Reb Dovid Leib Greenfield

I would like to introduce you to the Rosh (Dean) of the Vaad Mishmereth STaM, Reb Dovid Leib Greenfield. He is a person that I have a lot of respect for. He has shown a tremendous depth of understanding of the seforim dealing with hilchos stam, from the gemara through the rishonim andto the  poskim. He has also fought many battles on behalf of the mitzvos of tefillin and mezuzos. He is pictured below center examining an old sefer torah.

Rabbi Greenfield gave me a great deal of excellent safrus advice on a number of occasions. Two points stick out in my mind: He told me to purchase the sefer Mishnas HaSofer by Reb Yaakov Meir Shtern. Mishnas HaSofer is a commentery on the famous sefer Kesses HaSofer by Reb Shlomo Gansfried. This sefer, he explained to me would be as valuable as my sofer’s knife. I cannot emphesise enough how correct he was. Without this sefer, it would be almost impossible to have a truly solid grasp of the intricate halachos envolved. Just to give you an idea of how well used my Mishnas Hasofer is, I included a picture of it below the picture of Rabbi Greenfield.

The other point that he made was that just because someone has smicha from the Vaad Mishmeres Stam (or from somewhere else), it doesn’t mean the the Vaad becomes responsible for mistakes that that sofer makes! It seems obvious enough, but I have met both soferim and customers that don’t fully appreciate this point. The Vaad can certify that someone knows the halachos, and appears to be a trustworthy person, but they can’t certify that every set of tefillin that he wrote is kosher. How could they? They are not inside his head. They aren’t watching every move he makes while he is writting. The Vaad makes sure that the sofer is capable of writting kosher tefillin. The sofer himself must assure the customer that he actually did write kosher tefillin (or mezuzah or sefer torah etc.).

My well worn Sefer Mishnas HaSofer

Home Remedy For Bending Tefillin Battim

cardboard platform inside plastic box

A clever customer showed me this trick for how to keep tefillin from bending on the bottom. Although some tefillin will never bend due to their great strength, other tefillin have a tendency to bend (especially in humid environments and when worn by people who perspire). Take a small piece of cardboard and cut it to the shape of the plastic tefillin box. the thickness of the cardboard should be about the same as two quarters, one on top of the other. The cardboard fills up only about half of the plastic box. Now when you put your tefillin in the box and wrap them up as shown in the picture, you have made a simple clamp. That clamping action may be enough to keep your tefillin from bending further. If your tefillin already have a substantial bend in them, send them in and I will heat press them. After they are straight, you can use this clamp to keep them that way. Any questions? As Always call me at 845-290-2546.

Megillah Written on G’vill

Megillah written on deerskin.

My good friend Mr. Lenny brought me this beautiful, rare megillah written on deerskin. In halachah, this type of parchment is called g’vill. G’vill is a leather parchment which is treated far less than regular klaf during the production process. It used to be popular in sefrei torah, although the old sefrei torah that I have seen are thinner. This, on the other hand, is much thicker, almost what leather moccasins would be made out of. Of course this makes it a very heavy material and it would not be practical to make a sefer torah out of it. Just the parchment alone for this megillah would cost about $800.00. Add in the writing and we are talking about an expensive megillah. Don’t expect to pay less than $2500 hundred for something like this. G’vill is very difficult to write on. Very few soferim would be able to handle writing a whole megillah on g’vill, myself included. I can tell you that I can just barely write one letter. When Mr. Goodman brought me the megillah, it did have one mistake, so I did in fact write one letter, and if I may say so myself, it came out pretty good. The soferim that work with g’vill are mostly Taamonim (of Yemini descent). The way they make the pen and the techniques that use to write with are completely different than the popular methods of writing.

A Look At My Students

Robert Hirsch (left) with me working on kolmosim. Robert is an accountant who is learning safrus as a hobby. He resides in Fair Lawn, NJ

Avraham Birnbaum, from Monsey, NY is learning safrus as a hobby.

Elchanon Zuckman, President and CEO of Z Electrical Contracting Inc., one of my first talmidim, and a great friend. If you need a great electrician you can find him by looking on the right sidebar under "Get it done right by the pros I trust".

Moshe Amar started out with me, and is now a well known S'faradi sofer. He is from Spain, and resides in Har Nof, Israel with his wife and children.

