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I just realized that there is a split vav in Parshas Pinchas,

Are their other cases of split letters in the Torah?
Do all Torah's have it?
When did Jews start to do it?
Are there commentaries explaining it?

The only thing online I found was http://www.sofer.co.uk/html/broken_vav.html

hazoriz
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  • I just found it http://www.sefaria.org/Kiddushin.66b.13 – hazoriz Jul 13 '17 at 18:41
  • Apparently, not all Torah's have it, and I gather that it must not be a requirement. I was expecting the Torah I read from this morning to have it, but it didn't. I assume that what you found in Kiddushin is an answer (I can't access your link, now.) If so, by all means, post your own answer. – DanF Jul 13 '17 at 19:13
  • @DanF http://www.frumtoronto.com/Blogger.asp?BlogCategoryID=98&ShowEntryID=13701 – hazoriz Jul 13 '17 at 19:15
  • Interesting 2nd link. I don't quite agree with the author's suggestion on the last line regarding using a pin to scratch out part of the vav. Considering that the author cited various opinions about where the vav should be split, I would not leave that scratching job with anyone except a qualified sofer. – DanF Jul 13 '17 at 19:20
  • Yemenites don't write the letter differently. – Double AA Jul 13 '17 at 20:54
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    related: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/74128/understanding-text-variations – Rish Jul 13 '17 at 22:31
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    @rish that may be a duplicate – Double AA Jul 14 '17 at 03:04
  • @DoubleAA this is very interesting. Where did you see this? – Bach Jul 14 '17 at 19:07
  • @bach just go look at a yemenite torah. this isn't a secret. I'd argue it's marginally interesting as there are lots of variant traditions of funny letters in various Torahs. – Double AA Jul 14 '17 at 19:08
  • @DoubleAA Yeah but this is different, since if this is a matter of tradition and a broken vav is arguably not a vav, that can make all our Torah scrolls passul! – Bach Jul 14 '17 at 19:16
  • @Bach if it is not a yud (the top part) why is it not a vav with some dirt under (seperate from) it (ps you did not tag doubleaa) – hazoriz Jul 14 '17 at 19:17
  • @Bach How's this different from traditions of curly Pehs or slanted Chets or upside down final Nuns? etc – Double AA Jul 14 '17 at 19:32
  • @hazoriz The top of the yud and the vav are the same. The question is where on the leg do you make a cut. if there's more than a malei ot ketana left attached, it'd probably be fine – Double AA Jul 14 '17 at 19:33
  • @Bach If you really want to be strict you could write the vav whole and then cut it afterwards, since some rishonim hold cracks in letters that were originally formed correctly don't invalidate the letter. – Double AA Jul 08 '21 at 19:30

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