הלכות תפילין ומזוזה וספר תורה פרק ז

Laws of Sefer Torah Chapter 7 – The Mitzvah of Writing a Sefer Torah

Opening

Dear Jews in America, today we are going to learn the laws of tefillin, mezuzah and sefer Torah. Specifically sefer Torah begins today. There is a large audience listening from Europe and from other places, but today America is responsible for the entire world, like a dome, so all Jews are Jews in America.

No, all Jews, all Jews, wherever they are, okay. In the United States and Canada, who are under the authority of the rabbis in the United States and Canada, and also the Jews of Eretz Yisrael who are under whatever is in charge in Eretz Yisrael, the Eidah HaChareidis, the general Ashkenazi camps, and if there are Sephardim it’s Yisrael. I’m not leaving anyone out, yes Rabbi, I was just going, I was just going, in short, all Jews, kol Yisrael, I just wanted to indicate the kol Yisrael. Every Jew from Yisrael is listening to our shiur on the laws of sefer Torah chapter 7.

Halacha 1: The Positive Commandment to Write a Sefer Torah

The Language of the Rambam

In Sefer HaMitzvos the Rambam says about every male from Yisrael, each and every male. It is a mitzvah only for a man. It is a positive time-bound commandment. Eh, we haven’t yet said which mitzvah we’re talking about, so let’s explain what we’re talking about.

So the Rambam begins the mitzvah of writing a sefer Torah. The Rambam says, it is a positive commandment upon every man from Yisrael to write a sefer Torah for himself, so that he should have for himself a sefer Torah. This is not a mitzvah to write and place in the beis midrash, the mitzvah is to write for oneself a sefer Torah. So says the holy Rambam.

The Source: “Ve’atah Kisvu Lachem Es HaShirah HaZos”

That is to say, there is a verse “ve’atah kisvu lachem es hashirah hazos ulmdah es bnei Yisrael”. What does it say afterwards? That is to say, write the Torah that contains this song. Write down the Torah that has the song. The entire Torah is now called a song. The Torah is called a song.

It’s interesting, why should the entire Torah be called a song? The entire Sefer Mishpatim doesn’t say that it’s a song. But that’s how Chazal learn it.

No, he says that song means Shiras Ha’azinu. Do you really mean that one writes the entire Torah? Yes, yes, that’s how the Rambam learns. You have different approaches here.

Why Does “HaShirah” Mean the Entire Torah?

The Rambam says, it states in the Torah “ve’atah kisvu lachem es hashirah”. The Rambam says, this doesn’t mean only to write the song. Why doesn’t it mean only to write the song? Because one does not write sections of Torah, parshiyos parshiyos. And not to write one piece. If someone would fulfill the verse literally and write only Shiras Ha’azinu, he would be transgressing a prohibition of writing the Torah.

They should forgive us and learn that one may not cut from the Torah, or one may not take a piece from the Torah and use it for other things and the like. One also may not write only one parshah.

One may not write only one parshah? Yes, once we will learn at the end of these laws, it states explicitly at the end of this chapter or at the end of the next chapter, that one may not write a chumash as a scroll. A chumash yes, but not parshiyos parshiyos.

You ask a question, perhaps one only needs to write Sefer Devarim?

Discussion: How Do We Understand the Verse?

Speaker 1:

I don’t know, somehow they understood that it means… the Rambam understood somehow that this means one should write the Torah that contains the song. One must understand that it’s not the way Rabbi Avraham Abramowitz explains the derasha, if you want to understand the derasha. There are others who say that one can learn the entire Torah, and there are others about how one can learn the mitzvah of writing the entire Torah. The Rambam learns this way.

It’s not so strange, because you need to think, what does the verse say? The verse says one should write the song, remember, “ulmdah”, remember the song, “that this song shall be for Me as a witness” etc. And remember what Moshe Rabbeinu teaches us, it says there for a long time.

Also, even the song, from where will one write the song? And everyone looks around, what is the Torah? How did he ever find a Shiras Ha’azinu in writing somewhere in a genizah? It’s a part of the sefer. Therefore, just as one writes the sefer, automatically one will have the song. It’s a reasonable reading of the verse.

I said that it’s also necessary from the larger story. Once we already know the picture that the Rambam has laid out for us until now, and what Chazal lay out for us, that Moshe Rabbeinu taught the Torah, and that the Torah is one continuous thing that begins from Bereishis until Vezos HaBerachah, then when the verse says “kisvu lachem es hashirah hazos” it means the sefer, and the song is brought perhaps as an example.

In the plain meaning of Scripture one can say that the song is a part of the Torah. Not an example, simply when it says “kisvu lachem es hashirah hazos” it means one should write the entire sefer.

But the verse doesn’t say, we’re innovating a new mitzvah of writing the song or a new concept of writing the song. What the verse says is, the contextual point of the verse is that the song should be a testimony that will never be forgotten, and one should always see that the Torah already predicted that we will sin, and one should do teshuvah etc.

So, how will one write the song? As a part of the entire Torah, but why should someone write only a piece of song? It’s a bit strange. So that means, it’s like a sefer Torah. It’s not so crazy.

The piece is never written separately by itself, but what? It’s a part of the Torah. So it’s a mitzvah to give the Torah.

Discussion: The Status of “Ein Kosvim Es HaTorah Parshiyos Parshiyos”

Speaker 2:

I can only tell you that it’s circular. From where do you know that one doesn’t write the Torah parshiyos parshiyos? Because one must write the entire Torah. That the Torah must be one piece.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I understand that it’s a bit circular, that if one assumes that it’s a normal thing that one writes the Torah… That itself is “ein kosvim es haTorah parshiyos parshiyos”, he says. That the Torah is one large parshah. So the main law in the halacha l’Moshe miSinai, in the halacha is “ein kosvim es haTorah parshiyos parshiyos”, that’s where the main law lies. That the entire Torah is one unit. Then it comes out that one must write the entire thing.

Speaker 2:

Yes, but it’s backwards. It doesn’t say anywhere in the Torah “ein kosvim es haTorah parshiyos parshiyos”.

Speaker 1:

That “ein kosvim es haTorah parshiyos parshiyos”, that itself is simply a statement, that it’s a halacha l’Moshe miSinai. This is not like one learns into the letters of the seven. It’s not like that. It’s simply so that “ein kosvim es haTorah parshiyos parshiyos”, that the Torah is one thing.

It’s not a law. The law is the mitzvah of writing a sefer Torah. There is no other law. In which mitzvah is the halacha “ein kosvim parshiyos parshiyos” separate? It’s part of the laws of writing a sefer Torah. There is no law of “prohibition to write parshiyos parshiyos”.

Speaker 2:

I’m saying very well. Just as he says the song, you can imagine that he doesn’t mean to write one piece, because why should one write one piece? He means to write the entire thing.

Speaker 1:

The law of “ein kosvim es haTorah parshiyos parshiyos”, is that a d’oraisa or a derabbanan? It’s neither a d’oraisa nor a derabbanan. It’s the mitzvah of writing a sefer Torah itself.

Why should one write only one piece? Why should one take out only the piece, the part, the parshah? Why should one do such a strange thing? The Torah is the entire Torah. Not to do such a strange thing, is that a d’oraisa or a derabbanan? It’s a contradiction to the definition of a sefer Torah.

Speaker 2:

Okay, no, I’ll tell you the plain meaning in the halacha. I’ll tell you the plain meaning in the halacha, you’ll understand. Something is missing for us here. For me it’s clear. I don’t have time to look in sefarim in the middle, it’s really a pity for me.

Speaker 1:

For me, I understand it. If one agrees that it’s a normal thing that one writes that there is such a thing called a Torah, I need to understand from where comes the thing that there is such a thing as a sefer Torah? The book that is called Torah, chumash, yes, chumshei chumshei Torah. How do you know there is such a book? You must bring me a proof from a verse that there is such a book.

The plain meaning in the sense, it should say in the book, this is a sefer. Is there such a book? Certainly. Whoever writes a book, one writes a half piece, one volume, I also have one volume of a novel parshiyos parshiyos. You go to the store, buy me the Kedushas Levi, you go to Parshas Ki Seitzei, it doesn’t make sense.

“Es hashirah hazos” is in the sefer which is a sefer Torah.

So when he says “kisvu lachem es hashirah”, he doesn’t just say “kisvu lachem es hashirah”, but “write for yourselves the book that has the song”, the sefer that has the song.

Discussion: The Context of the Verse

Speaker 2:

Imagine I give you the Kedushas Levi, I tell you, the sefer is very important, because in this sefer it says a prophecy that tomorrow the Rebbe’s brother will come and say such and such.

No, I ask you, my children, I tell you, learn Kedushas Levi, the holy teachings on Chanukah, and under this I say, let’s print out a small sefer, a small booklet of the teachings on Chanukah. Why? Because it says there a law that one Torah is the Torah parshiyos parshiyos.

Speaker 1:

I’m not telling you what it says, you’re telling me a different story. It doesn’t say learn the Torah because there’s an important piece, the song. It says that since one will always remember the song that will be written, therefore the song will be able to be a testimony. But why will one write the song?

Wait, what does it say afterwards? “Ulmdah es bnei Yisrael”. What does it say? That one will be able to learn it like that? No, “lema’an tihyeh li hashirah hazos l’eid bivnei Yisrael”. You remember the parshah.

The point is that the song will be a memorial, one will always have written the song which will be a testimony that they predicted the whole thing. I tell you, but how will it be written? Is there a separate mitzvah to write the song? How will one remember the song? Why will one remember? Let’s say that one does fulfill the mitzvah of only writing the song. There will be somewhere an amulet somewhere with the song. It’s not interesting.

The point is, it will be a part of the sefer. Everyone will have a sefer Torah, and therefore the song will be a testimony. It makes a lot of sense if you think this way. I’m not saying one must learn this way, but it makes a lot of sense this explanation, that it doesn’t mean to write only the song.

According to this it would be, that when the Rambam would come to say that there is a mitzvah to write the song, it would be strange, what is the meaning of writing the song? It’s not like you wrote that it’s an important piece. The Rambam says, in this sefer, one will always use this sefer to remember that there is an important word there. It means that it will be in the entire sefer, not that one will take out the word. One won’t look at the word either, because it will be, as it says in the Gemara by the treifos, it’s “chada d’zita”, it’s a small piece, okay, it’s a paper, something is written, it’s nothing.

Speaker 2:

It’s a combination of a d’oraisa with a Torah she’be’al peh that says that the above-mentioned mitzvah is with the entire Torah.

Speaker 1:

No, I said that this is the reason. The Rambam doesn’t say so, he doesn’t say so, he interprets the Rambam. You can say differently. I’m telling you that it’s not a great novelty, it’s not a great novelty, because it says “ki yesh lecha sefer kasuv”. This is not the actual dispute about what the song is. It’s not the plain meaning that one must write the song, and only with a regular sefer Torah one cannot fulfill it. Certainly not. It’s not an accompaniment for the song. The song is certainly a part of the sefer.

“Ve’af Al Pi SheHinichu Lo Avosav Sefer Torah”

And now, since there is such a mitzvah, the Gemara says, he brings a halacha, ve’af al pi shehinichu lo avosav sefer Torah, mitzvah lichsov mishelo. Because a person already inherited a sefer Torah, he already has a sefer Torah for himself, but he still hasn’t fulfilled the obligation to write for himself. The word is that he should do an action, he should write for himself. Because it’s a mitzvah to write from one’s own, he must himself write a sefer Torah.

Perhaps it has to do with what it says right afterwards, “ulmdah es bnei Yisrael”. Writing is such a concept of, when a person writes, it’s plain that he… when a person writes a sefer Torah it’s a completely different thing than if someone writes for him. It’s a concept of learning like, it’s a concept of being a part of the Torah. He becomes a part of the Torah, he becomes much more.

