Silk screen sefer torah
Question
Can you please answer for me a couple of questions that I have regarding your sefrei torah. 1. Each shem of hashem needs to be written specifically leshmah prior to writing it. If you are writing a page in a couple of seconds why do you assume that you can be mafsick between the kedusah and the actual writing of the shem hashem, with other words that are not shemos? 2.Every sefer on hilchaos safrus writes that lechactcila each word must be said by the sofer prior to writing it so that the kedusah of the hevel piv will go on to each word. How do you do that? 3.Mezuzahs and teffilin have to be written in order. how can you possibly do that? 4.Many poskim hold that even in a sefer torah the letters of each shem have to be written in order. How do you do that? 5.What right do you have to assume that this is considered maseh kisivah?
Answer
Answered by Aaron AbadiYou write your email with such arrogance. Who died and made you Gadol Hador?! You know how to learn so well?! Did you know that there are over 20 early Acharonim that would accept this process as 100% Kosher. There are over 10 of them that even consider printing OK. Did you look up this Sugya before saying your arrogant comments? The way you write your email seems to portray that you know all that is needed to know about this. Obviously you did not spend more than 10 minutes on it. Here's a little background to the topic. The Rabbis that were against printing STA"M are the BA"CH (691:4), the Rokeach (#280), the Maharsha"m (C #357), the Benei Yonah (end of #271), the Maharashda"m (YO"D #184), the Zera Emet (YO"D #117), the Yafeh Lalev (O"CH #32:6), the Teshuvah MeAhavah (A #9), and several others. Their main concerns were the Chakika problem, that is still a bit of a mystery as to what that was exactly. Only one or two held that this was not writing at all, based on their interpretation of a Talmud Yerushalmi (Gittin Perek B Halachah #3). The Talmud Yerushalmi says Vekatav Velo Hashofech, which means you cannot pour the ink onto the page. There were a few other concerns listed, including the fact that the letters are put on upside down, and the fact that many pages must be discarded during the process. The ones that consider real printing to be 100% writing include the Mahara"m Ben Chabib, the TA"Z (YO"D #271:8), the Magen Avraham (#32:57 & #284:1), the Beit Shmuel, the Knesset Yechezkel, the Erech Hashulchan, the Pri Chadash in even HaEzer, the Pri Megadim, the Machazit Hashekel, the Yaave"tz, the Maharitz Chiyut, the Aruch Hashulchan, and several others. When we look at the silk-screen process, we see that the concerns presented by the overwhelming majority of the dissenting Rabbis would not apply. There is no Chakikah, just straightforward ink being pressed directly onto the parchment. It is right side up in the same way as any writing, and there is less discarded than writing with a quill. Suddenly silk-screen writing begins to look much better. By presenting their specific concerns, these Rabbis confirmed that the writing by silk-screen was writing and not pouring. They disagreed with that interpretation of the Yerushalmi. The conventional understanding of that Yerushalmi is that you cannot write with invisible ink and then pour on the chemical that makes that ink visible. The reason is obvious, because the act that really creates the readable written letters is an act of pouring, which is certainly not writing. Silk-screen and even printing is not at all like this. Thus as it is clear that the silk-screen process lacks the problems that conventional printing presents to many of the Rabbis, now the side approving of the silk-screen process begins to grow. The more than ten Rabbis who held printing to be a form of writing would most certainly approve of silk-screen writing. Then we can now add 5, 6, or more from the opposing camp, who would oppose printing, but clearly approve of the silk-screen writing, since their concerns have been properly addressed. Suddenly, we have twenty or so of our most prominent Rabbis saying that Silk-screen is OK, and one or two that do not consider it writing based on their interpretation of that Yerushalmi. No-one was concerned with your issues. "What right do they have to assume that it is Maseh Kesivah?!" & "Why do they assume that you can be mafsick between the kedusah and the actual writing...." Why don't you look into the Seforim before showing us your arrogance and stupidity. AA