386. The Letters of STa"M

Tefillin, Mezuzah v’Sefer Torah 1:18

Let’s say that a sofer (scribe) wrote a sefer Torah, tefillin or mezuzah and then claims that he did not have the proper intentions in mind when writing the Names of God. Once these items have left his possession, his statements are not believed in order to disqualify the holy object; they are believed to the extent that he must forfeit his pay for writing them. The reason he isn't believed in order to disqualify the object is because of the possibility that he was only trying to cause a loss to the buyer or to the one who commissioned his services, thinking that such a statement would only cause him to forfeit the amount he would be paid for writing those Names. Therefore, if he said that the parchment used for writing this Torah or tefillin was not prepared with the proper intentions, his statements would be accepted to the extent that they disqualify the item in question because he obviously forfeits his entire pay in such a case.

Tefillin, Mezuzah v’Sefer Torah 1:19

Tefillin and mezuzos may only be written in k’sav ashuris, the “Assyrian” script of Hebrew. Permission was given to write Torah scrolls in Greek but that version of Greek has been forgotten and become confused. Therefore, all three holy objects may now only be written in ksav Ashuris. One must be exacting in writing them, making sure that one letter does not get connected to an adjacent letter; any letter not surrounded by parchment on all four sides is invalid. If a letter cannot be read by a child of average intelligence, it is not valid. Therefore, one must be careful that a yud not resemble a vav, a kaf not resemble a beis, a daled not resemble a reish, nor vice versa or any other ambiguity. Readers must be able to distinguish letters easily.