“Ke’ilu Kiblah MeHar Sinai”

But here he says “ke’ilu kiblah meHar Sinai”. When one buys it from Yehudah, it can be “as if he received it from Har Sinai”. There are two levels. Let’s understand clearly. There is a mitzvah not just to have a sefer Torah, but to write your own sefer Torah. You should have your own Torah. This doesn’t yet mean that one must write it with one’s own hands. This can be fulfilled even when another writes.

If you, there are two conditions, if he writes it with his hand, it is a truly great merit “ke’ilu kiblah meHar Sinai”. If someone doesn’t know how to write, and he buys it, he also fulfills, another writes for him, he fulfills the mitzvah of “lichsov mishelo”. He doesn’t have the merit of “ke’ilu kiblah meHar Sinai”.

I mean that “ke’ilu kiblah meHar Sinai” means that writing a sefer Torah oneself is a tremendously powerful thing, truly. It’s like, it’s a type of learning, it’s stronger than learning. He exerted himself and wrote the entire Torah, and now he reads it. And it’s also simple that presumably the sofer is afterwards the baal korei. It’s a type of connection.

Why is “kisvu lachem es hashirah hazos” “ulmdah es bnei Yisrael”? And with your father’s Torah he doesn’t fulfill, there is another sefer Torah, but he didn’t fulfill the “as if he received it from Sinai”. This doesn’t relate here to any baal korei. The sefer Torah that one writes is not so that one should learn from it, not so that one should place it in shul and someone should read from it.

Laws of Sefer Torah: The Mitzvah of Writing a Sefer Torah — By One’s Own Hand Versus Through Another, and the Opinion of the Rosh

Halacha 2: Writing by One’s Own Hand Versus Writing Through Another

This doesn’t yet mean that you must write with your own hands. This means, you can fulfill even when another writes. If, yes, here there are two things.

If you write it with your hand, it is a truly great merit as if he received it from Har Sinai. If someone doesn’t have the ability to write, and if he doesn’t write it himself, he also fulfills when another writes for him. He fulfills the mitzvah of writing from one’s own.

Two Levels in the Mitzvah: Ke’ilu Kiblah MeHar Sinai Versus Lichsov Mishelo

He doesn’t fulfill the mitzvah of… he doesn’t have the merit of those who know. He doesn’t have the merit of ke’ilu kiblah meHar Sinai. I mean that ke’ilu kiblah meHar Sinai means that he… writing a sefer Torah oneself is a tremendously powerful thing, truly. This is a type of learning, it’s stronger than learning. He exerted himself and wrote the entire Torah, and now he reads it.

And it also looks simple that presumably the sofer is afterwards the baal korei. It’s a type… it’s a distinction. Why? “Kisvu lachem es hashirah hazos ulmdah es bnei Yisrael”. When someone doesn’t have the ability to write, he still doesn’t fulfill. There is another sefer Torah. But he didn’t fulfill the ke’ilu kiblah meHar Sinai.

This doesn’t relate here to any baal korei. The sefer Torah that one writes is so that one should learn from it, not so that one should place it in shul and read on Shabbos. One should learn from it. The mitzvah of reading the Torah. Specifically, one who writes with knowledge, in order to learn from it.

The Meaning of “Ke’ilu Kiblah MeHar Sinai” (According to Rashi)

But Rashi, the ke’ilu kiblah is simple, because why did one receive from Sinai? One wrote the Torah, made the Torah. He also makes a Torah. It’s a vessel, he copies the Torah that is here. He is engaged in making the Torah. It’s a completely different level.

The Concept of “Lichsov Mishelo” — Because a Torah Gets Old

But also the mitzvah of lichsov mishelo, my brother told me last night that he thinks that the mitzvah of lichsov mishelo is simply because the Torah gets old. An old Torah becomes a bit worn. I was told last night that a sefer Torah is already worn, becomes old and not beautiful. It’s good that there should be a new one.

Imagine one learns in the… tefillin can be out of order, very well. Tefillin can be out of order, why? As long as mother, yes? Because there’s no difference, one must have it. But a Torah, one uses it, it gets worn out, it’s not nice to have the same Torah.

Two Mitzvos Combined

It’s interesting, you could perhaps say that there are two mitzvos combined. There’s a mitzvah that every Jew should go through the “as if he received it at Mount Sinai,” he should write a Sefer Torah, and he should learn it. It’s a mitzvah on a Jew, it’s a type of Jew who writes a Sefer Torah. Look, take a Jew from the street, he can’t write a Sefer Torah now. That a Jew should be able to write a Sefer Torah is a tremendously great thing.

And then there’s another thing, that there should be as many Sifrei Torah as possible. This is indeed a concept that… It’s like a mitzvah for someone who has the ability to write a Torah, and if not, at least one should fulfill the concept that there should be enough sefarim in the system.

Speaker 2: Don’t we need to have enough sefarim? Don’t we need to have enough sefarim?

Speaker 1: No, you don’t need to have enough sefarim. You shouldn’t imagine the Torah as something that lies in shul that you carry. You need to understand that if later, if one separates and learns the Rosh, one will see that the mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah doesn’t speak of that.

He’s speaking – imagine that one doesn’t have any sefer. Imagine, one can fulfill it, it says that one can fulfill it by buying a Chumash. You never learn from it anyway. The mitzvah is that you should have a Torah. Certainly you should learn from it yourself. And the difference of inheriting, the advantage of writing it yourself is apparently only an advantage in that you should have your own made.

The Meaning of “One Who Corrects Even One Letter in a Sefer Torah – As If He Wrote It All”

And according to this, one can also understand what the next halachah says, yes, “And anyone who corrects in a Sefer Torah even one letter – it’s as if he wrote it all.” Because why do you need to have your own Torah? It’s not a sin to have an inherited Torah or a bought Torah. It’s just perhaps already old, so it’s no longer… If you correct it, perhaps you refresh the Torah, you make sure it’s well made, then it’s also “as if he wrote it all,” as if you made the whole thing yourself. Because the main thing is that there should be, it’s not a mitzvah of the work of writing. The mitzvah is that there should be a new Torah written for you. If you yourself corrected it, that’s also good.

Speaker 2: Makes sense?

Speaker 1: Yes.

Discussion: The Custom of Writing a Letter at a Siyum Sefer Torah

I think that the people who conduct themselves to write at a Siyum Sefer Torah, one makes a… one corrects, one is honored to correct one letter, I don’t know if it means that. That’s just a chibbas mitzvah (affection for the mitzvah).

Speaker 2: But that’s what one does, because he took upon himself a cherem (vow) “to write for himself,” and then he does the correcting in the Sefer Torah.

Speaker 1: Yes, but that’s a bit different.

Speaker 2: But that’s just people around also writing a letter, and with that it becomes theirs. That’s actually a bit interesting. And ultimately it becomes like a partnership. That’s actually the concept, when several people write a Sefer Torah together, one wants that each person should be able to be a corrector. Because once one starts already, one wants to honor everyone and not exclude. But even the correcting, according to what I’m learning, correcting doesn’t mean that you need to… There’s also a concept of “our mitzvos through our agents,” I’m not saying there’s no concept. There’s a chibbas mitzvah. But it’s more – correcting means that you found a mistake, or some letter was broken.

Speaker 1: Correcting means he added another Sefer Torah to use, to see.

Speaker 2: Yes, he maintained it. He made a good Torah. And then, if he made it lechatchilah (from the outset), he wrote a Torah and a letter is missing, whatever, and he fills it in, okay, that’s already a… I think that’s just a hiddur mitzvah (enhancement of the mitzvah), that it’s not exactly the thing.

The Position of the Rosh: Writing a Sefer Torah in Our Times

This is the mitzvah to write a Torah. And one needs to know that in Shulchan Aruch it says, he brings the Rosh… Yes, doesn’t he bring the Rosh here from below? It was written “in our times.” The Rosh was written.

The Foundation of the Rosh: The Mitzvah is for Learning, Not for Reading in Shul

The Rosh who says that the mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah, the mitzvah was only in their times when they used to learn from the Torah. Today when one doesn’t use the Torah to learn, it’s only for the enactment of the Sages of Torah reading, in order to fulfill, not only from the Torah scroll, this is the Rosh on Sefer Torah, one fulfills, one is obligated to buy Chumashim, Mishnayos, Gemaras, because the purpose of the mitzvah is not to read for the congregation, that’s not any mitzvah at all.

In other words, one needs to say for the wealthy people, one says that today there’s such a custom, when a person reaches a certain age and he doesn’t have what to do with his extra money, he buys a Sefer Torah and he makes a Hachnasas Sefer Torah (Torah dedication ceremony), and one says speeches that it’s a great mitzvah. It could be that it’s a mitzvah, according to the others, the Rambam it appears that it’s a mitzvah, but the Rosh says that this is not the main thing, because the main thing, there are enough Torahs in shul, everyone has enough Torahs to fulfill the mitzvah of Torah reading normally. The main mitzvah is that there should be sefarim that people should learn from.

Someone donates the library in the beis medrash, or he buys sefarim even for himself at home, through proofreading, that one pays with yours, it’s a mitzvah to buy sefarim.

Digression: Sponsoring Shiurim as Fulfillment of Writing a Sefer Torah

I’m making here a psak halachah (halachic ruling), that if someone donates our shiur, he fulfills the mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah, because in today’s times there’s a type of reality of writing the Torah through recording the entire Torah so that people should be able to learn it. And not only that, but I think the chances are that more people will learn kol haTorah kulah (the entire Torah), Torah she’bichsav Torah she’be’al peh (Written Torah and Oral Torah), through our holy institution, through our shiurim, through the Rav HaGaon Rabbi Yitzchak, my esteemed partner.

Therefore, if someone donates a shiur here, and certainly if someone donates the entire series, I know, how much does it cost to write a Sefer Torah and make a Hachnasas Sefer Torah? Two hundred thousand dollars? Yes. But for that one can buy an entire sefer of the Rambam, yes, one of the sefarim, Madda or Ahavah, a larger sefer. And one can also make an extra Hachnasas Sefer Torah, that one can come, one can put a crown on that sefer of the Rambam. On all those videos, how does one bring the videos? Yes, you can add very nice graphics, a crown. One will see in the chapter that graphics are very important. It says exactly how one should write the Sefer Torah, the typography.

The Rosh says further. If someone wants to pay the amount that a Hachnasas Sefer Torah costs, they’ll make him a parade too. Yes, and one can also buy curtains and so forth, and pillars. Ah, it’s a special thing.

Discussion: The Rosh Means It Literally in Practice

But it’s interesting. No, it’s not just that, because Rav Schreiber made a mitzvah, one of his mitzvos was “a house full of sefarim,” one should buy sefarim. People laugh a bit at this, who buys a sefer and doesn’t learn it. But in practice, when a person buys sefarim, even if he buys deep sefarim that he doesn’t learn, someone comes, always one learns half, one learns a bit more.

It’s an interesting thing, because you look what you see what happens here, that there’s a mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah, and from this becomes a greater mitzvah of spreading Torah in every generation according to the reality. No one says this regarding mezuzos or tefillin.

The Rosh Wouldn’t Have Eliminated Sifrei Torah

It’s interesting, the Rosh is very interesting. The Rosh doesn’t mean to say that one should stop… When the Rosh thinks that everyone will follow him, he wouldn’t have said it, because then one wouldn’t write any more Sifrei Torah after a few generations. Rather he meant to say that there should be enough Sifrei Torah, but still every shul needs to have a Sefer Torah. The Rosh doesn’t say that this will replace the entire Sefer Torah thing at all.

