Nibs and Guides

Today I purchased from the sofer in Israel who sold us the klaf, 10 plastic nibs -- plastic and not metal as using metal, a material from which weapons are made, for writing a Megillah is frowned upon.

More importantly, I learned from the sofer just how beginning scribes write a Megillah. Pages of a printed Megillah are purchased with the text printed in the exact size and format, column by column, line for line, to match the scored klaf. The sribe then places the sheet on the klaf and copies it line by line, folding the sheet as he -- or in our case, she -- writes each line. The sheets even have fold lines on them.

Becasue I do not have the measurements of the width and length of the columns and of the width of the lines on our klaf, I could not order the sheets now, but will do so once I return home from Israel and take the measurements. I will order sheets for a "HaMelech" format - where each column begins with the word "HaMelech."

I also learend that there are two STA"M scripts, Ashkenaz and Sefardi, with the Sefardi script being simpler, so that will be the one we use.