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Related to this M.Y. question:

The answers and comments seem to state that one cannot create a Torah that has two different writing styles.

During Simchat Torah, I noticed that the main Torah I read from in my shul has been pieced together by multiple sofrim (scribes). The beginning of the torah (staring from Breishit) uses the Vavei Ha'amudim standard (a style where the beginning of each column (with a few exceptions) begins with the letter vav). However, somewhere in the middle, the style is not Vavei Ha'amudim.

Is this mix halachically allowable when repairing or even creating a new Sefer Torah. (I assume that a Torah is allowed to be create by more than one sofer.)

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  • I expect that it's possible for a sofer to write a Torah which has a few consecutive amudim which begin with the letter ו by pure happenstance. IIRC, the standard tikkun has vavei ha'amudim (as the same one is used both by sofrim and ba'alei kriah, it seems a simple enough proposition).
    – Noach MiFrankfurt
    Oct 14, 2015 at 18:54
  • @NoachmiFrankfurt "the standard tikkun has vavei ha'amudim " - Seems that way. However, in speaking with my shul's chazzan, he reminded me that the "old" (Sharfstein???) big blue tikkun that was popular in the 70's and 80's had the Tikkun script copied from a hand-written Torah. Now, the more current ones are computer generated. This would explain why the old one didn't align the Tikkun columns with the "trope" columns, whereas the current ones do. I must admit, that in this sense, the more current ones are easier to learn from, esp. for novices. Personally, I now have it on my smart phone.
    – DanF
    Oct 14, 2015 at 19:03
  • I know the old tikkun, although personally, I only use it as a reference for pre-modern k'tav. If you've seen the edition with a megillah, it actually includes the k'tav from a Sephardi Ester. For looking over kriah, I prefer the Simanim
    – Noach MiFrankfurt
    Oct 14, 2015 at 19:06
  • @NoachmiFrankfurt You seem to be more familiar with various Tikunim than I am. Is there one that shows Sefardi script? Come to think of it, is there one that, perhaps, compares different script styles?
    – DanF
    Oct 14, 2015 at 19:09
  • There is a Simanim edition in Vellish (Sephardi) as well as the Ish Masliaḥ (איש מצליח). The Atnachta and Taj' tikkunim are also Sephardi. If you want an Ari tikkun for some reason, IIRC, Mishor is.
    – Noach MiFrankfurt
    Oct 14, 2015 at 20:32

1 Answer 1

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As you were already answered in this post, there's no Halachic reason for the classic Vavei Ha'amudim format. Poskim were actually against it, as it causes unnecessary shrinking/stretching of letters.

So there's no reason to worry that some columns adhere to it and others do not.

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    Frankly, it would be a miracle if not a single column adhered to it.
    – Double AA ♦
    Dec 5, 2016 at 23:03
  • @DoubleAA there is a tradition to start all columns with one of the 6 letters from {bet, yud, hey, shin, mem, vav} in addition to the 6 particular columns that begin with those letters. Trying to avoid vav (aside from the column that just precedes Haazinu) and use only the other 5 is an interesting challenge.
    – Ze'ev misses Monica
    Dec 18, 2019 at 19:25
  • @DoubleAA The Tashbetz suggested having exactly one vav amud, so בי״ה שמ״ו would be (more) obvious.
    – magicker72
    Mar 3, 2021 at 1:34

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