The Rosh’s Position is Clear and Not Chassidic Torah

The sound of the Rosh is a bit clearer, one must say one needs to go look inside, but someone wants to learn be’iyun (in depth), and I saw Rabbi Chaim Meir is very upset at the Rosh, he has this problem. It sounds very clear from the Rosh, that the Rosh doesn’t say any Chassidic Torah that with this one also fulfills the concept. The Rosh sounds like he’s saying that since the definition of the mitzvah is not just that there should be a Torah, but the definition is to learn, one doesn’t fulfill when one makes a Hachnasas Sefer Torah, one only fulfills when one buys a Gemara for the yeshiva.

Discussion: Distinction Between the Enactment of Torah Reading and the Mitzvah of Writing a Sefer Torah

So the Rosh, when someone comes to say to the Rosh, when I come to say “Adoni HaRosh,” open your eyes, the Rosh was the Rav where? In which city? Toledo, nu? Toledo. There are there a few hundred thousand Jews. If the Rosh lives until one hundred and ten, like today’s gedolim live, yes, and you have thousands of students, and eventually there are hundreds of batei medrash where Shabbos morning at the reading, instead of taking out a Sefer Torah, one takes out a large volume with a Rosh, and one learns all those sefarim. One makes an order, because this is very important, one can make Birchas HaTorah (the blessing on Torah). He wouldn’t have said that. The Rosh would have been very awakened in their…

The Rosh says that there’s enough. No, he doesn’t say that, he doesn’t say that there’s enough, he says one doesn’t fulfill with the purpose of the Torah and placing in the Aron Kodesh (Holy Ark). One doesn’t fulfill the mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah. The person, no one. There’s a town, there are ten rabbis, and every rabbi has a Sefer Torah, one bought a Sefer Torah, one bought a Torah, one bought a Torah. No, no, no, no, again, certainly, no, again.

There’s an enactment of Torah reading, which let’s say, I don’t know if the halachah came, let’s say there was an enactment that one needs to have in the Aron Kodesh a Sefer Torah, there’s no problem. In order to accept that enactment, every shul needs, the Rav announced it last Sunday Parshas Hachnasas, every shul needs to buy a Torah, no problem. But that’s not the mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah. Now there’s another mitzvah with the rabbis to read Torah reading. The mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah is that which one learns, from which one learns.

In the Rosh’s Time They Still Wrote (Not Printed)

One learns from a Chumash or from a… In the Rosh’s times it was still writing, I want you to remember, he’s thinking literally of writing. From printing is already another level. But the Rosh, yes, the Rosh there wasn’t yet any printing, one wrote, a scribe wrote a Gemara etc., it wasn’t so different. That means, by us it looks very different, what’s different? In his times one took a scribe and wrote a Gemara.

The Rosh Would Have Written Hilchos Sefer Torah Under Hilchos Talmud Torah

Okay, very interesting. I would have said that according to the Rosh, Hilchos Sefer Torah, when the Rosh would have made this sefer, he would have written it for Hilchos Talmud Torah. He actually writes it, Hilchos Sefer Torah. There is Hilchos Sefer Torah of the Rosh, and in the first siman it says. It’s for Hilchos Talmud Torah how? It’s an introduction to Hilchos Talmud Torah? No, he understood that the mitzvah of writing is not a decree of Scripture that there should be a Sefer Torah in the world, it’s a mitzvah so that one should learn from it, and it makes a lot of sense what he says.

Discussion: The Rosh’s Position and Reality

It’s in Rosh, in Hilchos, in the back of the Gemara is printed Hilchos Sefer Torah of the Rosh. Chumash, Mishnayos, Gemara, Shulchan Aruch, Peirush HaMishnayos, according to how much one learns there. But it’s Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, I said it. It wasn’t concerned what one reads in shul, there are sefarim.

No, I’m telling you, this is certainly an enactment, it’s certainly an obligation, one must have it so that one can have an enactment of the Rabbis of Torah reading. But it’s not, one doesn’t fulfill the mitzvah. It’s different. There are others who say that certainly yes.

No, but look, and the Rosh himself says that he should place it for public reading. Ah, because I already know why. Ah, no, on the contrary, he adds to the Sefer Torah, “rather he places it in storage to read from it publicly.” The Gemara commentaries one learns all the time, one learns it more. Yes, no, on the contrary, the mitzvah is for himself, placing in the public is just a mitzvah, it’s certainly, it says in the Rambam.

No, the Rambam said that a beis medrash needs to buy a Tanach so that one can read in it, but that’s not the law of writing a Sefer Torah. Writing a Sefer Torah is a private mitzvah on a Jew, not a mitzvah…

The Mitzvah of Writing a Sefer Torah — The Laws of the King and the Question on the Rosh

Question on the Rosh — Why Not Tanach in the Times of Chazal?

Speaker 1: But I actually have a question. Why didn’t the Rosh ask a question, that according to what he says, why wasn’t there a mitzvah also in the times of Chazal that one should write Tanach? What, they wanted that it should remain only, it should be in the beis medrash? Who’s going to write it in the beis medrash? Rather what, there was a distinction how the beis medrash figured it out. From where were there books of Prophets and Writings in batei medrash to be able to read the Haftarah? There were, everyone bought themselves? Ah, for Maftir? If it’s not a mitzvah to write, who needs to pay for it? The beis medrash has a fund?

Speaker 2: Yes, yes. Just like they have a fund for benches.

Speaker 1: It’s not a mitzvah, there’s no mitzvah who should write it. But it’s a question on the Rosh, because if there needs to be Tanach, there’s no mitzvah to write Tanach. From where do you come to say that because there needs to be Mishnayos and Gemara it’s a mitzvah that there should be? He says that the mitzvah is in order to learn. The mitzvah is not to be in the shul in the Aron Kodesh to count how many Sifrei Torah. And on Tanach there wasn’t a mitzvah to learn in the times of Chazal? In the times of Chazal when there wasn’t yet any Mishnayos, wasn’t there a mitzvah to learn Torah she’bichsav?

When the Rosh distinguishes on the essence of the mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah, in the times of Chazal when they used to learn Chumash, they used to learn it from a Sefer Torah. So one sees in the Gemara even. Perhaps there were also Chumashim, but also one learned from a Sefer Torah many times. So the mitzvah, it says in the Gemara, is a mitzvah. When the Rosh says mitzvah, the Rosh doesn’t write Chumashim and Tanach. One could have learned from Tanach. And when the Rosh says that one should buy a Sefer Torah and one should write a Sefer Torah, he’s speaking in a world where one learns from the Sefer Torah, not one locks it in wax and takes it out once a year. That is the claim of the Rosh.

Okay, the others disagree, the Ra’avad doesn’t say that. It could be that the Rambam holds that it is indeed an obligation to buy or write a Sefer Torah in our times, I’m not saying. But okay, let’s go further.

Halachah 2 — The Mitzvah of Writing a Sefer Torah of a King

The Basic Mitzvah of a King

Speaker 1: Now, besides the fact that everyone needs to write a Sefer Torah, yes? A king has another mitzvah. It’s a special mitzvah of a king. King mitzvah… It’s interesting that the Rambam says “every man of Israel,” here he says “every male.” Apparently this is also built on the Rosh’s reasoning that it has to do with learning, and women don’t have the mitzvah of Talmud Torah.

Speaker 2: Yes, and Talmud Torah is women are exempt, we learned it.

Speaker 1: Okay. A king, yes? A king is commanded to write another Sefer Torah for himself for the sake of kingship, in addition to the sefer that his father left him. It’s interesting, because a person could have thought that it belongs in Hilchos Melachim (Laws of Kings). If I remember, does the Rambam also bring it in Hilchos Melachim?

Speaker 2: He doesn’t bring it?

Speaker 1: I remember something that in Hilchos Melachim it’s mentioned. Here it looks like there are two mitzvos of writing a Sefer Torah.

Speaker 2: Yes, in Hilchos Melachim the Rambam mentions again, and he has there… Actually the same halachah, exactly the same. Doubled.

Speaker 1: Very interesting. Where. One will see, exactly the same chapter. The Rambam is… The Rav said that one can’t be medayek (make inferences) from the Rambam. One can’t be medayek from the Rambam. The Rav said yesterday that one can’t be medayek in him. Very interesting. I don’t know if there’s another such thing that the Rambam writes twice properly the entire halachah. Wondrous wonders.

Speaker 2: Does he add there a certain detail?

Speaker 1: No, he doesn’t add anything.

For the Sake of Kingship — The Special Torah of Royalty

Speaker 1: Let’s read. So, let’s read. The king, okay, very interesting. The king is commanded to write another Sefer Torah for himself for the sake of the kingship. Again, for the sake of the kingship. I already said the sevara (reasoning). The king must write an extra Sefer Torah, for the sake of his kingship. For himself. Yes, for the sake of that which he is the king. Besides what he must write a sefer for the sake of a hedyot (ordinary person), I’ll say the translation, “in addition to the sefer that he brought from when he was a private citizen”. He was a person before he was a king, and until then he was a simple person. If he had to be a frum Jew then, he had to fulfill the mitzvah of writing a Torah. So he already had a Torah. But when he becomes a king, he must write himself a new Torah. As it says, “v’haya k’shivto”, this is the inference, “v’haya k’shivto al kisei mamlachto etc.”, when he sits on the throne of kingship, he writes himself another Torah.

Because this doesn’t make sense, the Gemara goes like this, it’s a mitzvah on every individual. What does it say here? What is special about the king? What is the difference? Why does he need another one?

The Hagahah from the Sefer HaEzrah — Preserving the Precise Mesorah

Speaker 1: The Rambam says, “it is corrected from the Sefer HaEzrah”. It is corrected from the Sefer HaEzrah, which is in the treasury of the king. The sefer that is written is a whole undertaking, but it is corrected from the sefer in the Ezrah (courtyard) of the Beis HaMikdash which was a Sefer Torah. Presumably there wasn’t any other option, there was no choice, I don’t know what else.

Speaker 2: No, I don’t know.

Speaker 1: The point is that the sefer was the sefer, the original sefer, I mean, or literally a copy from Ezra HaSofer or from Moshe Rabbeinu, a very precise sefer. The king’s Torah was corrected according to it. Maybe that’s the point. Perhaps indeed that is one of the reasons why the king must have his own Torah, so that one should know what is precise, to maintain the precise mesorah. And also to preserve, this is the way how they preserved the Sefer Ezrah, which was such a greatness, because if there would have been a flood, God forbid, they would all correct according to it.

Speaker 2: Yes yes, very good. So the king takes care of this. As you said from your brother, that one must have a new Sefer Torah, because it’s a practical part of the mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah.

Speaker 1: But did they write the Sefer Ezrah new?

Speaker 2: Apparently it was the same one, I don’t know. In truth, I mean, it goes through hundreds and hundreds of years, it could be that this was like a way of… Yes, they corrected the sefarim according to it.

Speaker 1: Okay.

Where Does One Place the Hedyot-Torah — Beis Ginzav

Speaker 1: So, what does he do with the two sefarim? What does he do with two sefarim? So the simple Torah, his hedyot Torah, he puts it in storage, in his beis ginzav, in his royal treasury. “Asher katav lo”, those that are such that individuals shouldn’t read in it, and one must put it away there.

Speaker 2: No, I mean that he simply wants to say, no, perhaps it’s not guarded with the kedushah (holiness), one shouldn’t put it in some shul of bad people. He only means to say that he doesn’t need to drag himself with that Torah, he doesn’t need to take it with him. He leaves it there, but he can still donate it to a beis midrash.

Speaker 1: No, no, no, it must be his.

