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. Eli,
ReplyDeleteWe are strict to sew the Megillah with at least 9 stitches. Three at the top of the yeriah, three in the middle and three at the bottom.
The minhag is like the Chayyei Adam (I believe), which, I believe, is the consensus of the poskim, that the din of 3 tfiros is a KULA in megillah, i.e. it need not be stitched as well as a Sefer Torah. However, we do NOT say it l'chumra. Therefore, in general, when we stitch a megillah from top to bottom like a Sefer Torah (leaving a bit unstitched at the edges, of course), there is no need to go out of one's way to stitch nine stitches.
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