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
With the Shimmusha Rabba tagin, I find that even the tikkunim are inconsistent on one tikkun from the shel yad to the shel rosh. That bothers me incredibly. You can't expect the sofrim to be consistent when the tikkunim they are copying from are not!
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Even meyuchsdike parshiyos in Chabad (one group) there are so many differences.
DeleteHowever it is still important to fix if they are disconnected, because it may be a shaolio of an extra vov, as by any tag with a rosh that is not connected to the os
Just out of curiosity, which tagin are generally made in Chabad? Shimusha Rabba/Rambam/Tikkun Tfillin? Arizal/Matzas Shimurim?
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