Digression — Donating a Torah to a Beis Midrash

Speaker 2: No, by the way, when someone donates a Torah to a beis midrash, he is not yotzei (fulfilling) the mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah.

Speaker 1: No, but by the way, I do it this way, for most Jews who… Okay, today’s way of the mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah, and the law of Bnei Yisrael, and fulfilling…

Speaker 2: No, it fulfills something else, that a shul must have a Torah. It’s a nice thing, most Jews… My teacher and rabbi, Rabbi Chaim Hersh Rateh, asks every Friday, “Master, is there a Sefer Torah in his beis midrash?” He was in his beis midrash, he asked. It’s a nice thing, it’s an important thing. That’s his house. It’s true that the main thing, or it’s a great hiddur (enhancement), or it could be according to the Rambam that it’s essential that the writing of a Sefer Torah has to do with learning from it. There’s no mitzvah at all of writing a Sefer Torah for the shul. I mean, it’s a gift to the shul.

But most people who want to fulfill the mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah, and they don’t have where to put it at home, put it in a shul, but they give it to the shul. Most people in general, one says this, it was donated to the shul. Usually it’s not true that one donated it to the shul. Usually they lend it to the shul, they leave it there. Because one of the reasons is, besides that a Torah is expensive, he doesn’t want to give it away. No, because he’s not yotzei the mitzvah. If you give it away to the shul as a gift, you’re not yotzei the writing of it. The writing of it means that you have your Torah, you leave it in shul, you let the people read in it, that’s a mitzvah. This is similar to other sefarim. Usually indeed they lend it. I also say so. Also because of this, it still belongs to you, usually, many times, it depends how the shul writes it differently. And…

Speaker 1: No, I think every person who has a Torah puts it in his beis ginzav. A normal person who has a Torah, where does he put it? In some storage?

Speaker 2: Not in a storage. It doesn’t mean where he doesn’t live. It means that he leaves it at home. He leaves it at home, he has there a small beautiful aron kodesh (holy ark).

Speaker 1: Very good, that’s the beis ginzav too.

“Asher Katav Lo” — The King Carries the Torah With Him

Speaker 1: The difference is, “asher katav lo”, “asher lo”, that which the king has a Torah, the king carries it with him, someone carries it around for him everywhere. Yes, it’s true that the Rambam tells us here “asher nichtav lo”. Asher nichtav lo.

Speaker 2: Yes, but he hasn’t yet said that if he can’t, apparently someone can write for him. Apparently it’s the same law as the hedyot.

Speaker 1: Yes, but he didn’t say clearly. He said “lichtov l’atzmo”, but he did say “l’shem hamelech”. It could be that l’shem hamelech, as the Rambam was with this, that if another writes it he must say it l’shem hamelech. But l’shem hamelech simply means that he must buy it with the king’s money. But no, apparently by the king it’s the same law, if he writes it himself it’s a ma’alah (virtue), if he can’t he takes someone and so forth.

“V’haysa Imo” — The Torah in All Royal Situations

Speaker 1: And what does he do? “Imo”, it is there with him always. “B’tzeiso l’milchamah sefer Torah zeh imo”, as it says in the verse that the Sefer Torah with the Jews goes out with the camp to war. It says about the aron, this comes from that verse. “Nichnas v’yoshev badin v’hi imo”. Nichnas, where is he nichnas? He comes in to the people, to the hall of receiving the public, v’hi imo. This is his official part of the royal entrance. A royal thing, I think it’s much more powerful than a rebbe who walks with a Sefer Torah. An amazing thing. “Nichnas v’hi imo, yoshev badin v’hi imo”. The rebbes indeed feel that when they have their little Torahs, that they sit in judgment, then people stand much more seriously when the Torah is there when the three judges sit with the Sefer Torah on their hands.

No, the king. The king must sit on his throne of kingship v’hi k’negdo. But then he doesn’t hold it on himself. He wants to lean, he wants to be able to… He eats, he makes himself a meal, he puts it down. Down next to himself, but it’s still there. This is apparently similar to what we learned by tefillin, that one doesn’t eat with the tefillin, one puts it down k’negdo. Do you remember such a language?

Speaker 2: You mean it’s the same idea?

Speaker 1: It’s very interesting, because I think like as part of the situation, when an American president arrives at a place, there’s a very big ceremonial thing. No, more than that, he comes with such a suitcase that says there “codes,” that there are important documents there. So when the king comes, the Sefer Torah comes with him. And apparently the simple explanation is that for example he sits in judgment, he must know what the halachah is, he goes into a war according to the Torah, and he sees what the halachah is, he doesn’t do anything not according to the Torah. That’s the point, “v’kara bo”, he should learn, he should know what to do, and he should know how to lead the kingdom. As it says, “v’haysa imo v’kara bo kol yemei chayav”, so he can always open it. And that’s the meaning of “v’haysa imo”, next to him literally, it must be with him, he drags himself with it the whole time. Perhaps he carries it according to the Rosh, according to the Rosh means such a…

Laws of the Sefer Torah of the King and Laws of Writing

Halachah 2: The Sefer Torah of the King — “V’haysa Imo”

Speaker 1:

When the king comes, the Sefer Torah comes with him.

Apparently the simple explanation is that for example he sits in judgment, he must know what the halachah is, he goes into a war according to the Torah, he sees what the halachah is, he doesn’t do anything not according to the Torah. For this is the point, “v’kara bo”, he should learn it, he should know what to do, how to lead the kingdom. As it says, be good, as it says “v’haysa imo v’kara bo kol yemei chayav”, so he can immediately open it. And the language “v’haysa imo” we learn literally, it must be with him, he drags himself with it the whole time.

The Rosh’s Position: The King Must Carry All the Torah

Perhaps one must think, according to the Rosh it means that a king must carry with himself all the Torah. Because the Rosh says that “stam Sefer Torah” includes all sefarim, all poskim. So the king must certainly have a treasury of wisdom with a system that he can always look up all the Torah. Also, the contemporary king must not only look what it says in the Torah, if he wants to make a war, he must ask what the Chazon Ish says, what the Minister of Defense says. So he must have a whole treasury of wisdom with him the whole time, according to the Rosh which is the simple meaning.

The Rambam’s First Glimpse of a King of Israel

Now, apparently the Rambam, I hear, it’s interesting. It’s very interesting. It’s literally amazing, look in Hilchos Melachim, Milchamos, Chapter 3 Halachah 1, it says literally the same halachah, the same section is there king by king. Yes, look, I know here, it’s the first time that the Rambam gives us a bit of description who the king is. Automatically we get the first glimpse of a king of Israel as a gadol, on your mind be aware, yoshev badin, he sits down in the Torah and he goes out to war. Nothing more, I want a king, but a king who is a chacham, a wise king who sits in judgment and he looks in the Sefer Torah.

Digression: The King as Judge — “Yoshev V’dan”

Speaker 2:

He’s a chacham, yes? It’s a bit strange, because… No, I don’t agree. Because you know in Tanach…

Speaker 1:

Let me tell you. In Tanach it says, and we see several times “vayashev David l’hoshiv es amo l’mishpat”, also by Shlomo HaMelech it says “his wisdom,” he came… The king is a judge. It seems that the king was a judge originally. It’s very strange, because in Maseches Sanhedrin it says “melech lo dan v’lo danin oso”. That a king, perhaps it speaks of a king of Israel, one must look in the Gemara there, a king of Beis David yes. It depends if he’s a tzaddik. It’s today a translation, one doesn’t let the king be a judge. But “yoshev v’dan” I think it’s more like David HaMelech’s “yoshev u’mechalkel,” he sits and judges Eretz Yisrael. Dan means to judge Eretz Yisrael. Very good. But dan according to the law of the Torah means that he’s not a judge in a beis din.

But we do see in Tanach that the job of a king is to be a judge. It could be that he’s the, like the Supreme Court, in the end one goes to the king he should help. One must look here in Hilchos Melachim, it doesn’t say apparently that the king is yoshev v’dan. But this is difficult, because there is a halachah of a mitzvah of making judges in Israel. If there are judges, how can the king? There must be a certain separation, the king has one sort of kingdom, and the judge does his thing. So says the Rambam, the Rambam says so in Hilchos Melachim. So it doesn’t fit so well with this “yoshev v’dan.”

But anyway, perhaps “yoshev v’dan” doesn’t necessarily mean din Torah. It could be he means like he sits at his meetings, he makes a discussion with the cabinet, the cabinet presents itself to him. Could also be. He meets with the cabinet, can he take the king a Sefer Torah, and he looks what it says in the Torah, one does this, one does that.

Why Does the King Need the Entire Torah?

Okay, here we’ve already learned. Don’t say, because if it’s only in matters of war, okay, why can I take out only the Torah portions. Because for example he must look up the law of making peace, all the laws of war. Very good, he must bring down the entire Torah. He must bring down the entire Torah. The king must even from Parshas Bereishis one can learn what to do with a war. It’s not true. And from Yosef he can learn about taxes, how much percent it should be. Yes, there are always things in the Torah to learn.

Halachah 3: Two Sifrei Torah for the King

Okay. We learned that a king must make write his own Torah, “so that it shouldn’t be from his fathers”, that it shouldn’t have been his father’s. Now I ask another question: What happens if the king became king before he merited to write the mitzvah of the hedyot Sefer Torah? Must he write an extra one? Ah, says the Rambam, “a king writes one Sefer Torah for himself before he becomes king”. So the previous one he already had one. That means, either he became a king when he was already a baby, or he wasn’t a hedyot. Then, “he needs to write after he becomes king two Sifrei Torah”. So that you shouldn’t think that now he’s a king he must, what was said that a king must write, a king must write, but he already has. But here we see that no, he must write two Torahs.

Discussion: Why Two New Sifrei Torah?

Speaker 2:

I would say why, because earlier it said that one writes l’shem hamelech, not l’shem Yankel. You need one Sefer Torah l’shem Yankel.

Speaker 1:

It’s a difference, but he’s already the king, both are l’shem hamelech.

Speaker 2:

No, I say, now you need to have l’shem Yankel. Because you are a single, you are an individual who puts it away.

Speaker 1:

The point is, it’s not the same thing as by halachah. I mean so. I say so, he must have one for himself, one for his beis ginzav, for his Sefer Torah. One for him and one for his beis ginzav. And the second will be with him. And here the Rambam adds a bit more laws about the second. It will not depart from him except at night, or when he enters the bathroom or the bathhouse. This is apparently the same thing as at night, no?

It’s a bit strange. It’s a bit for me, because he already said earlier what he does with it. It’s not clear. It’s very strange, the Rambam, the halachos are doubled. It says three times, twice here and again in Hilchos Melachim the same thing.

How Does the King Carry the Sefer Torah?

The Rambam doesn’t tell us how he must hold it like, because for example by tefillin it said one may not hang it a certain way. It’s a whole avodah (service). Ah, how does the king hold it? I’ve often had a thought like there’s a chain that hangs from him. I don’t know if one can. There are other such simanim (signs), like the choshen v’ephod lies, there’s such a sort of thought that there lies the Sefer Torah. But it doesn’t say how he carries it. Later we will apparently see laws how one must carry a Torah, or I don’t remember if it says literally kavod haTorah (honor of the Torah). But the king, how does he drag himself around with it? I don’t know. Perhaps they bring here from below how he drags himself around with it? It’s a wonder, he can’t hold it the whole time. He goes out to war and it’s with him. It doesn’t say here how it goes exactly.

Okay, let’s go further. Further, yes.

Halachah 4: Laws of Writing a Sefer Torah — “Most Beautiful”

Laws of Writing a Sefer Torah – Spacing, Line Length, and Special Letters

So, a Sefer Torah that… up until here we have learned that one must write a Sefer Torah, another Sefer Torah. Now he’s going to tell us how one must write it.

