Is the Khaf sofit in 'vaderekh' fixable?
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
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".
Yikes. The gug is longer than the regel. No way to fix. The most lenient opinions who are macshir (with shailos tinok) are when they are even or regel slightly longer (provided of course the regel goes down lower like a chof pshutah)
ReplyDeletepasul gamur! I also seriously question if this sofer can be relied upon as it's a blatant and obvious psul
ReplyDeleteWe have examples of STaM from the times of the Rishonim where the Sofer stretched a final kaf. Apparently they considered it kosher as long as the regel went obviously below the line. In any case nowadays we would definitely not accept this.
ReplyDeleteThe bigger question I always have when I see things like this is that it shows clearly that the sofer is an am haaretz, so how can we trust that he wrote anything k'halacha.
ReplyDeleteThe bigger question I always have when I see things like this is that it shows clearly that the sofer is an am haaretz, so how can we trust that he wrote anything k'halacha.
ReplyDeleteThe bigger question I always have when I see things like this is that it shows clearly that the sofer is an am haaretz, so how can we trust that he wrote anything k'halacha.
ReplyDeleteNo idea, why my things keep posting in duplicate or triplicate. But I apologize.
ReplyDelete