Selecting tefillin parchments: A guide for online tefillin buyers

When buying a set of tefillin online, you may see several different levels of parchments to choose from. What's the difference between the various quality levels of tefillin parchments? Here's a question we received today from France on that topic.

Dear Sirs,
what are the differences among the parchments you can choose to order tefilins on your website?
Best regards,
Yossef

As we explained to Yossef, there are hundreds of complicated halachic issues related to writing parchments for tefillin, mezuzahs or a Sefer Torah (a field known as STaM). To be considered kosher, the writing must meet certain standards. For example, letters must not touch or be written out of order (i.e. you cannot go back and add a forgotten letter).

To become a sofer (one who writes the parchments) you must invest at least a year or two in study and training. But among those who become a qualified sofer, the caliber of their writing may vary considerably. Some write very quickly to provide mezuzahs or tefillin that are very affordable, while meeting the minimum requirements. Others write very slowly and carefully, so that their writing is beautiful (not unlike calligraphy).

And even among those who try to create beautiful writing, there are different levels of talent. Of course experience helps improve the level of writing, but in addition, it depends to some extent on one's G-d given talent. One sofer with five years experience may be able to write a more beautiful mezuzah than another sofer with 15 years experience.

Thus a sofer's work is graded by expert STaM buyers who know how to set the right value for their work.

The Torah tells us, Zeh Keli v'anveihu, which Chazal explain means we should strive to fulfill mitzvahs in a aesthetically beautiful way. When you do the mitzvah of tzitzit, tie the tzitzit on a beautiful tallit or tallit katan. And when you do the mitzvah of mezuzah, write a beautiful parchment and use a beautiful mezuzah case. And when you do the mitzvah of tefillin, make the finishing work on the boxes beautiful and the writing on the parchments inside beautiful, etc.

As you can imagine, the quality of the writing of tefillin parchments has a significant impact on the final price of a given set of tefillin.