A Sefer Torah that is written for a king… and it’s written without lines, without… one can make a straight line beforehand, and it’s written on the line. “Or if he wrote part of it on gevil and part of it on klaf” — we have learned that gevil is one type of klaf. We learned that instead of one nice format, the whole time one mixed between types of format. “It is invalid, because it is not beautiful”. Seemingly both are not beautiful. “Rather, its main part on gevil and its main part on klaf” — just as we learned earlier what gevil and klaf are, different parts of the hide. Says the Rambam, “One who writes a Sefer Torah”. Says the Rambam, the first thing is “He writes with orderly writing that is most beautiful”. Perhaps this is the general principle of all the laws that will be here?

What Does “Most Beautiful” Mean?

Speaker 2:

“Most beautiful” means the best that you can do. Because not the best of everyone, because not everyone can write the best of everyone.

Speaker 1:

No, one must write the best of everyone.

Speaker 2:

No, no, no. A general rule in life, gentlemen, is not as Reb Yitzchak says. The halacha is, “most beautiful” means the best that you can do. Just as we say today in 2026, “you’re doing your best”, that is “most beautiful”. Because it can’t be, everyone can be “most beautiful”. Because you don’t want a competition that everyone wants “most beautiful”.

Speaker 1:

“Most beautiful” — the best that you can do. Yes. “Most beautiful” doesn’t mean “the most beautiful”, right? “Most beautiful” means very beautiful, that’s all. Right. Exert yourself to write very orderly and very beautifully. That’s what he says, it’s a mitzvah on every Jew, write your best.

Investigation: Writing Oneself or Buying a More Beautiful One?

It could also be, this is my brother’s thought I think, an investigation, that if a person can write, but he will write messily, it won’t be so beautiful, he’s not such an expert. But he can buy a beautiful one. What should he do? Should he write himself poorly, so that he fulfills the matter of “write for yourselves”, or should he take someone else’s which is more beautiful? The halacha is that it must be “most beautiful”. “Zeh Eli v’anveihu” is a… always it must be “most beautiful”. The esrog must also be “most beautiful”. But the mitzvah of the essential mitzvah is writing. Certainly. “Zeh Eli v’anveihu” is only a beautification. We learned that it’s only a praise in the mitzvah. But the Rambam says that if it’s not “most beautiful” it is invalid. I don’t know.

I also think that this is a general principle for all the laws that will be. All the laws that we’re going to learn are basically details, particulars in how it must be “most beautiful”. It’s also all circular, because if a Sefer Torah is something that you’re going to read, and your handwriting is perfect for you, write it in your most beautiful way. Because if you write it so that you should be able to, I tell you, I can’t. But if you’re going to read, you’re going to be the “main reader”, exert yourself and write the most beautiful that you can, “at least” so that you should be able to read well.

Speaker 2:

I’m not going to pay for a second person to write better than me. Why shouldn’t I be? It’s more pleasant for me.

Speaker 1:

But the point isn’t that it’s a Landa’s person, the point is that you should read it, and in your script you’re “perfectly” good, I can’t read it better.

Speaker 2:

Why do you say so? For me it’s also better that the other should write. Children love, people love what they themselves made. It’s somewhat a virtue, but I don’t know.

What Does “Kesav Beis Yosef” Mean?

Speaker 1:

Okay. I don’t know, “kesav Beis Yosef” means that the script should be neat. I mean that it means more like a type of script, like a type of halachic style. You should write the most beautiful style.

Speaker 2:

Or take the most beautiful “font”. As he said, take the most beautiful “font” that exists, and write that. That’s what I would think perhaps.

Speaker 1:

No, the Rambam simply had in mind the letters how one writes them, which the Rambam knew.

Speaker 2:

I don’t know, not necessarily. Perhaps he’s speaking about the laws that he’s now going to say, that one should write it with yud-yud, with the laws.

Speaker 1:

But the Rambam also figured in his mind that you’re going to look in a Sefer Torah and see how it stands, or you’re going to speak with a sofer. He’s not speaking as if a Jew finds himself in the… he’s not going to write a sefer. He’s not writing for his “memory”, he takes and doesn’t write from a sefer.

Speaker 2:

Yes, but what a sefer is written from a sefer. And the Rambam, kesav Beis Yosef, he can’t mean that it means a certain script. Because the Rambam figures that you know from which script we’re speaking, because you have a Sefer Torah and I have a Sefer Torah.

Speaker 1:

No, but even people didn’t write well. People didn’t know, he makes some strange script that isn’t so beautiful, or he doesn’t use the right type of ink. I don’t know what it could be.

Laws of Spacing and Line Length

Okay. He says further, says the Rambam: “He should leave between each word and word the space of a small letter”. Between every two words there must be a “space” like a small letter.

“And between each line and line” — between each line, it can’t be that the lines should be one under the other. Between every two lines there must be a “space” of a line.

“And the length of each line and line” — how long should each line be? There shouldn’t be short lines, rather it should be the length of thirty letters. “In order to write”, says the Rambam a sign, or a way of being able to calculate this in clear words, he says that it’s “l’mishpechoseichem”, which is one of the longest words in the Torah, three times “l’mishpechoseichem”, three times, it’s nine times “l’mishpechoseichem”.

Speaker 2:

No, again, thirty. That’s already thirty letters.

Speaker 1:

Ah, the word “l’mishpechoseichem” three times. Yes. Yes, thirty letters, there are ten letters in each. Yes. He writes it three times, but he doesn’t mean three times three, right?

Laws of Writing a Sefer Torah – Width of Line, End of Page, and Special Letters

Width of Line – Between Short and Long

Speaker 1: Seemingly also is because… yes, but seemingly the word is… no, you know how it learns? The word is that regular letters are shorter, regular letters are wider… this is a good such mix of words, the idea of ten and thirty letters.

The width of a column of the page. Yes. This is the Rambam, does the Rambam explain why? “And the line should not be shorter than this, so that the page should not look like a letter”. A letter one usually writes on a narrow piece of paper, and one writes a letter. Here it must be written, it looks like a sefer comes to be written in wide lines. If not it looks like a letter, like a note, which looks less serious.

But says the Rambam, “And not long”, but it also can’t be longer lines than this. Why? Because if the lines are very long, it’s easy for a person to get confused, to lose where he’s holding. “So that his eyes should not wander from the end of the line to the end of the line”. His eyes shouldn’t go wandering. It’s a beautiful expression, how a person becomes… a baal korei has this often, he doesn’t find where he’s holding. His eyes wander and search where he’s holding.

Speaker 2: Ah, good. Imagine if it were even wider, he would get lost.

Calculating the Spaces and Parshiyos

Speaker 1: What does the Rambam say further? Okay. We’re going to learn soon that one must make parshiyos sometimes, either a space in the middle of a line or between two lines. Says the Rambam, that this is good to calculate, the space you must calculate well, so that it shouldn’t happen that you find yourself at the end of a parsha and you need to make a space, and you’re already not on the page or what, you don’t have room. You’ll need to make shorter, smaller letters, and one can’t make smaller writing. To give Parshas Re’eh at the margin the parsha.

Speaker 2: Ahh, very good. Because that’s really the… those are the words, keep the writing the same size, but figure out that there should be room. Yes? Stop just a minute.

Speaker 1: Yes, he’s teaching us now how one must make the letters shouldn’t become too squeezed or too spread, it will also be ugly. Simply. Afterwards he makes…

Law of Dividing a Word – Outside the Page

Speaker 1: A long word one shouldn’t divide the word in two.

Speaker 2: No, no, what he means to say is, there’s another reason. Sometimes, sometimes, it’s good, a bit, by our Torah, the wisdom of our Torah is what one does today, I don’t know exactly since when it is, most still do everything from some tikkun korim, a tikkun sofrim, where someone has already calculated all these things so it should come out very beautifully. But sometimes when one writes, it can often happen, one writes such a column, yes, the Rambam calls it a daf, which we call a column, a column, then you come to the end, you need a word that you can’t fit in, what should one do? Says the Rambam, he tells you what you should do. You come and you should the word, of five letters, you shouldn’t leave, if there’s no room in this column except for two of its letters, you shouldn’t write a word, half a word here and half in the next line.

Speaker 1: Not in the next line, it could be outside the page, it should stick out.

Speaker 2: In the line one may yes? What does a line mean?

Speaker 1: No, one doesn’t do that either.

Speaker 2: One doesn’t do that either. There’s no such thing, one doesn’t divide a word in two.

Speaker 1: There’s no such thing, one doesn’t divide a word in two, it’s not the first letter that you need to write.

Speaker 2: No, that’s simple, he fell into no one, one can write a word in two lines. What he says, you shouldn’t write two inside the page and three outside the page. A small thing, you need to make a picture, it should stick out a bit, but a bit less yes. One inside the page and two outside the page, you can yes. Two letters stick out, it’s not dangerous. It’s still part of the house. But three letters is already not.

Speaker 1: And the main thing is that then the writing should be justified.

Speaker 2: There’s no word justified, but it must be approximately more straight. Only that if two letters stick out it’s not dangerous. If one looks in old Torahs, sometimes such things happen, because sometimes it wasn’t yet so calculated.

Speaker 1: So here one must the Rambam not even tell us that one can’t write a word or like a canopy and hat. Which is simple, because he tells us here exactly how each line must look, it shouldn’t be such and such.

Speaker 2: Yes, one makes, he’s explaining that it’s not even relevant. Rather Firle writes a whole sefer, and this must go into all the… yes, I go, it can’t fit.

Law of Word of Two Letters – Between the Pages

Speaker 2: Don’t leave in a line so that it won’t be ruined inside the page. What is if there’s no room on the line to write more than three letters? What should he do? If the margin is going to be a space? He says, three is not dangerous. One shouldn’t leave empty space. I’m not making myself knowing. Leave empty, two letters empty is not dangerous.

There were places that I saw in old Torahs where one filled in the space. That means, there was an empty space, it was beautiful, one puts in a nun, something like that, just something a… just a mark, it should be beautiful, it should look more beautiful. Very good.

And just so, because the end of a parsha there is a word of two letters, let him be able between the pages, he shouldn’t give such a squeeze in between the two columns, and go straight to the next topic, and not squeeze that in. And that one can have a Torah, if one says earlier said that two letters may stick out. That’s only when it has something to hold onto, the other three letters hold and grab onto that. A word of only two letters you can simply place in between.

Law of Word of Ten Letters – No Word in Torah Longer Than Ten

Speaker 2: And this is the same thing if there is a line, a word of ten letters or less than ten letters, a big word, and the line wasn’t kept so that it won’t be ruined inside the page. So, is there more than ten, “l’mishpechoseichem”?

Speaker 1: Is there one two… count here, okay.

Speaker 2: Ah, he asks a real question, there’s no single letter in the Torah, there’s no word in the Torah more than ten letters. Is there no more than ten letters? “Uvimisharoseichem”, something like that, I mean that it’s also ten letters. One little word “l’mishpechoseichem” in the Torah it stands deficient, I think. I don’t know if there’s really a little word “l’mishpechoseichem” with… he brings here already, he poses the previous question. The Gemara says “l’mishpechoseichem” is an example, and then it’s ten letters. In the Torah it never stands “l’mishpechoseichem” with ten letters.

Speaker 1: “V’ha’achashdarpenim”?

Speaker 2: That’s in the Megillah, yes, it’s earnest from the Chumash. “V’ha’achashdarpenim” is how many letters? I don’t know, one must count. Vav-hei-alef-ches-shin-dalet-reish-pei-nun-yud-mem – eleven letters. But in the Torah there isn’t that many letters. One sees that the Megillah is exactly so. Okay, only… no, it’s longer. Do you have a word that’s longer than ten letters? “V’ha’achashdarpenim”. I don’t know, in Megillas Esther there are even longer ones. Yes, in the Torah there’s no word more than ten letters, he says. Okay, a big letter would have been. Ah, it’s not. Interesting.

