![shin hebrew font shin hebrew font](https://www.utf8icons.com/character_image/64299-hebrew-letter-shin-with-sin-dot.png)
Sephardi ksav is kosher bedieved or even passul for (most?)non Sephardim due to the yack of oketz of Rabbeinu Tam on the Yud, The leg of the Nun and Gimel protruding from the right edge, rather than the center, etc. It is incorrect to say that any ksav is ok for anyone. Scroll, make sure you choose the one that is right for you!įrom left to right: Sephardi, Beit Yosef, Arizal and Chabad. So, if you are still reading this, yes, there are many Jewish Fonts. This Ktav is very similar to the Ktav Arizal, but you can identify it by the exquisite Lamed and Peh: I heard from a fellow Chabad scribe that the Alter Rebbe once said that when Mashiach comes this will be the main Ktav, but the fact is that the Chabad Ktav is the least popular of all the four versions of the Ktav Ashurit. On top of all this mess there's the Chabad Ktav, introduced by the Alter Rebbe. Anyways, it's easy to identify an Arizal ktav - the Chet and Shins look like this: But if you one day hire a sofer to write you a Torah, make sure you ask your Rebbe if you should use Ktav Ari or Beit Yosef. So if you are Hassidic, you should order a Ktav Arizal Tefillin. One of the few Hassidic sects who oppose this practice is the Tzanz dynasty, since the Divrei Chaim was very clear about writing the Torah in Ktav Beit Yosef and Tefillins in Ktav Ari. Frankly, I don't know why, but that's a fact. Most Hassidic scribes today write not only Tefillins, but also Torah scrolls and Mezuzas in Ktav Arizal. The Ari never intended to change the way our Torah scrolls are written and that's when the confusion starts. But what most people overlook is the fact that the Ari only pushed for changes in the Tefillin, not in the Torah scrolls. He also introduced a new way of writing the Holy Shem, according to the Kaballa and many sofrim today write it this way ( click here for my post about the Holy Shem). Before him, the Ashkenazim basically wrote in a uniform way, but the Ari, with his unmatched Kabalistic knowledge, pushed for a few changes in the Ktav Ashurit. The Arizal script was introduced by the Ari, in the 1500's. But for the Hassidic readers I need to first give the big picture. If you are not Hassidic go Beit Yosef, which is the standard and most popular version.
#SHIN HEBREW FONT FULL#
The easiest way to identify this ktav is through the Shin, which has a distinctive round base like this (you can see a full sample in the end of this post)įor the Ashkenazim it's more tricky. If you are Sefardi, it's easy - buy a Tefillin/Mezuza/Torah written in Veillish. And I will try to organize it for you here. However, if you can choose between these four versions of Ktav Ashurit, why not make the right choice? Most people who buy Tefillin or Mezuzot don't really pay any attention about the version used by the scribe but just like anything else in life you should make an informed decision. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the foremost authority of the Sefardic Jews today, proves this extensively in his sefer Yebia Omer and before him the Kaf Hachaim claims the same, so there's nothing to fear - whatever script you have is okay. There are four versions:Īll scripts have the same Halacha status and are Kosher for any Jew, since the differences are very slight. If you take to account the quantities of Talmuds, Mishnayot, Peirushim out there that use this script, it's no exaggeration to claim that this script has become more popular than the Ktav Ashurit, only found in the holy scrolls.īut I'll spend more time talking about the different versions of the Ktav Ashurit, since this is the script we use for all scrolls and most people have no clue about this. This font was introduced in the 15th century and it is still printed today in a standard way, that is, with no variations. It's way easier to write Ktav Ivri than Ashurit - it's basically sketches rather than an artistic alphabet and I imagine it would be a lot easier to write a Sefer Torah in Ktav Ivri.Īnother font that became very popular is Rashi's Script, which is commonly found in Chumashim, Talmud and commentators. The Ktav Ivri is also known as " Paleo-Hebrew Alphabet" and you can see a full verse from Tanach in the pic in the right.
![shin hebrew font shin hebrew font](https://see.fontimg.com/api/renderfont4/mO92/eyJyIjoiZnMiLCJoIjoxNzEsInciOjI2MywiZnMiOjY1LCJmZ2MiOiIjMDAwMDAwIiwiYmdjIjoiI0ZGRkZGRiIsInQiOjF9/16k/preview.png)
So right from the start, we have two fonts: Ashurit and Ivri. We follow the opinion that the Luchot were given in Ktav Ashurit. There's a discussion in the Talmud if the Luchot given in Har Sinai were given in Ktav Ashurit (the font we use today) or perhaps Ktav Ivri, an obscure and completely different font. Additionally, there are other fonts that are not related to Ktav Ahurit, so I think it's worthwhile to talk a little about the Jewish Fonts. Although all Holy scrolls are written in Ktav Ashurit, there are many subdivisions within this script.