Left-Handed Sofrim
Question: Is it recommended to avoid using tefillin written by a left-handed sofer?
Discussion: Shulchan Aruch clearly rules55 that a left-handed person may write sta”m lechatchilah, and this is the view accepted by the vast majority of Poskim.
However, it is of note that based on Kabbalah, Ben Ish Chai56 writes that a left-handed sofer should not write tefillin.
His reasoning is based on the following factors:
1. He maintains that parashiyos must be written with the right hand because they must be written with the hand used to bind the tefillin. This is in contrast to the reason mentioned in Mishnah Berurah 32, note 17, that writing with the left hand is considered an unnatural way of writing.57
2. Although the basic halachah is that a left-handed person wears tefillin on his right hand (Shulchan Aruch 27:6), some Mekubalim (cited in Sha’arei Teshuvah 27:11) maintain that he should wear them on his left hand. Therefore, although according to the basic halachah, a left-handed person binds his tefillin with his left and must therefore also write tefillin with his left hand, according to the Mekubalim, he binds them with his right hand and must therefore write them with his right hand.
Hence, Ben Ish Chai writes that tefillin written by a left-handed sofer (with his left-hand) are invalid according to the Mekubalim.58
Interestingly, Rav Shlomo Kluger writes59 that when writing Sifrei Torah, the letters must be formed with strokes that go from left to right, as Moshe Rabbeinu did when writing the first Sefer Torah. It would follow that, since left-handed sofrim form their letters with right to left strokes, they would be invalid for writing Sifrei Torah but would be valid for writing tefillin and mezuzos.60 However, as noted previously, this is not the view of the vast majority of Poskim.
Regarding a sofer who writes with one hand while performing all other actions with his other hand, Mishnah Berurah61 cites Pri Megadim who says that ideally, he should not act as a sofer. But others dispute this and permit such a sofer, even lechatchilah.62
55 32:5. See also Shach, Yoreh Deah 271:12.
56 Rav Pe’alim II, Orach Chaim 9.
57 See further discussion of this point in Chapter 32, Passage 5, footnote h, (Ohr Olam ed.).
58 There is some discussion amongst Sephardic Poskim about this. Kaf Hachaim 27:31, and Ohr Letzion II:3:3 says that it is praiseworthy to be stringent in accordance with the Ben Ish Chai. However,
R’ Yaakov Hillel writes (Vayashav Hayam II:2) that the Kabbalistic source requiring a left-handed person to put tefillin on his left arm is highly questionable, and Halachah Berurah 32, note 12, also rules that one need not be stringent in this regard.
59 Sefer Sta”m, Hilchos Sefer Torah 61.
60 His reasoning is because Moshe Rabbeinu was right-handed, and all Sifrei Torah must be written as Moshe Rabbeinu wrote. (The assumption is that Moshe Rabbeinu was right-handed, since the Torah considers being left-handed a blemish and the Gemara, Berachos 44a, states explicitly that Moshe Rabbeinu had no blemishes.)
61 32:18.
62 Avnei Nezer (Orach Chaim 13). For further discussion, see footnotes h and i to Mishnah Berurah 32, note 18 (Ohr Olam ed.).