Law of Word Longer Than Ten Letters – Half Inside Page and Half Outside Page

Speaker 2: Then what is? “And he should not leave any letter entirely inside the page”. One can’t fit the whole thing in the page. So what does one do? “If he can write half of it inside the page and half outside the page”. If it’s a long word, one can put half, five letters smaller in the page, and the other half in the word. If it will be less than half, “If not, he leaves only an empty space, and he doesn’t leave a large empty area”. One doesn’t place… “And from the beginning of the next line he begins the line”.

So all laws of beauty, truly laws of beauty, that it should be beautiful.

Between Each Chumash and Chumash – Four Lines

Speaker 2: “Between each chumash and chumash”, between each chumash, that means when Sefer Bereishis ends before Shemos begins, one must leave four lines that one leaves empty without writing, not more and not less than four lines. “And he begins the chumash from the beginning of the fifth line”. After four lines, when the fifth line begins, then one begins the new parsha, the new chumash.

End of Torah – In Middle of Line at End of Page

Speaker 2: “When he completes the Torah”, says the Rambam, “he must complete in the middle of the line at the end of the page”. The Torah must end in the middle of the line at the end of the page. One must write it in a way that it should come out so. That means, he’s going to say what one should do. “And if there remains from the page a large amount”, if he comes to the end of Torah and he still has few words to write, he still has many lines, what should he do? “He shortens and goes up”. He begins to write shorter lines. “So that he completes at the beginning of the line and doesn’t complete the line”. One shouldn’t completely finish, write until the end. “And he intends that ‘l’einei kol Yisrael’ should remain in the middle of the line at the end of the page”.

He says therefore, that one should see that the end of the Torah has ended, one shouldn’t think that it’s backwards, that one should know that there comes after the Written Torah and Oral Torah, and the whole Sefer Yehoshua. I don’t know, he brings this from the Torah itself. I don’t know, this is seemingly a matter of beauty more. It’s beautiful, the end of a book should also be beautiful. That means in today’s language, he justified it. He wants that also from the bottom should be finished. At the end of the Torah one wants it should be finished, and not another place. Always it’s so, right? Just as you box over ends with “Baruch shomer havtachaso l’Yisrael”. He makes such a review. That is a technical reason, I think falls, because the lines. Okay. And the Torah’s hope shouldn’t be, that one should remember to make the letters hei.

Large Letters, Small Letters, Dots, and Special Letters

Speaker 2: Large letters, small letters. There are certain traditions that certain letters one should write larger than usual, or smaller than usual, or letters should receive dots. For example, “vayishakehu”, yes. All these things we make, large, small, dots. And there are also other things. Besides this, there are letters that one makes a strange form, that means, the letter one writes differently. Such as? A pei lulav. Pei lulav means that in the pei one makes another pei. A pei comes with a curl, one makes another curl inside.

And what else? Letters whose top is broken. Not clear. For example the ches he brings from “vayehi choshech afeila”, one makes a broken verse in the ches. Also the Ohr HaChaim says a broken verse in the ches. So the sweetness of the scribes.

Why We Don’t Make Lufufot and Ekumot Today

Speaker 2: We don’t do all these things, by the way. We do the large and small letters, usually one does it when the thing is stated in the mesorah. But lufufot in our Torahs are not there, for whatever reason, I don’t know why. I don’t know why they stopped all these things.

Chiddush: I think that the peh-alef lufufot and the crooked letters are against the baal hamum, so to speak. A nebach, a peh that was born with a large hump. You say for every Jew, there is a deficiency in the Torah. There is a Jew who is the crooked peh. And since the scribes later began to have mercy on such a Jew, they stopped doing this. But the small and large letters, that’s more not.

They began to find more and more cures, more and more. Everyone is already perfect, everyone already has the diagnosis, everyone already went for help. But I know someone who is the dot on the “vayashkehu”. That is yes. Okay, in short, he doesn’t always get teeth. In short, a story.

Sefer HaTagi – Secrets of the Crowns

Speaker 2: What does the Rambam say? There is a book called Sefer HaTagi, which writes for each different crown different secrets of what this is. I think the secret of this is

Sefer Tagi, Tagin and Lefifin, and Laws of Writing a Sefer Torah

Sefer Tagi – The Tradition of Tagin and Lefifin

Speaker 1:

But I know someone who is the dot on the yasher koach. You hear, yes? Okay, in short, he doesn’t always get teeth, but…

In short, a story. The Ramban says, the Ramban says that one should do it, he doesn’t say that one shouldn’t do it. There is a book, it’s called Sefer Tagi. Yes, Sefer Tagi writes on each different crown, and other sorts of things that the Ramban quotes. It’s not written in a book, it’s received from Ezra the Scribe. I think the secret of this is, just as we saw by tefillin, in every place there is such a sign, and the simple meaning is indeed simply the secret in that letter, and the hint is there the simplicity of what one writes already.

One shouldn’t tell about this to the people who seek conspiracy theories, what is the conspiracy in this? Because here one goes after the letters, one can see secrets there, different secrets. Let’s not say, let’s not tell. Okay, I don’t know what to say, don’t tell, okay.

Note, how so? Another thing, that one should be careful with tagin. Tagin means yes, that the Ramban didn’t say the four places where one makes four or three… The Ramban says, the Ramban didn’t mean that we don’t do all the shin-tzaddik well, rather the Ramban held that only by us there are certain places where one is accustomed to place a tag, and also one should pay attention to how many the tag should have. There are letters with tagin, one has letters with seven, which has seven? I don’t remember, I don’t remember. He doesn’t say, the Ramban doesn’t say that somewhere there is such a letter with seven. What has seven? I don’t have the custom. He doesn’t say, one must look in the Sefer Tagi.

And your narrow which letter was supposed to have seven, crazy, I was in Mossad. It’s certain. When one becomes aware now, one has the door. It’s called Sefer Tagi, you can still look at it. There stands the wisdom, they just have it. When one becomes aware now, one has the door. This is the Sefer Tagi, there are commentaries on it from Rabbi Elazar of Worms, the Rokeach, the leaders of that time.

It’s received from what? From the things that… from the… literally, yes, a long list. From which time is it received? From the time of the Geonim? Again, the book is very old, I don’t know, it says about it that it’s from Ezra the Scribe, I don’t know. But the Rokeach, the Ramban brings it, because there is someone who… hints to it, to Rokeach. I explained it, I think. This is a tradition from Ashkenaz?

Not clear. He brings it several parshiyot. No, they are apparently for Ashkenaz.

Speaker 2:

Does it match with the stories of Ben Asher and all of them?

Speaker 1:

No, Ben Asher doesn’t have all these things. Ben Asher didn’t make the keriat merachem. I don’t know, I think it’s all Tanach. For example, the parsha of… which parsha is this week? Parshat… where are we holding? Kedoshim? Emor. “Lenefesh lo yitama” – the nun has a crooked nun. The nun “akum keren levasri”, it does something like this, the nun is different. And the heh of kedoshim has four tagin. And so on. “Ish ohavecha vechalelu” doesn’t have any…

Speaker 2:

Is this book related to the Targum, like by the parsha, like the Zohar that one brings in a Torah, and so…

Speaker 1:

Why are they related?

Speaker 2:

Because the language is indeed such a…

Speaker 1:

Ah, because the mesorah is all in Aramaic. All mesorah is already in Aramaic.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

I don’t know why. In short, there is the Sefer Targum, and… ah, this is in short the nice version.

The Tradition of Sefer Tagi – Eli the Kohen and the Twelve Stones

Speaker 1:

Ah, “received writes writes”, as it was found on the twelve stones of Joshua. Did you see the first thing that stands right at the beginning? What stands at the beginning? Go to the first page. On this book… ah, this is what you told me. “What Eli the Kohen found on the twelve stones that Joshua placed in Gilgal”. Oh, the holy books, the luminous books of old.

Very good. This is here. “Found on the twelve stones, Eli the Kohen found on the twelve stones…”

Discussion: Whether One Should Follow Sefer Tagi

Speaker 2:

Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Karp says that one should follow…

Speaker 1:

But it’s brought, the Rambam brings it down…

Speaker 2:

Aha, Rabbi Elazar of Worms. That means that those who follow the custom of Ashkenaz must do it?

Speaker 1:

It has nothing to do with that. This is what you said, that the Rambam brings it.

Speaker 2:

But the Rambam doesn’t bring it. The Rambam doesn’t bring the book.

Speaker 1:

He doesn’t bring the details, but the Rambam brings here that one should do “according to what is received from person to person”. “From person to person” means here “ancient books”. These are the “ancient books”. The Rambam says, the Rambam brings everything that is customary in Ashkenaz. But he doesn’t say here which ones. He only says that one should indeed do “because silence is consent”, which he means to hint at some other book.

Speaker 2:

He apparently means this book. Ah, the Sefer Tagin. He brings it by the Rishonim he brings, the Ramban brings it, and the… the Rambam means this. Ah, he brings the Ramban, yes, that one should do it. And the Meiri also brings it.

Speaker 1:

Ah, the Sefer Tagin. And the Migdal Oz was a corrector, he is one of the correctors of this Sefer Tagin, the author of Migdal Oz. From the divisions of verses. He says, ah, the author of Migdal Oz is one of the authors of the tagin? What? He’s not the author, he wrote about it, he was engaged in this matter. Ah, he was engaged in this matter, okay.

Um, he was a bit of a kabbalist, I don’t know if you know. The scholars of the revealed Torah are not such great fans of him, but it could be that in kabbalah he knew better. Ah, you see that the Avnei Moshe wrote lefufim. Yes, yes, there are, there are books, the Rebbe’s tefillin do that. Not the Rebbe’s, the Rebbe Moshele of Pshevorsk.

Discussion: Lefufim – Whether We Know the Tradition Precisely

Speaker 2:

But he didn’t know the tradition precisely, or is it a hint?

Speaker 1:

I don’t know. No, apparently it goes according to this. He says that, he brings that perhaps one indeed stopped doing it because one didn’t remember how to do it. And the Chatam Sofer indeed says that one doesn’t know about this. How does it say in Chatam Sofer?

But Rabbi Yoel, why are you putting in your Chumash? It’s not your Chumash. If I have a Sefer Torah, I will try to do it. It’s not your Chumash. With a… with a… it would be very interesting, the lefufim. It would come out an interesting letter, an interesting font in your Chumash. Find a nice letter for it.

Okay, further. It’s not clear. He brings it, why shouldn’t one do it? Ah, there is, he brings the Sefer Shiltei HaGiborim, which brings why one should do it, and no one understands why. Perhaps indeed yes, because it’s a sign. In order that there one should say a conspiracy, just to write in the Torah is interesting. So? Okay.

It’s not a conspiracy, it’s simple. By me everything is simple, simply simple. Simply simple there are no lefufim, I don’t know why the whole thing is a hint.

Reasons Why We Have the Tradition of Tagin

Speaker 2:

Could it be that it’s also a kind of protection so that there shouldn’t come in any scribes who are not Torah scholars?

Speaker 1:

He says this explanation. The Grunfeld, Grunfeld is one of the Mishnah Berurah’s reasons, he says the good explanation. He says that the scribe is one who goes in knowing what he’s doing. He says the answer that I just said, that since it’s a hint to the secrets, one shouldn’t, there’s no point.

In any case, it’s not so clear the…

Speaker 2:

Could it be that it’s a way of catching if someone who is not a ben Torah, someone who doesn’t know things, writes a Sefer Torah? Is there such a thing?

