What are the different styles of writing Tefillin? Which is best?

[@TheSoferCenter]

Contact Rabbi Kass, Email: [e-mail], Phone or WhatsApp [phone] www.SoferCenter.com

[@DZ-bo8hq]

I'm happy to see that you are not "biased" (I believe you are Chabad?) as one may have thought that you would convince less knowledgable customers that Ksav Ari is the only way to go

[@jwhippet8313]

I'm Hungarian Ashkenazi and use Ari script. Through the years numerous yeshivish rabbonim have told me to switch. I stumbled across the sofer for Dohány synagogue in Budapest on social media, and he told me that not only do many non-Hasidic communities in Hungary use Ari script, the Chasam Sofer used it, and that he wrote his thesis on the history of Beis Yosef and Ari scripts, and that the 4 oldest Ashkenazi scrolls we have found all use Ari script. Beis Yosef script is from an earlier work on safrus called Meggilas Esther, but we don't know historically how popular it actually was in Ashkenazi communities. (Edit: we don't know how popular it was in the centuries before the Beis Yosef and Ari z"l.) I can link you to his thesis.

[@GLOCKDPLUSFlowriders]

All good questions, thanks! Hope the Rabbi has time to answer. I am Ashkenazi (Polish /Russian grandparents) so I should purchase Beit Yosef no? But I am so more attracted to the Ksav Ari, both the Shin and the parshot. I also like to wrap away. It's all very exciting, but confusing too.

[@chashmal10]

Is it uncommon to have ksav Ari in size 3.5 batim (ie instead of 4.0)? Are there any sources that allude to the size of Ari’s batim?

[@samm20017]

You mention that some hasidim wear Beis Yosef. Which hasidim wear Beis Yosef and why do they wear Beis Yosef instead of Arizal?