I saw this great video analysis of a very old Sefer Torah (Hat tip to MelechMichaels ). It’s a must see and it features a neat trick of hanging letters on top of a line which I explored in an earlier post . Read More »

Here’s some pictures of a damaged Mezuza. It was placed in the outside entrance of my in-laws’ house. It got dried and burned as a result of the direct exposure to the sun. Read More »

I started this blog a few years back because there were really few English Safrut blogs active at that time.I’m thrilled to see a new wave of creative blogs popping up that are filling some gaps we still have in this field. Read More »

While watching TorahLive’s Mezuza DVD (see previous post), I was intrigued to hear about a story of false Mezuzot in the Bank of Israel building. Although this is an old story I had never heard of it so I did some further research. Read More »

The other day I saw this DVD in the local Judaica store – a Mezuza DVD presentation. I happen to know the person behind it, Rabbi Roth, and after I bought and watched the whole DVD I really wanted to help spread the word about this project. Read More »

The title of this post is rather short and simple but this topic in Safrut is obscure, confusing and very challenging. The scribes usually pay little attention to what ink they use – most will just buy what’s offered in the Safrut stores – but there are many opinions and the conclusion is somewhat unclear. Read More »

Founded by Rabbi Yitzchak Shteiner and Rabbi Yitzchak Goldshtein,  Machon Ot is  a non-profit organization  based in Jerusalem which has developed computerized techniques of torah identification. Read More »

A student from Indiana University emailed me some pictures of an old Sefer Torah which reminded me of afew obscure Halachot. Take a look in the first two pics: This Torah is written in Veilish – the Sephardic Script – and it has inverted Tzadi (and Shin), which means that it was influenced by the Ktav Ari. Read More »

“In the beit midrash, it is considered an exciting delight to find that one’s original thought was actually innovated by an earlier source, unbeknownst to the current thinker. This is usually taken to be a vindication of the thought patterns of the learner, and an exoneration of his logic. Read More »

Just came across a very good blog that also focuses on Safrut. The author is very handy and like experiments, and I specially like his series about Gevil parchment . In fact, I will look for a Gevil on my upcoming trip to Jerusalem. Read More »

This is an addendum to one of my earlier posts which discussed Ze Keili Veanveihu.Just a quick briefing: “זה אלי ואנוהו ” – התנאה לפניו במצוות  (מסכת שבת קלג/ב) In that post I mentioned that according to some rabbanim, there’s no concept of Ze Keili Veanveihu in something which is concealed from the eye (i.e. Tefillin). Read More »

This is a follow-up of an earlier post .So here we are, a year since I first saw the Holocaust Torah I wrote about. For a full year nothing much happened and, to my great pain, I wasn’t managing to get any breakthrough in saving this very special scroll. Read More »

This is for the Hebrew speaking readers – the remarkable story of a small Sefer Torah from Munktach which survived the WW2. Read More »

Horav Moshe Zaggaro, zl, one of the distinguished rabbanim in Fez, Morocco, was also a sofer, scribe. He had an interesting way of writing a Torah. He wrote the entire Torah, leaving space for Hashem’s Name. Read More »

Someone presented me with a brand new Sefer called Ot Yatziv, from Zanz, which deals exclusively with the Minhaguim of Zanz in Safrut, with lots of citations from Zanz’s most famous Rebbe, the Divrei Chaim .The Divrei Chaim says that his Chassidim should only buy Rabbeinu Tam tefillin from a Sofer who actually puts Rabbeinu Tam Tefillin everyday. Read More »

There’s has been a lot of press surrounding the veracity of a few Holocaust Torah Scrolls sold by a Maryland Rabbi, and being that I’m not here to judge anyone, all I can say is that this story highlights the special importance of Holocaust scrolls and how many people are willing to pay top money for these special scrolls. Read More »

Check my previous post on the different Ashurit scripts before reading this one. The Ktav Ari is one of Safrut’s most fascinating topics for me. Actually, the Arizal in general always fascinated me, as few other individuals have impacted Judaism as much as he did. First, it’s important to understand who he was. Read More »

… and it’s 100% kosher! The sofer who checks my works is VERY attentive and is known for seeing what no one else sees. For many he is just always making up problems but that’s specifically why I like him: he really does his job well, regardless if you will like it or not. Read More »

This is a Megilla from Jewish Theological Seminary’s Rare Book Room. The “hang-man” illustration of the ten sons of Haman is really unique! Read More »

One of the most important concepts of Safrut is that every word should be “Mukaf Gevil” – which means that it should be surrounded by white. For instance, when two letters touch each other there’s a no Mukaf Gevil – the letters don’t have their own place in the Klaf. That renders a scroll Pasul. Read More »