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 mi…
The standard way of calculating (for a 42-line Sefer) is to make shiras hayam 150% the width of the standard amud, and shiras ha’azinu 128% the width of the standard amud. I don’t know how that would translate to a 48-line Sefer.
ReplyDeleteA better way of calculating would be to first figure out exactly how much room you need for your own writing and go from there:
- The amud width should be no less than the minimum amount of space you need to comfortably write the most crowded line with proper spacing between words (for a 42-line Sefer, in shiras hayam the most crowded line is the last line on the amud). Write out that line a few times and take the average line length as your minimum.
- In both shiros the spaces in the middle should be at least a shi'ur parasha — even for the lines that are a bit longer (…בא סוס פראה… & תהמת יכסימו). In shiras hayam the 2 spaces in the 3-part lines need to be (at least) a combined shi’ur parasha.
- The best way to calculate a shi’ur parasha is to write out “אשר” many (many) times and calculate the average of every "אשר אשר אשר".
- The last consideration is the maximum line width, which should be no longer than the most you can stretch the least-stretchable line. In shiras hayam that is “כל ישבי כנען”. Again, you will have to write it out a few times to figure out how far you can go before you lose the tzuras ha’os.
Doing all of this work will be time-consuming, but you only have to do it one time for every size Sefer Torah you will write. In the end, you will have a much nicer Sefer.
do not write big or you wont be able to pick up the torah
ReplyDeletemaximum should be 7mm a line
It's a גמרא מפורשת that the proper height for a Sefer Torah on gvil is 6 טפחים to get ארכו כהיקפו. I worked backwards from there.
Deleteand i had such a torah written and it is extremely heavy, there is a reason most gvil sforim are 40-45 cm
DeleteIf you have the 48 line tikkun, take a look at the measurements of the Shira there are work it out. I have it if you don't.
ReplyDeleteRegards
I am behind on some orders and have not even gotten a tikkun yet. Whatever info you have would be great. Tizke l'mitzvos!
Deletewhats your email?
Deleteaviheinberg@gmail.com
Deleteaviheinberg@gmail.com
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