Is the Dalet of the word "Yadcha" still valid - or is it more like a wide Zayin?...
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
It still is more to the left side by a small amount.Ask a tinok.
ReplyDeleteit's likely a tinok but ask a moreh horaah first.
ReplyDeleteWhy ask a moreh horaah? What better example of a shaylas tinok could there be??
ReplyDeletebecause it may be possel straight up i.e. not geder shailos tinok. Sometimes you need a posek to establish the geder prior to asking a tinok...because if its mamash possul a tinok doesn't help, although in this case I'd be inclined to say it could just squeeze in as a shailos tinok...
DeleteFor most sofrim and some magiim, most often, not just sometimes, a posek should be consulted to determine a shailas tinok. A slight variation can make the difference of kosher or pasul and we don't want to ask a tinok when it's not called for.
ReplyDeleteRav Friedlander told me b'shem Rav Elyashiv that it's proper to as a chacham to determine if a shailas tinok is called for.