How about the Bais of Uleovdo?
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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".
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
This looks like a decent entry Lechatchillah ksav, perfect for entry level pshutim mehudarim type tefillin. There is no "minimum level" for gassos and I'm sure some vendors would put such a parsha into gassos.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that years ago it wasn't as common for vendors to put "simple" parshiyos into gassos batim. Simple parshiyos (like the type pictured) went with more simple pshutim mehudarim batim or very often with simple dakkos batim, as an entry / basic package, for more "traditional" customer. Gassos tefillin usually had better quality ksav, as this was the better option for those looking for proper, mehudar tefillin. (If you found very basic parshiyos in gassos batim it was even considered a bit fishy...)
Today, this is not so much the case.
(The trend changed likely because of the availability of very inexpensive gassos batim in recent years and the absence of commercial dakkos production. Pshutim mehudarim batim are not as good as dakkos, so the cheaper gassos became more common for the lower end consumer.
If the ksav is meets a minimum (entry level) lechatchila standard then why shouldn't they be put into gasos to be sold as basic lechatchila tefillin? There's a considerable demand for entry level lechatchila tefillin.
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