), just like Benyomin mentioned. He specializes in "Transparencies" and "Folding" tikkunim, but the "Folding" tikun can be used as a regular tikkun. If there is something he doesn't have on hand, he usually can make it specially with no problem. His site is http://www.or-lasofer.com/, and Tel # +972508752138. I don't know if he speaks English.
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