Tuesday, March 31, 2009

My Progress #3: 11-lined Megillat Ester

After some 2 months I managed to finish my first Megilla, a small 11-lines Megillat Ester. I put a great deal of effort in this project since I'm not planning to write another Meggilat Esther anytime soon - it's way to much work and this is only a hobby for me. So I wrote it slowly, in the best way I could. No one writes an 11-lines Megilla right off the start since the parchment is more expensive, but I figured that I should do it right if I only do it once.

The original goal was to finish by Purim but I decided to take it easy and not run too much, even though I do feel quite stupid to finish it just 3 weeks after Purim... I was intending to bind whatever I had ready on the day before Purim and bring it to Shul - after all, according to Halacha if the Megilla is 51% complete one could technically recite a blessing over it and read it in public (as long as no full chapter is skipped) and I had a good 75% ready, but I was too busy to bind the klafim together on time.

Be as it may, I'm posting pictures of the whole Megila at the end of this post. I would greatly appreciate if anyone finds mistakes, I only went thru it once and it's easy to overlook your own mistakes.

Also, I added a few little decorations like the ones you see in the popular Hamelech Megilot. As I noted in my post about Megilla lines, the 11-lines Megilla is not "Hamelech" (i.e. it doesn't always start with the word Hamelech at the top of the column) but I did take the liberty to decorate the Hamelechs that appeared in the top of the columns. That's the cool thing about writing your own Megilla - you can do (almost) whatever you want!


From left to right: The Palace, The Tree, The Tear, The Justice


From left to right: The Dots, The Flames, The Crown, The Sharbit


From left to right: The Two Kerubim, Another Crown, The Galaxy

And here it's the full Megilla. I couldn't post it in order, so it's all scrambled together...:




10 comments:

Unknown said...

I have been following your blog, literally following your blog. I'm currently writing a Magillah of Esther, but do not have an official Tikkun version, so I have been using yours as a source. Because you could have made a mistake, I have been checking each page with the Tanakh that I have on my iPad.

This morning as I was writing, I noticed a mistake in the last word of column 3. I know that I would want someone to correct my copy, so I'm writing to let you know.

You wrote מומכן not ממוכן

I think it should be easy to correct.

Thank you so much for this resource. I very much enjoy reading your blog.

Keep up the good work.

YK said...

Rodney,

Sorry for my late response, I've been away in the past week.

I'm indebted to you for your correction. That's exactly why I posted it and I much appreciate your help.

I'm planning to start my Sefer Torah sometime soon and I will be posting it hoping to get help from you and others.

I wish you good luck in your Megilla and let me know if you find more mistakes!

YK

Unknown said...

Since I left the note I've found it spelled wrong in one other location, and (http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt3301.htm) gives

your spelling followed by the proper spelling in parenthesis.

This may be one of those errors that is supposed to be there.

Ben said...

The spelling is correct - it's a kri uchsiv.

Unknown said...

Thanks BGG, I finally found kri uchsiv, It took me a while because the Ashkenazi Anglicization had me trying shins and samecs, not tavs.

I found a really good description online. I knew this was true, but I had trusted a source that was not trustworthy.

But...

this time i've check 4 different sources, and they all show a second vav right before the yod in the eighth word of Esther 3:2

ומשתהוימ is what should be there

and

ומשתהימ is what is there

also:

YK, you seem to have multiple copies posted of the page that begins with Es 2:15 and Es 9:27

and there seems to be no page posted for Es 3:10-Es 4:3

How many total columns should there be?

38

If there is not another one missing then 38 seems right

YK said...

Rodney,

I can't recall how many columns there's in the 11-lined Mezuza. It's very possible I omitted one Yeriah in the post - I posted them out of order and I wasn't 100% sure if it had them all at the time I wrote this post.

In regards to the Kri Uchsiv, I think bgg can help you more than me!

YK

Unknown said...

Two more errors:

Esther 8:11 which appears on column 29 line 4 and word 4. It should start with a vav ולהרג

Esther 9:2 which appears on column 31 line 4 and word 3 it should start with lammed - לפניהם

I hope this is useful for you.

Ben said...

In response to Rodney's last two posts:
3:2 - you are correct, the text should read ומשתחוים.
9:2 - there seems to be some dispute as to which of לפניהם and בפניהם is correct. מנחת שי indicates that there are more sources that have it as בפניהם. I have always learned that the פסוק should be read twice, with whichever way is written to be read the first time. (See שיטה מקובצת)
8:11 - again both versions have validity, although I seem to recall seeing ולהרג more frequently than להרג, but I have seen both and always read it both ways.
Both of these פסוקים in each form are shown in various configurations of the מגילה shown in ליקוט ספרי סת''ם, a great resource but somewhat tricky to use at times.
It seems to me that the מסורה by the מגילה is a little more flexible in that there is more debate over which is קרי and which is כתיב, and that may be why there's the מנהג to read so many פסוקים twice, as opposed to only one such occurrence in the תורה.
I'll post what an old Yemenite מגילה I have has in these locations when I get a chance.
Ben

YK said...

Rodney,

Thanks

Bgg,

I've read Rabbi Breuer's take on Laharog and Bifneihem and he doesn't like the practice of repeating the Pasuk. I can't recall which mesorah he favored but he even considered telling people to fix their Megillot.

Can you email me some pics of the Yemenite Megilla you have?

YK

Anonymous said...

Hi YK, I have been following your blog recently since I am a few months behind you in my learning safrus. What Tikkun did you use for your megillah. My teacher uses the computerized version (he said it is better because the size is accurate). What do you use?