Asking a Child

Sometimes we are not sure if a letter is kosher. Since we know what it is supposed to be we cannot rely on our own judgment. In cases like this sometimes the halacha dictates that we ask a child who is neither a fool or a chochom (wise person). This means that the child should know how to read the letters but not understand what he is reading. In a case where there is a 50% chance that the child will read either one of two possibilities we can rely on his ‘psak’ (decision). If you look at the vov in the picture you will see that it is touching the lamed underneath. When we covered up the bottom part of the Lamed (which was necessary) the child read it as a nun. If the sofer would scrape away the part that was touching he would be turning a nun into a vov out of order, rendering the mezuza posel. By the way this would also be chok tochos (creating a letter by carving with a knife instead of by writing with ink).

Father & Son Retzuah Painting Competition

My son Yehuda Zev Michaels thought he could paint retzuous faster and better (no brush marks, even, etc.) than his Abba (me) so I sugested a friendly comptetion. Even though I was willing to show him all my tricks before he started, feeling himself to be a true expert retzuah painter, he declined. Pictured  here is Abba on the left and Yehuda on the right, painting away. I’ll leave it to your imagination who won. Don’t worry, Yehuda, who is not yet Bar Mitzvah was only painting an old retzuah no longer in use.

If you are’n ready for a new set of retzuos and your old ones need to be refreshed and blackened, give me call. I can put a nice fresh coat of paint on them. You’ll notice the improvment as soon as you see them. If you want your retzuous painted call me a (or Yehuda) at 845-290-2546.