The raish in artzachem has a smudge. It still looks more or less like a raish, and two of my children (18 years old and 14 years old, both too old for a shailos tinuk) who looked at it didn’t have any doubt that it was a raish. Sometimes the opinion of a child is enough to machshir (validate) a letter. The problem in this case is that in the Keses HaSofer chapter 5, under the halachos of the letter hey it says not to make a hey round on the top right side like a reish. In addition, if a drop of ink falls into a dalit, if it is very small, and a child reads it correctly, only under some circumstances will it be kosher. Here we have a hybrid question, it is not a dalit, but a raish, and it is not a small drop of ink, but a fairly large one, and if you see it in person, you can see that some of the smudge is dark. According to the Rosh, even the smallest drop of ink would be enough to make a kosher hey.This means that if you need a reish, and it has a drop of ink in it, you are in trouble. This is why I didn’t listen to my children, and instead should it to Rav Wosner, who said he could not be machshir (approve) it.
