STAM 101: The Amud

When calculating prices for large STAM items (a Sefer Torah, navi, or megila), the standard unit of measurement is the “amud”. For pricing purposes, an amud of text is the amount of text that can fit comfortably in a space that is 42 lines high and 62 “yudin” wide (the letter “yud” repeated 62 times, written at a size that is proportionally correct for a given line height). A Sefer Torah is priced at 245 amudim (even if the actual layout is 248 or 226 columns). By way of comparison, Megilas Ester is priced at 10 amudim, sefer Yeshayahu at 53 amudim and Shir Hashirim at 4 amudim. Tefilin and mezuzos are usually priced higher than the “amud rate” for the same amount of text (a mezuza is a little more than half an amud and a set of tefilin parshi’os is about 2.5 amudim), due to their small size and additional halachic requirements.

-= 8 =-