Reply To: 20% Done!

How can you write a ??? ??? ???? without learning safrus and once you learn safrus and start writing your own Sefer doesn’t that make you a sofer?

Well, it’s sort of a “yes and no” situation.

I did learn safrus from a sofer. However, my intention was not to become a working sofer. I have no real interest in writing tefillin, mezzuzos, etc. The sole goal of the project was to write a sefer Torah to fulfill the mitzvah. As a result, I never bothered going for formal certification as a sofer*. So, I don’t consider myself to be a sofer in the way most people would use the term. I focused mainly on the halachos of writing (including the halachos of k’sidran, even though they don’t apply to a sefer Torah), but I never learned about battim, retzuos, and other parts of the craft that a normal sofer would be expected to know to be able to do his job.

The Wolf

(*It should be noted that while I am not formally certified, I am also not “out on my own” either. I check in with my safrus rebbe regularly for guidance, advice, etc. He also confirmed that I do not need formal certification for what I’m doing.)