Parshiyot of tefillin, with the looped “pey” letter. Attributed to the students of the Ba’al Shem Tov. Not checked.

The letter “pey” in the word “pen” of the verse “Pen YiftehLevavchem” is looped around itself. As well as the verse “Vayehi Ki Hekshe Paro,” as is known, in the tradition of the scribes Rabbi Zvi Hirsch and Rabbi Ephraim, the scribes of the Ba’al Shem Tov, who would write the “pey” that way. Many followed this mystic practice subsequently. The researcher Yehoshua Twersky writes about it in his book BaChatzerHaTzaddik: “Apart from the hidden, what is revealed in the Torah of the Baal Shem Tov, which is visible to the eye of every one looking into it? In looking at it some differences in the shapes of some individual letters … the “pey” is occasionally different from the known and accepted one. In the normal one the end bends inward, from the left. This differentiates the “pey” from the “kaf.” But the bending of the “pey” of the RavZviSofer is itself sort of its own “pey.” This letter is known as “pe’in” among stam scribes. I saw these also in tefillin of Rabbi Ephraim Sofer, who worked prior to RavZviSofer by a number of years. Also, the tefillin scrolls of Rav Ephraim Sofer are very important in the world of Chassidut.” | 83x5.5cm. Nice handwriting. Generally good condition.