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In addition, it is a minhag only in certain communities. Teimani scribes are very careful about various things, but not about this.
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<p>A community follows its own minhagim, but other communities are not bound by that. This is one of the fallacies of many of the "rules" that are brought in various books by sofrim. The only rules that bind all Jews are in the Torah. One cannot say that
his communal minhag is a rule for other communities.</p>
<p>A friend bought a mezuzah, and saw the "kuzu etc." written on the outside of the klaf. He asked the sofer, who told him that a mezuzah is posul without it. Little did the sofer know that various communities require various things and one cannot say that
the absence of those things makes it posul. It is clear from Sefer haPardes and the "Siddur Rashi" that Rashi followed various rules, including when a mezuza had to be written (only two hours a week qualify) and various names of mal'akhim that had to be written
in various places. That was the minhag in Rashi's place, but it does not pasel mezuzahs written according to halokho in other communities. Many of the "rules" that sofrim follow are not rules, but minhagim, and a sefer Torah from elsewhere follows the halokho
and its local minhagim.</p>
<p>As Rabbi Bloom says, there are rules about the layout in the Torah and elsewhere, but these do not include such things as starting varius ‘ammudim with a vav, nor starting with "hamelekh" in the megillah. Many sofrim just know what they were taught, and
they were taught the minhagim of a specific place.<br>
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<div class="PlainText"><font size="3" face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Rabbi Dr. Seth Mandel</font><br>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000" face="Calibri, sans-serif"><b>From:</b> Mesorah <mesorah-bounces@lists.aishdas.org> on behalf of Dov Bloom via Mesorah <mesorah@lists.aishdas.org><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, May 5, 2017 12:57 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Mesorah Email List<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Mesorah] Fwd: Re: exception to vavei haamudim</font>
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<div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>
From: "Dov Bloom" <<a href="mailto:dovbbb@gmail.com">dovbbb@gmail.com</a>><br>
Date: May 5, 2017 07:56<br>
Subject: Re: [Mesorah] exception to vavei haamudim<br>
To: "Nehemiah Klein" <<a href="mailto:kleinnd@gmail.com">kleinnd@gmail.com</a>><br>
Cc: <br>
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<div dir="auto">Vavei haamudim is only a minhag. I know of sofrim who dont follow it, where i live we have sfarim without it.
<div dir="auto">The mechaber and Ramah both do not require it or recommend against it, likewise the 'Keset Sofer'. </div>
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<div dir="auto">See <a href="http://www1.saad.org.il/elihu/vavei" target="_blank">
www1.saad.org.il/elihu/vavei</a> for an article marshalling the sources. </div>
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<div class="quoted-text">On May 4, 2017 21:47, "Nehemiah Klein via Mesorah" <<a href="mailto:mesorah@lists.aishdas.org" target="_blank">mesorah@lists.aishdas.org</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution">
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In this morning's kriya the word "shnei" as in "shnei haseirim" appears on the top of an amud, it's not one of the six that make up "bekah Shmo", I always thought every amud begins with a vav except for "bekah Shmo". Anyone have any sources for this, or explanations?</div>
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