An Add on to the Ktav Ivri Post
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
Note here that the ע is similar to a triangle, as brought in פוסקים.
ReplyDeleteNot a complete circle as in the previous posts.
Thank you for the picture.
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be a few different versions of Ktav Ivri, for instance, the Aleph in this diagram (looking like an F) is clearly not the Ox shaped letter that is accepted to be the Aleph of Ktav Ivri. The best resource I've seen exploring this topic within Chazal is Rabbi Kasher's Ktav Hatorah VeOtiotea (it might be part of the new edition of his Torah Shelema) and he brings this coin too.
@yisroel "Note here that the ע is similar to a triangle, as brought in פוסקים." Which poskim are you referring to?
חידושי הר"ן and שו"ת הרדב"ז ...
Deleteas brought in אנציקלופדיה תלמודית also in כתב התורה ואותיותיה which you mentioned.