Speaker 1:

Ah, you see, listen, the Tzanzer Rav wrote… Tzanzer Rav? Yes, the Tzanzer Rav wrote an approach… the Tzanzer Rav held, the Nefesh Chayah writes, he spoke with the Tzanzer Rav, and the Tzanzer Rav told him that when he writes himself, he indeed does this. The people don’t follow it, but when one writes oneself for oneself, and one should perhaps… so it seems… I have a friend who has the Sefer Torah of the Tzanzer Rav. Are all these things there? There we will ask. No, it’s not to check.

In short, it could be that the person sees what one wants to do, he answers the book. What number does he have interest, one should I ask my esteemed friend of my father’s house, who has the Sefer Torah that the Tzanzer Rav wrote. Interesting. Let’s see if there are indeed the lefifim. We’ll ask. Do we know by which letters we need to find it? Here you have a list.

Examples from Sefer Tagi – Crooked Letters and Tagin

Speaker 1:

And I have one from this week’s parsha… Again, what was written about this week’s parsha? Which crooked chet, here is just Rachaman this book. There is I have a list of seven crooked dalet, ten… ah, and apparently in the list, it’s easy one can see. He says that the Rokeach for example says a lot the Torah is on it. The Torah is on this, yes. Ah. Sanza, wisdom and Ashkenaz received with fewer of their things, than the masters of kabbalists or the scholars of Chassidut. Yes, but there is? Does the Rokeach have a whole thing here? Like the Torah of Targum? Is the Rambam here the Rambam in the esrad? Yes. My grandfather, may he have a complete recovery, is very great in Chassidut of the Rokeach. He learned his whole book, it’s on the Torah. Does he know the Rambam? But… In short, here is the Sefer Targa, there is. Here, the original seven targa, is seven burta. The Israel, as it says in Bereishit lamed-bet dalet, has seven tags. Ah, Israel… Bereishit is my Midbar. Alef, the one from ‘bachas’ is kaf, the alef, the different alefs that one makes with the seven tags.

Pela, it’s Shabbat and Israel chala.

But there are scribes who must know the entire Torah by heart, very clearly, here one doesn’t need it so hard, Israel must know in order to be able to expound, but one can’t already.

Okay, further…

Law 9 – All These Things Are Only a Mitzvah Min HaMuvchar

Speaker 1:

Until here the matter of tagin and lefifin. The Rambam says this, ah, through the Rambam with the next law, all these things are only a mitzvah min hamuvchar, ah, all these things are a mitzvah min hamuvchar, good if one did it yes, but if one was not meticulous with tagin and wrote letters according to their proper form, as is their usual order, whether he brought the shitin close or distanced them or lengthened or shortened them, that all these laws one can’t rely on the shitin? On the shitin, yes. He wasn’t meticulous. But as long as he didn’t do actual things that are invalid and made it repulsive, such as letter to letter, glued letters, or was full where it says it should be full, or conversely, was deficient where it says it should be deficient, but the main thing, the form of the letter, he didn’t miss any form of a letter, there was no change in open and closed sections, he didn’t miss the open and closed sections how much to leave open between two sections, this is a valid scroll.

But good, that all these things are not invalidating, what is this the source for what one doesn’t follow, perhaps one shouldn’t disturb, right? But should one be concerned that one doesn’t know, I don’t know. But in the Torah that we don’t do a part of these things, it is certainly valid.

Chiddush: The Rambam Includes Sefer Tagi as Serious Laws

Speaker 1:

The Rambam says further…

Already, I’ve said everything can be customs that he sees that the Rambam looked very strongly received, not just. Even the Sefer HaTagin doesn’t stand from the Talmud, but the Rambam puts it in the previous category of serious things, actual laws.

Law 10 – Writing Customs of the Scribes

The Measure of Lines – 48 to 60

Speaker 1:

There are still other things that scribes have a tradition from person to person, he doesn’t tell us until whom, but in this Sefer Tagin he wrote from person to person until those stones of Joshua.

Aha, and the measure of the number of lines on each page should be no less than forty-eight and no more than sixty. That for the beauty of a Sefer Torah on each page, one should arrange it so, that this should be the form in a Sefer Torah, between 48 and 60 lines. The height of the Sefer Torah should be some hints something. Okay, yes. Or it could be that it developed this way for different practical reasons of how long a Sefer Torah should be, and how… there must be wisdom in it.

The Measure of Page Width, Form of Songs, and Invalidations in a Sefer Torah

The Measure of Section Width and Line Width

Speaker 1: That for the beauty of a Sefer Torah, on each page you should arrange it so, that this should be the form of a Sefer Torah. Between forty-eight and sixty lines. The height of the Sefer Torah should be…

I remember the hints about this. Okay. Yes. Hints, or it could be that it developed this way from different practical reasons of how long a Sefer Torah should be and how… there is indeed wisdom in it.

Okay. How many lines do we make in the Torahs? Forty-eight? One must take out a Sefer Torah. We make forty-two, I remembered. No?

Speaker 2: He doesn’t bring here the…

Speaker 1: Ah, “some say that they should not be less than forty-two”. Ah. I don’t remember. Okay. Okay. Something lies in my head the number forty-two. I bring all these calculations. Okay. These are old hints that are there. There must be perhaps a secret in all these things.

Yes. And the measure of the width of each section should be like nine letters. That between one section and another should be at least… one can put more, especially when you have an open section just, then one needs width. So the tradition is that it should be nine letters wide, “asher asher asher”. He says, without the tradition it could have been a bit less, a bit more, there’s no difference.

And another thing. Yes. And the measure of the width of the lines, it’s interesting what the Gemara says by nine letters. He always wants to tell you that there should be a normal amount of spaces between the letters, because earlier he gave you the longest. Because the more letters there are, the fewer spaces are enough, yes?

Speaker 2: What are you talking about?

Speaker 1: Here he says “asher”, and earlier he brought a long letter, he said three times.

Speaker 2: Yes, earlier he spoke about something else.

Speaker 1: Yes, but when it says three times a long letter, you have fewer spaces.

Speaker 2: What does fewer mean?

Speaker 1: Because here you have another letter between two words. When a person writes “mishpechoteichem”, it would have been less.

Speaker 2: It would have been smaller, but it’s width.

Shirat HaYam and Shirat Ha’azinu – Lines from Above and Below

Speaker 1: And Shirat HaYam should come out that there is a tree there… That is, in Shirat HaYam one writes in a certain way, this one will see later. This is yes. There is a tradition, received, that from above and below there is a certain line that one must write. The five lines from above begin “haba’im bayabashah asher asah Hashem bemitzrayim” – five lines, and below the song five lines that begin “vatikach acharehah vatetzeu etc.”. One can look in the Torah to see that one indeed does so.

English Translation

So too by the Song of Ha’azinu, there is also that from above one makes at the heads of the lines, above in the Song of Ha’azinu one writes “v’yeid’u acharei haderech ba’acharit l’hach’iso” — six lines, and below are five, which is “vayavo’u vay’dabru asher so it is asher”. But all these things, says the Rambam, I am not me’akev (invalidating).

What Is Indeed Me’akev — Invalidations in a Sefer Torah

So what is he indeed me’akev? Ah, if one wrote malei (full spelling) instead of chaser (deficient spelling) or chaser instead of malei. This has already been said. Or if one wrote a word that is read but not written, or if one wrote the kesiv (written form) and not the keri (read form), there is a keri and a kesiv, and he wrote it not like the kesiv. Such as if he wrote “yishgalenah” instead of “yishkavenah”, that’s how it’s said. Or “afolim” he wrote instead of “techorim”. Yes, he doesn’t say. Or… Or if one wrote a parsha pesucha (open section) as sesuma (closed), or sesuma as pesucha. Or if one wrote the song like regular writing, a song where there is brick upon brick, he wrote it like regular writing. Or if one wrote another parsha, a different parsha, a parsha that is not a song, he wrote it like a song, this is invalid.

Discussion: What Is the Practical Difference of “It Has No Sanctity of a Sefer Torah”?

Speaker 1: “And it has no sanctity of a Sefer Torah at all, but rather like a chumash from among the chumashim that children are taught from”. It has a different level of sanctity. What is the practical difference of the sanctity of a Sefer Torah? The sanctity of a chumash from among the chumashim that children are taught from. I don’t know what he’s saying. Apparently the only practical difference is that one cannot read from it in the synagogue. Or also it must be placed in genizah (burial). What is the difference? Apparently it’s the same thing. Both have sanctity. And one may not throw it out, burn it, erase it.

Speaker 2: Perhaps one should not read from it in public?

Speaker 1: Okay. Yes, that’s what I’m saying. One doesn’t read publicly from a chumash. We’ll see later explicitly the halacha, we’ve already seen it, right? We don’t read from a chumash. You admit that the Rambam says “kedusha” (sanctity), there’s presumably something more.

Discussion: Does One Fulfill the Mitzva of Writing a Sefer Torah with Such an Invalidation?

Speaker 1: It’s an interesting thing, because the person writes it for himself, he says okay, but he wants to fulfill the mitzva of writing a Sefer Torah. Didn’t he fulfill the mitzva of writing a Sefer Torah retroactively? He learns in it and everything. Didn’t he fulfill the mitzva? I don’t need to be a tanna kamma. The person wrote for example the keri instead of the kesiv. But as long as he doesn’t fix it, yes, let’s say, but he learns in it and everything. Didn’t he fulfill the mitzva of writing a Sefer Torah?

Speaker 2: A big no, even if he learns in it and everything.

Speaker 1: It’s not really a practical thing. It wasn’t there for the head. If there is one… Okay, very good. We can fulfill it with poor sifrei Torah. But if a poor Sefer Torah has an error, didn’t you fulfill the mitzva of writing a Sefer Torah? Because he didn’t buy a good one, he didn’t buy Tosafos Yom Tov, but a different city.

Speaker 2: Yes, maybe. Maybe. How do you know?

Speaker 1: I don’t know, you’re right, there is a problem. A whole… The head, let’s say, I practically bought only the short section of Zeraim. It’s a gezeiras hakasuv (Divine decree). All things make sense. There’s a difference between a chumash from chumashim which is in its own category, and what is in the category for children. Yes, there is a chumash for children. A father doesn’t learn from a chumash. Why? Because a chumash he can only remember one chumash at a time. A father has already remembered the entire Torah at once. To such an extent and perhaps. Women need to merit. And… I don’t know. Something you’re right that there’s a whole different problem. But it’s not a gezeiras hakasuv. All these halachos that you’re setting out, this makes the Sefer Torah more complete.

The Rambam’s Language “It Has No Sanctity of a Sefer Torah at All”

Speaker 1: Also a bit interesting is the language of the Rambam: “It has no sanctity of a Sefer Torah at all, but rather like a chumash from among the chumashim”. We know that this is the definition of a chumash. But one could say, “it has no sanctity of a Sefer Torah,” but it has the sanctity of a chumash. He wants to tell us that… ah, it’s nothing? It’s a little chumash. But a little chumash also has sanctity. What does it mean that not?

Speaker 2: Can you agree with me that a great chiddush (novelty) would be that one should pass it on to the next?

Speaker 1: You mean it’s a little chumash? No, I mean the Rambam wants to say that it’s really… It’s a shame. The Rambam is ashamed of him, he did such a foolish thing. It’s about a little chumash, but nevertheless he did very great things. He wrote down the entire Torah, and one can learn from it.

Discussion: Keri Instead of Kesiv in a Chumash

Speaker 1: Okay. I’ll give you an example. In a chumash where it says “seventy-seven who came out of the side, the mitzva of writing a Sefer Torah is not required.” And in my chumash I wrote inside the keri. In other words, usually in a chumash, the official way is to write the kesiv, and on the side one writes the keri. In my chumash I wrote the keri inside, because I want it to be as one reads it.