Reb Yosef Hammer from Monsey, a very focused talmid of the Safrus Program

Rabbi Daniel Melamed, one of my very first talmidim. He now resides in Yerusalem with his wife and children. He learns in kollel and works as a sofer. I sell tefillin and mezuzos that he writes. Contact me for more info.

Rabbi Melamed consulting with one of the Dyanim of the Badatz. They are discussing the halachos of tefillin battim.

Rabbi Gedaliah Levitin resides in Lakewood, NJ. He is working on his first megillah, and is learning how to check tefillin and mezuzos. Rabbi Levitin was zoche to finish shas this past year! Tzkeh l'mitzvos!

It Says Kosher On The Bag… What Do You Say?

Take a look at how the last two words have no space in between them. Now look at the bag (below) which says, “checked by a tefillin and mezuzah checker”. Wow, thats some job he did!

I know we’ve been through this before, but I want you to understand how widespread this is. Can’t these people go find some other way to make money besides selling completly posel mezuzos to unsuspecting customers?

Letters Touching

Nottice the first two letters of the second line are touching. Since they didn’t change the shape of the letters, and they didn’t turn one letter into another letter,  it was able to be fixed. This was seen on mezuzos that had been previously checked. When people ask me why they have to get there mezuzos checked if they were checked a few years ago, I can show them this and hundreds more like it. Believe me, I see this all the time!

Three letters touching between two words.

Lamed touching Hey on line above. Yes, this mezuzah had been checked before.

Battim: Rebuah Regel Vs. Rebuah Yad

Rebuah Regel tefillin battim are made square by operating a milling machine powered by foot pedals. Some battim are made ‘Yad Yad’ meaning that the squaring of the battim is made only with hand power. The question is: is ‘yad yad’ really better than rebuah regel? I asked Reb Avraham Tzvi Wosner and he said there is no difference (except the higher price for yad yad). There are also battim that are made by a milling machine that is powered by electricity. These are called ‘mechonah’. They are less expensive than rebuah regel, and are the most common type of gassos battim.

Mezuzah With Window For Shakai

It is a very old custom that the back of a mezuzah has Hashem’s name (Shakai) written on it.  Sometimes the margin of the mezuzah is too large and when the mezuzah is rolled, it covers the shem. It is brought down that when we walk by the  mezuzah we put our hand on the shem and kiss our hand, in the same way that people kiss the sefer torah.  The best way to do this is if you actually see the letters of  Hashem’s name. Some people make a window by cutting the klaf as shown in the above picture, but it is better to simply fold the klaf. I asked Reb Wosner if it is really better to cut a window in the klaf than to just cut the margin of the klaf down a bit. He agreed that once you are cutting the klaf it hardly makes a difference if you are cutting a window or cutting the whole margin. Sometimes instead of cutting the klaf or making a window, people fold the edge of the klaf. This is the most preferable method. If you have mezuzos and you need help folding them please call me. For a small charge I will neatly roll up your mezuzos and put them in the cases. If you would like to see how I roll mezuzos watch my video in  How To Roll A Mezuzah.

Protect Your STaM From Water Damage

water damaged megillos

Be viligant when it comes to water. Many people bring me megillos that have come into contact with water. Store your megillos, and mezuzos in waterproof containers. If you keep your megillah in a silver case put it in a plastic bag before you place it in the case. Many people have told me stories about housekeepers that decided to polish the silver case, thinking they were doing their employer a favor only to find out that the employer was not as enthusiastic as they thought he would be. In fact, there is a megillah in my office awaiting repair for this very reason. The megillos pictured above were in a closed breakfront.  A pipe burst from the ceiling, dripped onto the breakfront, trickled inside and ruined the megillos. Are they still kosher? Probably. Although I will not be able to make them look new, I will be able to make them usable.

What Is The Proper Location For a Mezuzah On A Wide Doorway?

Wide Doorway

 The halachah requires the mezuzah to go on the outer tefach (four and one half inches) of the doorway. There are two possible reasons why this is so. One is so that the entire house is protected. The other is so that we come into contact with the mitzvah at the earliest point in time. When the door in question is an outer door the custom is to put it on the outermost spot (unless it will be heavily rained upon). On the inside doorways, since they are already protected by the mezuzos that are on rooms that are closer to the outside of the house, the minhag (custom) is to put it on the middle of the door frame.

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