In the wake of an investigation conducted by Rabbi Yisroel
Yod, head of the Pe'er Institute, the identity of the person
suspected of distributing megillas printed, rather
than written, on parchment has been determined. The culprit
lives in the center of the country.
In recent weeks a letter from HaRav Shmuel Eliezer Stern and
HaRav Moshe Shaul Klein was circulated in chareidi centers.
The letter read: "We have learned that dishonest people have
recently been distributing megillas on parchment in
our city. There is no doubt that they have not been written
by a scribe, but were photocopied by computer and then
printed in so sophisticated a manner that it is difficult to
discern the ruse. We, therefore, warn merchants and the
public to be on the alert, and not to stumble by purchasing
such megillas. Before purchasing a megilla one
must carefully examine its source and quality, checking
thoroughly whether it was, indeed, written by an expert, G-d-
fearing scribe."
Two weeks ago, a Jew with an outwardly chareidi appearance
arrived in a store for religious items in Bnei Brak, offering
to sell the proprietor megillas at a low price. After
thoroughly examining the megillas, the dealer saw that
they had not been written with ink, as prescribed by
halocho, but had been silk screened onto the
parchment, a process that is much cheaper but not
halachically valid.
The dealer asked the "scribe" to leave the megilla
with him for a day, to decide whether to purchase it. The
swindler agreed, and the megilla was immediately
brought to halachic authorities expert in the laws of Stam
(Sifrei Torah, Tefillin, Mezuzas). They ruled that the
sample was without a doubt a fraud and that the
megilla had been printed on the parchment by the silk
screen process.
News of the deceit spread quickly among stores for religious
items, and the dealers met to devise a plan to apprehend the
swindler. At the directives of rabbonim, the task was
assigned to Rabbi Yisroel Yod, head of the Pe'er Institute,
which coordinates the activities of the information center
for the finding of lost and stolen tefillin. Rabbi
Yod, who has uncovered many tefillin and religious
item thieves in the city, has much experience in this
area.
The great efforts made to locate this distributor of phony
megillas led to a city in the center of the country.
It was determined that he had studied safrus in a
course in Bnei Brak after, he said, he had been fired from
his previous job due his chareidi dress after doing
teshuva.
The man purchased a large amount of parchment, prepared
printing blocks of the megillas in Sephardic script
and found a printer in the Holon region who took the job.
Scores of megillas were printed.
After he was discovered, Rabbi Yod spoke to the rav of the
community to which the rogue belongs. The rav told the man
that if he didn't stop he would be thrown out of the
community and shamed.
Last week, he agreed to hand over the printed megillas
and all of his equipment to Rabbi Yod, and he even turned in
some spoiled ones.
Rabbi Yod convened a meeting of professional scribes and
printers in order to devise ways of curbing the serious
problem of the printing of religious items, and also sent a
letter to hundreds of printers throughout the country,
apprising them of the seriousness of printing divrei
Stam on parchment, something which is illegal as well as
a form of kashrus fraud.
Experts in Stam can discern the difference between the
writing of a scribe and a silk-screen. One difference is that
in the printing some of the tagim are detached from
the letters, and another is that the ink is flatter.
