24
Well it took me almost a year, but I can now answer my own question.
In Person The National Library of Israel has everything (and I mean everything) you could ever want when it comes to Hebrew books. Although they don't allow people to check out their rare books, you can sit in the reading room and read anything in their collection for as long as you like. ...
14
I wrote to Hotzaat Shabsi Frankel with this inquiry, and they responded that the unusual numbering is due to a misguided guess at how many volumes the set would ultimately be:
Thanks for your inquiry. Yes, it is because of the order in which it was published, and the expectations of how many volumes we would end up with. At the end there were more volumes ...
9
Having worked in the Jewish Publishing Industry for a number of years, I can tell you that it is common practice to use approbations on partial manuscripts, or even for other books written by the same author, or even just a letter attesting to the author's reliability. There are no real guidelines. I have seen haskamot from Rabbis who passed away before the ...
9
The Taz (Yoreh Deah 271:8) says it is a good ksiva, and has the same Kedusha as a "regular Sefer Torah".
8
The Gemara in Bava Metzia (59a), in dealing with the prohibition of causing anguish - Onas Devarim, says that it is imperative to speak to ones wife nicely, for they cry very easily.
אמר רב לעולם יהא אדם זהיר באונאת אשתו שמתוך שדמעתה מצויה אונאתה קרובה
The Gemara is saying to take into account the levels of sensitivity of each person. The fact that ...
8
The sefer Shmiras Shabbos K'Hilchasah (16:33) paskens without reservation that dice games for recreation (not gambling) are fully permitted on Shabbos. No qualification is made for fear of writing by accident.
A strict opinion (which not all hold like as Halachah) is brought by the Chayey Adam (Shabbos 11:38). He holds that any game which usually involves ...
8
You aren't the first person to wonder about this. The Levush wrote "All my days I wondered why I never saw in any place the practice to write the Haftarot like a proper book as we do for Esther" (OC 284).
In truth though having a full set of Neviim is expensive and already in the time of the Gemara (Gittin 60a) they permitted writing out just the needed ...
7
I discovered that the מגילת אסתר of the תורה שלֵמה has some answers:
For פרמשתא, citing מדרש רבי עקיבא בן יוסף על אותיות קטנות:
פרמשתא, ש׳ ת׳ של פרמשתא קטנה, הסר פ׳ ור׳ וישאר שמתא.
This one is hard to translate and explain. So I'll leave it as is.
For ויזתא:
The Gemara in Megila (16b) says in the name of Rav Yochanan - the Vav of ויזתא needs to be ...
7
Shulchan Aruch Harav Orach Chaim 278.1
...אין איסור מן התורה אלא במלאכה הצריכה לגופה...
...it is not oser from the torah unless it is a labor that is needed... (my translation)
So it seems that if you so do not need the markings it is not a Biblical prohibition.
Shulchan Aruch Harav Orach Chaim 340.8
...כל שהוא תבנית איזה כתב אפילו אינו אשורי ...
7
The reference is to the pages of the Venice printing of the Talmud Yerushalmi (5283/1523). Each folio is divided into four columns, two on each side of the page, and these are the numbers of the amud (1 and 2 on the front, 3 and 4 on the back).
The sentence quoted from page 53d (Sukka, chapter 3, law 6) appears in the middle of the left column of this page.
...
6
So long as you aren't erasing the text, recording content-related notes in a text's margins is a very traditional Jewish practice. Consider this page from a very old Tanakh:
6
From personal experience, here's what the Sofer thinks about, while writing:
It's Lishma - and watch out for names of Hashem that need individual attention to become Lishma.
Don't smudge, it's wet ink all around!
Is there enough ink to finish the word? Don't drip when refilling the quill. Double check that you didn't overfill and risk a flood.
Don't miss ...
6
While I've never done this myself, I don't see any issue with it, provided that you highlight and underline respectfully.
In fact, the practice comes highly recommended by the Rebbetzin's Husband, and has also been discussed elsewhere on this site.
From that blog post:
It's a way to corral ourselves during our distracted moments, and draw
ourselves ...
6
The sefer Piskei Teshuvos (OC 32:12-13) writes that l'chatchila one should not write anything on the margins (or anywhere else) of the sefer torah. If one did write something, even a sofer marking a mistake, he should erase it.
However, as he writes there, b'dieved it would not be a problem.
6
A couple of speculative suggestions:
1) Neema H. Adlerblum writes the following in Chapter Two of A Study of Gersonides in his Proper Perspective:
He writes somewhere that he could not go on with his writings "on
account of the calamities of the times which interfered with clear
thinking."
She does not provide the source for this statement, but if ...
5
I have also had this question for some time and I was glad to see someone else asking it. From my research into book binding techniques it is obvious that it comes from various decoration techniques. This style seems to come from the Victorian era, but I am not sure how it got into the Jewish book printing business and seems to have stuck around longer. I ...
