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
It just happend to me as I was writing a mezuza I found that the sirtut cut through the klaff
ReplyDelete,בספר משנת הסופר דף כג (ביאור הסופר ד"ה בלא) מכשיר בדיעבד, ודו"ק בדבריו. וכן כתב ביריעות שלמה פרק ב סעיף ו דהעיקר להתיר
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteRav Ovadiah held that AS LONG AS THE KSAV IS STRAIGHT then the entire mezuzah can be written below the sirtut as the purpose of the sirtut is make the ksav straight. If the ksav in wavy or angled then this is a problem.
ReplyDeleteRav Elyashiv held it is passul if, I believe, 3 letters in a row are below the sirtut. As far as I'm aware even if it is only slightly under the sirtut is a problem and certainly 1-2mm.
Dayan Fisher held that while pasul, it could be fixed to be bedieved.
Of course, you'd need to ask a shaila lemaaseh, but it seems that for low end Ashkenaz mezuzahs (bedieved) there is room to be lenient, particularly if it is fixed and for ksav Vellish, as long as it is straight, it is okay as is.