Worst Mezuzot Ever I

These mezuzot were actually taken off of somebody's door.

Both mezuzot were probably not written by Jews, definitely not by trained scribes. There are letters that look like other letters, letters that look like numbers numbers, and letters that look like nothing much in particular. The bottom mezuzah is also written on "klaf mashuach," literally "smeared parchment."  

Klaf mashuach is ordinary parchment covered with a chalk based substance called log in Hebrew. At one time, it was standard procedure to coat the backs of sheets used in Torah scrolls with log so that it would be uniformly white instead of showing the natural variations of the skins. Ashkenazim stopped doing that a while back, preferring the natural look (I also think it looks nicer personally) but many sepheradim still write on parchment that was mashuach on the reverse.

This mezuzah, however was mashuach on the inside which presents two major halachic problems which render the mezuzah worthless according to the majority of poskim  regardless of the awful handwriting:

1. If the mezuzah is written on chalk paste, then it isn't written on parchment (chatzitza)
2. Moreover, even if for some reason the chalk paste were to be considered part of the parchment negating the first issue (battel) the chalk paste is prone to peeling and flaking when rolled up, causing the writing to rub out as you can see in the specimen above.

Despite all of this, there are less than honest scribes who continue to write on klaf mashuach because is easier to write on since it has a more papery texture. Many mezuzot and cheaper pairs of tefillin are still written on Mashuach.

Blooper Reel 1

I have several long, serious, and research intensive posts in the works. One is on the economics of STA"M, another on the precise definition of "shinui tzura". Unfortunately I have no time so here are some pictures instead.

Retzua held together with duct tape

Tefillin straps are leather made of the skin of a kosher animal. Which species of bovine grows a duct tape hide? Obviously a retzua cannot be held together with duct tape, but what about using it to cover up faded bits? 

There is nothing wrong with the dye used in duct tape per se. The problem is that it is a new layer, not dye. This is similar to the issue of tiach -- a manufacturing practice where the battim were covered in putty instead of painted. The halacha is that if the putty comes of in small flakes, it might as well be paint; otherwise it hasn't been painted. Therefore covering an unpainted retzua in tape would not make it kosher.

Textbook bal tosif

This past shabbat we read about the prohibition of Bal Tosif -- not adding to a mitzvah. The classic example of this given in the literature is "not putting 5 scrolls in your tefillin." I recall that every time we came across this in school someone would ask "but why would anybody do that?" and the response was always something like "I have no idea. It's hypothetical."

Well, here you go. It is common to stuff tefillin with scraps of parchment so that the parshiyot don't rattle around. This shel-yad was stuffed with many extra pieces as shown here ... including an extra parsha taken from a shel rosh (the scroll on top.)