megillas Esther that opens top to bottom
Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Rather than opening side to side, someone wants it to open up and down.
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
Great question- I had a thought. If a shem hashem is written top to bottom may it be erased? I did not find the answer in hilchos stam however in hilchos shabbas כותב ומוחק the m"b discusses the issue.I dont have chelek gimel here. I believe same would apply here
ReplyDeleteאפשר שיש לפסול כהאי גוונא - משום שראינו בחז"ל שמגילה יש בה דיני ספר, וכל ספר נגלל מצד לצד, ולא הפוך ממטה למעלה וכדומה, ואפשר שאין זה קרוי ספר
ReplyDeleteנכון שלא מצאתי דבר זה בכתובים, אבל מסברא נראה כן
יישר כח על השאלה המענינית
To clarify, I refer to writing side to side but columns would be one below the other.
ReplyDeleteThe person wanted to claim that since a megillah is an igeres and supposedly royal proclamations were written in such a fashion that it would be the crrect way to write it.
As it's obviously not the mesorah and has always been written in the same format as a sefer I told him to provide sources and a gadol who permits it.