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
Shalom R. Shmuel,
ReplyDeleteI was in Israel a bit over a month ago and dropped into their factory to check them out. The atzei chayyim are indeed very nice, yet pricy when compared to Hershkovitz and about 2-3 pounds heavier. Their entry level set begins at around $1400 and goes up from there. The atzei chayyim have planed edges on their circular plates to keep the rollers from moving. They have bearings where the central dowel meets the plates allowing the ba'al koreh to easily from one section to another. Overall a nice and ingenious design for one who wants the novelty and doesn't care about the price.
I've bought several, I brought it to their attention that the paint chips off easily and this has never happened with Hershkowitz, hopefully they have now fixed the problem with their paint
ReplyDeleteI've bought several, I brought it to their attention that the paint chips off easily and this has never happened with Hershkowitz, hopefully they have now fixed the problem with their paint
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