5
Contemporary Poskim are divided on this matter:
Rav Nissim Karelitz (Chut Shani 1:20, 1) : Rabbinically prohibited because this is considered impermanent writing.
Rav Shmuel Wosner (Shut Shevet Halevi 10:60) : It is not writing at all but is prohibited because of zilzul (slighting) in the honor of Shabbos
Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (ibid) permits it.
...
5
the chasam sofer (shu"t cheilek vov siman tes) qoutes the shaloh answering this question moshe wrote the sifrei torah "bi-hasvoas hakulmos (he wrote with feathers in between each of his hands) which is no better then writing with your weaker hand and that is only a derabanan (which was only institued later)
a lot better of a question would be how was it ...
5
Chabad.org has an article entitled Spiritual Graphology--The Soul of Handwriting, Finding the Mind, Body and Soul Connection.
It starts with a quote based on the Rebbe ztz”l
May G‑d help you fulfill the teaching of our sages, that "G‑d should
be realized in every mundane thing" – as, for example, how the soul's
control over the body can be ...
5
Not writing on Chol Hamo'ed is a formal prohibition, the original source of which is Mo'ed Kattan 18b, in the Mishna at the bottom of the page. Writing is considered a skilled craft (meleches uman) and is therefore prohibited on Chol Hamo'ed.
The Shulchan Aruch codifies this halacha in Orach Chaim 545:1.
The reason that only some people don't write is ...
5
Rav Moshe(Igros Moshe YD 1:69) was asked about selling stamps with a cross on it . Rav Moshe brought proof from a Tosfos in Shabbas 149 . He explains that only when the cross is made for the name of the avoda zarah is it an issue. However,when its just for beautification then its no problem. He also mentions that stamps are used in a degraded manner since it ...
5
The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch in 80:64 - סימן פ - קצת ממלאכות האסורות בשבת
- writes:
סעיף סד' סְפָרִים, שֶׁעַל חֻדֵּי הַגִּלְיוֹנוֹת מִבַּחוּץ נִכְתְּבוּ אוֹתִיּוֹת, יֵשׁ אוֹסְרִין לְפָתְחָן אוֹ לְסָגְרָן
בַּשַׁבָּת וְיֵשׁ מַתִּירִין, וְכֵן נוֹהֲגִים
Regarding books that have writing on their edge - (so when you open
the book the letters are ...
4
I'm not sure there is a "typical" commentary by which to judge some standard length. I have an old copy of a Haggadah published by the Staten Island Yeshivah from 1947, which is pamphlet-length in its entirety, despite having a good deal of commentary throughout, and the "Torat Hyim" Haggadah, which is over 200 pages long, despite its mostly short ...
4
In Shemirath Shabbath by Rav Yehoshua Y. Neuwirth, 40:2:
This chapter talks about medical procedures on shabbos.
The Halacha starts by saying
a. 1) It is permitted to measure body temperature on Shabbath.
Then continues:
f. 1) Whether or not one may use a forehead thermometer (consisting of a strip of celluloid which changes color, according to the ...
4
See the article on parashah in Wikipedia .
Some extracts from it:
A parashah formally means a section of a biblical book in the
masoretic text of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible).[1] In the masoretic text,
parashah sections are designated by various types of spacing between
them, as found in Torah scrolls, scrolls of the books of Nevi'im or
Ketuvim (...
4
Isaac Moses has the answer. It is an honorific title. They are different as they don't apply equally, generally due to grammar considerations.
In your second example, the only difference is grammar (in the linked question I added the one for the male side that wasn't there before). May he/she live.
One exception is נ"י. In that context, as Isaac Moses said,...
4
The Aruch Hashulchan writes that one is allowed to write spare contracts. He says that we don't say that it looks like a lie (the scribe writes that someone borrowed money before it happened) unless there are witnesses signed there.
However, he says that some say not to write the last part of the contract (the Toref). This is usually taken care of by not ...
4
I'm not sure how to answer this question for anyone but myself.
The barest minimum requirement for writing a sefer torah is that it be legible. The ink must be black, and the traditional fonts pretty much require all the letters to be very bold. In that sense the sofer does not have to worry about usability because halacha and minhag do the worrying for ...
4
I certainly would not like the dagger † to be placed after my name if I were no longer alive.
The related question provides several possibilities amongst which the following seem most appropriate (to be used after the name).
ע״ה = alav/aleha hashalom "Peace be upon him/her"
ז״ל = zichrono/ah livracha "May his/her/their memory be a blessing"
I see that ...
4
Your question asked about "making" the ink on Pesach. "Flour" was one of the ingredients. If you have unguarded flour (of wheat, barley, spelt, oats, or rye,) and you want to own it, then the problem starts as soon as you pick it up to take possession. It may have gotten wet and become "chametz"? As flour, it is not yet mixed into the other ingredients that ...
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