Speaker 2: But that is indeed a chumash from among the chumashim that children are taught from.

Speaker 1: Okay, you’re saying that a chumash can be like that. It’s interesting. Someone told me that even though there are those who say one may not, but from the Rambam it’s implied that one may indeed. The Rambam in the introduction to his book says “and I’m not coming to reveal my opinion that this book has no sanctity at all.” But this is a chumash from among the chumashim that children are taught from. It says on the cover “Chumash,” it doesn’t say “Sefer Torah.”

By the way, even if someone says one fulfills the obligation, I’m going to print it in five volumes anyway. I’m not going to do such a thing. But I wanted to say that chumashim that children are taught from, yes. Very good. Soon we’ll see, we’ll see in the halacha, ah, we’ll see here at the end of this chapter the halacha of a chumash.

Why Don’t Children Learn from a Kosher Sefer Torah?

Speaker 2: But what indeed, if you have a Sefer Torah, why doesn’t one allow the children to also learn in a kosher Sefer Torah? Is there perhaps a specific reason?

Speaker 1: That’s difficult, apparently. First of all, there aren’t that many Sifrei Torah. One must write every letter, how can there be so many? But if everyone writes… The boy writes, the boy still has stars. Okay, let’s arrive. We’ve arrived at the practical halacha.

A Sefer Torah That Is Not Corrected — Thirty Days

Speaker 1: A Sefer Torah that has not been corrected to make sure it’s kosher, one may not keep it for more than thirty days without fixing it. Or, like the previous one, someone who wrote the keri instead of the kesiv, he should correct it as it should be, or put it in genizah.

Speaker 2: Yes, someone told me not apparently that one hasn’t gone over it.

Speaker 1: Someone told me literally that there is an error. The Rambam doesn’t say the halacha of being corrected, of going over. He meant not fixed, not examined, not checked, not inspected. It may be one must check, it’s practical. But the Rambam, here it doesn’t say that. Here it says that if there is one of these errors, then.

Three Errors on Each Page — Correction or Genizah

Speaker 1: Now then, a scribe who has three errors on every page, every column, would be fixed. A book, not a scribe. A book, yes. A Sefer Torah that has three errors on each and every page, should be corrected. If there are four on every page, the simple meaning is that it’s very difficult to fix so much. It should be buried.

Speaker 2: No, the destruction is worse than that, that the person who knew the errors, not any presumption, one cannot fix it. One doesn’t see nicely it becomes like disgusting.

Speaker 1: Yes, the point is, very good. The fixing shows. The fixing means, as the Rambam will say with erasures, the fixing means that one inserts letters on the side, if there are mistakes without four errors, he says that if you’re already deep in the book, and here and there you find new pages that have errors, it doesn’t mean that it’s now a vessel to make a book. Then yes, correct it.

What is said when one begins to make a book. What about one page from the rest. Understand that I don’t know what he’ll do. At the end there are already pages that have even four errors, because it must be buried. But if there is one page that has only three errors on it, that means something like that.

In the minority, it cannot be that each one of the errors is more than four pages, or more than four pairs. If there is a section with three errors, and if there is at least one that has only three errors, one can fix even the one with four errors. Something like that. Yes.

When Are These Words Said — When One Finds Hanging Letters

Speaker 1: When are these words said? When the error was found hanging letters. Ah, what this is, can be corrected. How to correct? Then one says that one cannot correct more than four errors. When does one say one cannot correct more than four errors? If something is missing here. Such as missing, letters are missing. So what does one do? One inserts a hand long time with hanging, one inserts between the lines, so that it shouldn’t be disgusting. So that in four it’s a lot not disgusting. That’s it.

It Is Permitted to Write Chumash by Chumash

Speaker 1: It is permitted to write the Torah chumash by chumash, each chumash by itself. This is simple, one says chumash, and one learns it’s permitted. One may write the Torah in chumashim. They asked him, “Does it have the sanctity of a Sefer Torah there?” Does it have the sanctity of a complete Sefer Torah? He says, “What does that mean exactly, it’s not clear.” Yes. And that one can read from it in public, but it’s not stated clearly.

The Rambam says, “But one may not write a scroll by itself…”

Laws of Writing a Megilla, Tanach, and Ruling Lines

Halacha 14: Prohibition of Writing a Megilla for a Child

That means, less than a chumash, just a megilla, a piece, a little piece of… The question is if it’s on parchment, it’s not on parchment? No, no, megilla means on parchment. Megilla means on parchment, everything here is spoken about on parchment. A megilla means a few parshiyos, not a chumash. Chumash means one writes all of Bereishis, a whole chumash, yes. But writing Parshas Vayeitzei alone, no. This is one of the things one may not do.

Interesting. “And one does not write a megilla for a child to learn from it”. One doesn’t write… even for a baby, even for a child that one teaches, he’s now learning Parshas Vayeitzei, one doesn’t write a megilla of Parshas Vayeitzei. But “if his intention is to complete it to a chumash, it is permitted”. One must know, today… I mean, the printer must also know what is the law of printing.

Discussion: Printing Parshiyos for Shabbos — A Disrespect?

But also, today it’s very strongly introduced, one makes for Shabbos, one prints out only the parsha and the like. It may be that it’s not maintained, because it becomes a very great disrespect, everything becomes like a newspaper, one uses it as it’s disposable.

I saw that they asked… The Lubavitchers make such a booklet every week, but I saw that someone asked the Lubavitcher Rebbe, there weren’t enough chumashim in shul, someone came, there were very many guests, he wanted to make copies of a chumash. The Rebbe said, “He should buy another box of chumashim, it will already be for next week.”

But… I don’t know what… What do all those who do it indeed do, what does one do on Shabbos aliyos? That’s what I’m saying, and it becomes disposable, it’s a disposable chumash. It’s very funny, I also do it, but I wanted to know if it’s maintained. It begins from this halacha, why may one not make a megilla? Apparently because of this, because it becomes a disrespect.

I have in general a critique on all these Shabbatons that are made in halls. There’s no atmosphere of a beis medrash, there are no sefarim, and one does it very easily because one wants to make a splash there. It’s not… not basic. That’s one thing, but okay.

But I’m saying, the printing… Okay, I don’t know. One should ask the rav, the face what to do. But it seems to me that here there is a reason to think that it’s not the thing.

Writing a Megilla Three Words per Line

“One writes a megilla three words per line”. Ah, what is the leniency? “One writes a megilla for a child to learn from it” — also not for a child. Even to learn, only if he needs it so that he can later add the rest. One doesn’t need to do it all at once. If the plan is to make a whole chumash, one may start. Very good.

But “one writes a megilla three words per line” — if only it’s permitted. What is the meaning of this? What does this mean? I don’t know what this means. One may write a megilla… It comes up later, and I don’t understand what was here before.

One may write only three words on a line, and then… Or we make it with a big change, such as this one may indeed make. If someone makes something different, and it’s a sort of chumash. What is the meaning? Not a chumash. He writes it like… The Gemara speaks of the prayer that was made for Parshas Sotah, or one writes something a topic that is not… Or one may indeed take a small piece from the Torah, something like that, which is not similar.

Yes, it’s a sort of way of writing, or a sort of way… A sort of sign that one hangs in the institution, I know. He says so, this is a sort of slogan, a certain verse, a certain… Yes, something like that. You have here three verses, and you didn’t make it like a fake Sefer Torah. You’re just making something a…

Halacha 15: Binding Torah, Prophets and Writings in One Volume

The Rambam says further, “It is permitted to bind Torah, Prophets and Writings in one volume”. Now we’ve finished about Torah, now he’s going to speak about Tanach. How does one deal with Tanach? The Rambam says that Torah, Prophets, and Writings one can make in one volume. It seems that it’s one level of sanctity, or what? Regarding binding it’s such a feeling. But what indeed?

But between each chumash… And what else? Between each chumash one leaves three lines, Prophets is indeed three lines. Not each prophet is indeed three lines. From the thirteen is also three lines. Why? If he comes to divide it, he divides. If you want to divide it, they will divide it.

But the truth is that the prohibition is that one may not divide parshiyos. This is only here in a Sefer Torah. Not parshiyos, one writes it, one gives him two books on one parchment, and he cuts it, he makes it into two scrolls, two books.

The Order of Prophets and Writings

But what is the order of Prophets and Writings first? This is apparently when one writes everything at once, then the order is relevant. But the scribe doesn’t go in order, he writes it all on one long page.

And so, the order is a Baraisa, and the order is thus: Joshua and Judges, Samuel and Kings, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Isaiah and the Twelve. This is approximately the historical order, yes? Yes, let’s not get into this.

The order of Writings is Ruth, Psalms, is also further historical. The question is about Job. And Proverbs and Ecclesiastes is further, and Song of Songs is further historical, and Lamentations and Daniel and Megillas Esther and Ezra and Chronicles. Everything is historical except Job, let’s think.

The true order is the order of the Baraisa that stands in Tractate Bava Basra. Our chumashim are not printed in this order. We have the Five Megillas and the Writings together. We also have, if I remember, one writes Isaiah before Jeremiah. One writes in the twenty-four, in the current twenty-four it already goes in this order. The tradition is a bit different from this. So, one must know.

Isaiah was before Jeremiah, that’s certain. Yes, the Gemara says a reason, not historical. Isaiah was earlier. Isaiah was something in the days of Chizkiyahu from the beginning. Yes, Isaiah is before Jeremiah. So, the Gemara says a reason why it’s in this order, but it’s not really, not entirely the historical order. Anyway, and also we don’t follow this order. That means, in our chumashim it doesn’t go like this. Okay.

Halacha 16: Ruling Lines in Holy Writings

Here, halacha, all holy writings, including Tanach, one writes them on ruled lines. One writes them only on ruled lines. Ah, even if one writes them on paper, even if one doesn’t write on parchment, still one must make lines. What does one do when one writes with the light on three words one may not write? Three words one may write without ruled lines.

Now there is a leniency. Three words he means apparently when one writes the chumash, yes? When one writes it, for three words he missed something like that. This is interesting, I don’t know clearly. What is the halacha? We see in the Gemara that sometimes one writes tefillin, one writes a verse alone in a letter, one must write with ruling. But we don’t see what is from the Rambam the halacha.

Halacha 17: Sanctity of a Volume with Torah, Prophets and Writings

Now, the volume that has in it Torah, Prophets and Writings, has no sanctity of a Sefer Torah but rather like a chumash from among the chumashim. Why? It’s a case of whoever adds detracts. Very good.

Chiddush: Whoever Adds Detracts — Adding Weakens

On this, the Rambam’s law is hiesek or nachos. Because it’s exactly like when you put… very interesting, you take a Torah and you write Nevi’im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings) on it, it becomes less holy. You take a Torah, you add Nevi’im and Ketuvim to it, it becomes less holy. Wonders of wonders.

It appears that at least you have the right to write on a Sefer Torah the Nevi’im and Ketuvim. Let’s say a person came up with a technology to make such a long Sefer Torah that would also have an entire Mishnah and Talmud, yes, let’s say. It could be that it’s not permitted. He said that here you have the right to write one sefer with the Nevi’im and Ketuvim. But it becomes a Chumash. It becomes a Chumash, but at least you have the right.

It could be other things, like for example by mezuzah he said that one may not write other things. It could be the Rambam said, if someone wants to start putting in here I don’t know what, yes, fine, wonderful. It could be that kol yater k’natul dami means that one may not add together, but apparently he means this, that if he added the Nevi’im and Ketuvim it also became weaker.