Friday, November 16, 2012

Classic Mistake and Fix



One of my very first works was this 11 lines Megillat Esther. Last Purim I noticed this classic mistake - Lamed that invades de Chaf Sofit, so I now took the time to fix it. I was not in a rush as a Megillat Esther is technically kosher even if it has small mistakes, as long as most of it is Kosher. However our sages teach us that one should avoid keeping scroll with mistakes, so here is how I fix it. The Klaf was really really poor in this part so I had a tough time scrapping and writing again over it, but the result was satisfactory to me.

Update: Aaron Shaffier pointed out in the comment section that it's not enough to fix the Lamed; the Chaf should also be re-written to avoid Chok Tochos. I rechecked this in the Keset Hasofer, which has a Chakira on this topic at the end of the Sefer and concludes indeed that the Chaf should also be fixed. My thanks to Aaron and I will try to post a new picture after the Chaf is fixed. See Keset below:

4 comments:

Aaron Shaffier said...

From the picture it appears that you only erased the head of the lamed and not the foot of the Chaf sofit. If it is indeed as it appears from the picture, you didn't really accomplish anything by fixing it. The whole reason that we are concerned with the lamed entering the chaf is that it may appear like a Hey. Assuming it did look like a hey, fixing it in this way would be Chok Tochot. If it didn't look like a hey, there was no need to fix it in the first place.

YK said...

Thanks for your comment.
My reasoning was that the Chaf was written properly at the time, only later the Hey came in it. Also, I'm not so sure there was a real Hey issue here.
I will look into it.
Yk

Aaron Shaffier said...

The idea of "written properly at the time" doesn't help in this kind of situation. To the extent that it is a problem, it is because it may be a hey. Which means, returning it to a chaf by erasing the lower "left foot of the hey" would be Chok Tochos.

Of course, that is assuming it was a problem at all, which is a different discussion, but in a Megillah or Sefer Torah it is always worth erring on the side of caution since there is not Kesidran.

YK said...

Aaron

You were right and I updated the post.
Many thanks

YK