20% Done!

I put this post through first. When it didn’t go up after about 48 hours, I figured it fell through the cracks and then posted the other one. Eventually, it looks like both went through.

There is only one Sefer Torah. Period.

The Wolf
(who is none of the three things you’ve mentioned)

How can you write a כשר ספר תורה without learning safrus and once you learn safrus and start writing your own Sefer doesn’t that make you a sofer?

Well, it’s sort of a “yes and no” situation.

I did learn safrus from a sofer. However, my intention was not to become a working sofer. I have no real interest in writing tefillin, mezzuzos, etc. The sole goal of the project was to write a sefer Torah to fulfill the mitzvah. As a result, I never bothered going for formal certification as a sofer*. So, I don’t consider myself to be a sofer in the way most people would use the term. I focused mainly on the halachos of writing (including the halachos of k’sidran, even though they don’t apply to a sefer Torah), but I never learned about battim, retzuos, and other parts of the craft that a normal sofer would be expected to know to be able to do his job.

The Wolf

(*It should be noted that while I am not formally certified, I am also not “out on my own” either. I check in with my safrus rebbe regularly for guidance, advice, etc. He also confirmed that I do not need formal certification for what I’m doing.)