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המשך שערוריית הקלף חשון תשס"ח לפ"ק
בדף 8

המשך שערוריית הקלף חשון תשס"ח לפ"ק
בדף 8

 

 We shall reveal to you some of the facts about parchment that the Sofrim and Rabbanim do not reveal:

 If you wish to write a Sefer Torah for the soul of a deceased family member, you should know how to buy a Sefer Torah over which a Brochoh can be made and one which will be of benefit to the soul of that family member.

 The first thing that you must know is that if the parchment is unsupervised then even if you buy from the best Sofer, you can be sure that 70% of this parchment comes from Arab sources, from Gaza or China or Japan.

Today, the Sofer is not interested in buying supervised parchment as it will cost him an additional 50 cents for each Mezuzah and he is embarrassed to ask for a higher price for the Mezuzah as he thinks that they will not wish to pay it (With that 50 cents he could buy a bottle of milk for his children!) When acquiring Parshios of Tefillin the difference could be several dollars. The buyer is not aware that over a sum of 50 cents, he is buying parchment that comes from Arab sources, which completely invalidates the Mezuzah. If writing a Sefer Torah, that price could differ by several hundred dollars and Hashem should protect us from the consequences of a person who does not have the protection of a valid Mezuzah and Tefillin.

 You should ask the Sofer for parchment that is only hand-made with supervision, meaning that there is a sticker on each and every parchment with the Rabbinical supervision printed on it, such as Noferstock and Back in Bet Shemesh or Kenigsberg. The difference between Noferstock and the others is that the Badatz of the Eidah HaChareidis have their supervision over the entire factory and the factory only produces excellent hand-made parchment. The other two factories, Back and Kenigsberg sell all types of parchment, both hand and machine-made, as well as unsupervised parchment.

This could be compared to a butcher’s shop that sells Kosher and non-Kosher meat together. In such a case, how could the seller be trusted over what he gives you?

And if they tell you that the seller is trustworthy, you should disregard it and remember that only a fool would believe all that they hear. This kind of trust could cause you to live your entire life without wearing Tefillin.

Therefore, when buying hand-made parchment from Back or Kenigsberg, you should check that the parchment you receive has the sticker of the Badatz on it, since some of their products do not have such supervision.

A G-d fearing Jew must be in the store to supervise that it is being produced correctly. If the owner does not take a Jew to do this, it is a sign that he might be buying from Arabs. The border police once caught a truck coming from Gaza that was filled with bags of parchment. The Arab had all of the telephone numbers and addresses he supplies in Bnei Berak and Yerushalayim. The Rabbanim knew exactly who the middle-men were but did not wish to embarrass them by publicizing their names, since they are respected members of the city.

Imagine that you are going to bake Matzos… In that situation, you would make significant efforts by personally baking or watching the baking of your Matzos, even though the process is the same every time. Here as well, you could go to the middle-man together with the Sofer and pay the Sofer the money that the parchment for the entire Sefer Torah costs, without the Sofer paying extra money for which he might not be reimbursed. In this way, you can buy Parshios and Sifrei Torah over which a Brachah can be made.

There also exists machine-prepared parchment with the hechsher of Rav Vosner of Bnei Berak. This is a weaker level of supervision, but it is nevertheless reliable.

The Badatz do not, however, supervise machine-prepared parchment since many of the Gedolei Yisroel have stated that this type of parchment is not ideal. And who wishes to have Tefillin that are not produced in an ideal way?

If you merit to write a Sefer Torah for the benefit of a deceased person, it is certainly worthwhile to spend the few hundred dollars that its costs to buy parchment from Noferstock over which it is certain that the parchment is 100% Kosher. They use only G-d fearing workers, and produce parchments with the highest Kashrus standards.

It is not advisable to be buying from another place that sells all types of parchment, as we have already explained.

Thank you very much to those that sent us all of the information about the parchment. Anyone that has additional points or stories about the parchment should kindly send them to us.

Every person is requested to help publicize all of the information that you have seen here. BE”H, through this, the Arabs will not be able to send missiles to harm Jews, as our Tefillin and Mezuzos are our best form of protection, as explained in Shulchan Aruch.. See further on…

Work of Hashem, parchment under Badatz supervision #4

Produced by the Vaad Mefackchei Stam VeTashmishei Kedushah of the Eidah HaChareidis, Yerushalayim.

