RAMBAM: How To Use Ink- Hilchot Tefillin, Mezuzot & Sefer Torah (1)

It all has to be written right. You cannot write it the wrong way. You can't start your own font and call it Kosher. No emoticoning the parchment, even if it expresses the text well, and makes for a positive response to the Torah, which ends a conversation in a friendly way. 

There are rules.

The letters have to be clear and written on a parchment. No getting excited about Calibari 12 font. It can’t even be missing a little piece of the letter. I have seen some of the handwriting you people put out. It is as if a whole word is missing.

Tefilin must be: written on parchment and with the correct kind of ink. You can’t use a Bic. It has to be a thick kind that doesn’t rub out. Also has to be black. No red ink for comments. You are not grading a paper.

1:6-14- Three kind of parchment. They also have to be prepared in the right way, to get away the smell. It is about time people in shule started showering and stopped blaming the parchment for the odor.

Tefillin uses the Klaf. Mezuzot uses the Duchsstos. Torah uses the Gevil. I don't understand what that means either. Maybe if you learn more of the Rambam, or Torah, you will understand this. Lesson: You don't know everything. Sometimes you have to learn more to know stuff. And do not look it up in an English dictionary just because I wrote Gevil and Duchtoss in English, you transliterating heretic. 

They have to be from kosher animals, and they cannot be written on fish, because of the smell. Have you tried writing on fish? Exactly. You eat it.

Tefillin has to be done for the sake of the mitzvah. Mezuzah’s parchment does not. Therefore it is fine if the mezuzah parchment is done by a non-Jew.

There has to be lines placed on it, for the mezuzah and Torah. Tefillin does not need the indented lines. Are you following? There are reasons for this stuff. Point is: You don't just jump up one day and say, 'I want to write a Torah,' and do it, unless you are Artscroll. And even Artscroll is not written on parchment. So what good is it all?!

If written by a real heretic, you burn it. Semi heretics, you bury it. How do we judge heretics? It is how they dress.

1:15-20- H’s name must be written for His name. If not, it is pasul (invalid, you invalid witness in court). It is all about Kavanah (proper intent, you TV watching scribe). Write it for H's name. You don't put a first column on the Torah- 'Dedicated to Mickey and my wife.' 

But you don’t believe somebody who says they didn’t do it for the sake of heaven, after it has been purchased. That is a scheme that a lot of the righteous scribes have worked up, trying to get people to buy more Torah's from them, and that has to stop. The pious are always trying to scam people.

It has to be done in the Ashuri writing, which is the way we have it written nowadays. Why? Because it is Ashuri. It also has to be clear to a child who is not smart. Take any American Jewish child. Those kids have no idea what is going on. If it is clear to them, then you know it is very clear.

If there are holes that interfere with the letters and they look like other letters now, then it is not kosher. Might as well just have an American child write the thing, in their Israeli cursive. However, even when first writing, if the ink covers a hole, it is fine. Don't start poking holes in your parchment to see how thick the ink is.