Warning! Unsupervised area!

The editorial board speaks about:

-Tefillin straps

-Parchment production with the hechsher of the Badatz – there has been a recognisable increase in the demand for this parchment.

-Noferstock parchment – from when the skins are brought frozen to the factory without any previous preparations, until the end of the parchment production, hand-made by only G-d fearing Jews, Bet Shemesh.

-Keses Kenigsberg parchment, Back parchment.

-Straps and parchment produced by non-Jews

-Why extremely cheap straps are sold in the marketplace

-Only from that which you may eat

-Correct painting of the straps

-How to be saved from the danger of Shaatnez-filled suits in Eretz Yisroel

(see more about parchment on the next page…)

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“A Holy Call”

to the owners of factories that produce parchment

 We are shocked to discover that a large proportion of the Sifrei Torah, Tefillin and Mezuzos are written on parchments

that are prepared in factories of those that do not observe Shabbos R”L using non-Jewish workers

and even the parchments that are prepared in factories of Torah-observant Jews, most do not have the supervision of any Beis Din or competent Halachic Authority

In our time in which the preparation of parchment involves a large amount of Sheilos

amongst them those requirements without which the parchment could be completely invalid (according to most authorities even on a Torah level)

The Rabbanim of Boro Park already discussed in a number of gatherings, the seriousness of the parchment situation (that are the basis of the sanctity of Holy writings) and concluded that they must be prepared under strict supervision or at the very least no less than other areas of Kashrus that are produced in factories

 And since our neighborhood of Boro Park contains the largest group of people in the world who buy religious articles imported from Eretz Yisroel, we therefore turn to all parchment producers without exception to allow their factories to be under suitable supervision. It is only in this way that we can rely on their Kashrus. We can only advise our communities to give their money to factories that have valid Rabbinic supervision.

 Signed by the following Rabbanim in Boro Park

Today, 9^th Teves 5761

 

Yechezkel Rota Av Beis Din K’Hal Yirei Hashem

Tuvia Goldstein Av Beis Din VeRam Emek Halocho

Menashe HaKoton Av Beis Din Ungvar

Simcha Bunim Ehrenfeld Av Beis Din Mattersdorf

Chaim Yehudah Katz Av Beis Din Serdaheli

Eliezer Eichler Dayan Umoreh Tzedek Baian

Dovid Dov Meizlish Av Beis Din Satmar BP

Yisroel Menachem Greenvald Av Beis Din Puppa BP

BenZion HaKohen Strasser Av Beis Din Toras Chemed Nitra BP

Shlomo Tzvi Stern Av Beis Din Debretzin

Alter Eliezer Horovitz Av Beis Din Agudas Yisroel

Gavriel Tzinner Av Beis Din Umechaber Sefer Nitei Gavriel

Shraga Hager Admor MiKosov

Binyomin Zev Landau Dayan Umoreh Tzedek Kehal Chasidei Tosh

Yechiel Michel Steinmetz Chaver Badatz Skver

Tzvi Heilperen Dayan Umoreh Tzedek Khal Adass Yeshurun Vienn

Shlomo HaKohen Gross Dayan Umoreh Tzedek Belz

Moshe Menachem Weiss Dayan Umorek Tzedek Puppa

Moshe Friedman Dayan Umoreh Tzedek Satmar 16th Av.

Yosef Teitelbaum Head Beis Horaah Veyoel Moshe

Alter Eliezer Horovitz Dayan Umoreh Tzedek Satmar Bayswater

Avrohom Tzvi HaLevi Vosner Dom'tz Krestir Barbesht,
VeChaver Vaad HaRabonim DeMishmeres Stam

Yitschok Stein Dom'tz Faltichan Raavad Beis Talmud LeHora'ah

Yitschok Tzvi Sofer Moreh Tzedek Beis Horaah Veyoel Moshe

Moshe Kessler RaHab Vishnitz

Mordechai Leib Weiss AvDeki Ohel

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