Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah and Sefer Torah, Chapter 8 (Auto Translated)

Laws of a Sefer Torah — Open and Closed Parshiyos, and the Rambam’s List

Introduction to the Shiur

We are learning here Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah and Sefer Torah, Chapter 8, Laws of Sefer Torah. Yes, this is the second chapter of Laws of Sefer Torah. And we give a yasher koach to all the donors of the shiur, including R’ Yoel and all other Jews who will go, with God’s help, in the future, and who are already helping, and already.

Introduction to the Laws of Open and Closed Parshiyos

Now it’s like this, we learned earlier in the laws that one may not make a parsha petucha (open section) into a setuma (closed section), and a setuma one may not make into a petucha, yes? We already saw this in the previous halacha. But we didn’t know at all what is a parsha petucha and a parsha setuma, and also we didn’t know which parsha one must make petucha and which setuma.

So in this chapter the Rambam will first of all say what is the meaning of petucha and setuma, what is the law regarding it, whether one can correct it. Afterwards he will do a very interesting thing, he will make us a list of every parsha petucha and setuma in the Torah. And we won’t say the entire list, it could take us until the day after tomorrow. What the Rambam with his tremendous kindness copied from an old, important Sefer Torah that he had in his possession. We will talk about this, the Sefer Torah that the Rambam brings.

And the amazing thing is, he goes over it even though he doesn’t hold that it’s le’ikuva, but he holds that it’s… not le’ikuva, le’ikuva means to say that it’s not me’akev. It is me’akev, what is me’akev? The Rambam holds very strongly that it’s me’akev. And the amazing thing is, I mean that it’s not me’akev, what is the… the amazing thing is that before the Rambam came there was controversy about this, and the versions, and the like. All of Klal Yisrael conducts itself according to the Rambam’s parshiyos, except for one difference that exists, which is two versions in the Rambam. Aside from that, since the Rambam came, everyone does according to the Rambam’s halacha. So it really completely took over.

Many times people laugh, the Rambam said he’s going to make a book of laws, everyone will follow it, and the Ra’avad came and corrected it, and it wasn’t enough. In certain matters, such as for example the parshiyos of a Sefer Torah, all of Klal Yisrael accepted it. It took a little time in Ashkenaz until the Rambam arrived, there were still other Sifrei Torah with other versions. But after the Rambam became widespread, all the poskim say that everyone does like the Rambam, and this is one of the Rambam’s great successes in taking over the system. I mean, he took it from a source, he doesn’t just say it. Yes, we will talk about this in a second.

Halacha: What is a Parsha Petucha and a Parsha Setuma

But first one must learn the halacha. First, what does a parsha petucha and a parsha setuma look like. The Rambam says like this: And whoever wants to know, will look in the Shulchan Aruch and see. I already know, one needs to have time to figure out the details, that the Rosh has a bit of a dispute with the Rambam about how one makes a parsha petucha. We try to fulfill “it is proper to give to both of them.” There are those who claim that our advice of “to give to both of them” doesn’t work, but in any case, the Rambam says like this:

Parsha Petucha — Two Ways

A parsha petucha has two ways how one can make it. The pictures are somewhat not too clear, I don’t know why, this is some kind of clever one from whatever. He says like this: “If it ended in the middle of a line, leave the rest of the line empty”. That means, if one parsha ended in the middle of a line, leave that line empty, and he begins the next parsha, he begins with the next line. Very good, like here you have a picture. No, the picture is…

He says two ways of making a parsha petucha. The first way is that one finished in the middle of the line, and one leaves it empty, afterwards one begins fresh in the next line. But this only works, yes?

“Our Rabbis said, when the line that one finished has remaining space the measure of nine letters” — that means, the space of nine letters — “but if there didn’t remain except a little”, then it’s not enough that he leaves the remaining line and he begins the new one, “rather he completes at the end of the line and leaves the second line entirely empty”. One leaves over an entire empty line to show that here is a petucha setuma, “provided that the beginning of the open parsha begins at the third line”. In such a case that one leaves over an entire empty parsha. An entire empty line he leaves over. This agrees very well with the Rambam, a parsha setuma.

Parsha Setuma — Three Ways

And there is a good interesting thing, that if one looks in today’s Sifrei Torah there is no such thing in the entire Torah, an entire empty line to make a parsha petucha. The reason for this is because the Rosh had a different interpretation. The Rosh held that a parsha petucha must have nine letters in front of it on the same line. He didn’t hold that one fulfills it with this. Therefore the Rosh said that if there remains, one must begin the parsha petucha in the middle of the line, so that there should be nine letters empty on the same line.

Now, the problem is, according to the Rambam this should have been a parsha setuma, because the Rambam says that a parsha petucha must begin at the beginning of a line. Therefore, one wants to fulfill the opinion of the Rambam also, therefore the Beit Yosef says in the Shulchan Aruch that we conduct ourselves today that we are careful that no parsha petucha should end with less than nine letters, in order that we can fulfill “it is proper to give to both of them,” to satisfy the Rambam. But if one doesn’t have, says the Rema, this is a parsha petucha.

A parsha setuma, says the Rambam, yes? A parsha setuma has three forms, three ways. One way is, if it ended in the middle of a line, leave space the measure, like nine letters, and finish writing at the end of the line. After leaving nine letters on the same line, at the end of the line, and after the nine letters he cannot write, he begins the parsha that is setuma, until the space is found in the middle like this. He shows, like the beginning of the line is nine letters, afterwards there is an empty space, and afterwards it begins at the end of the line with more letters. But if there didn’t remain from the line enough to leave space the measure, leave the entire line completely empty. If one cannot do it so, that from both sides there should be full words, or at least a whole word, one should leave it entirely empty, and one should only begin the next line, because it’s not nice, seemingly. And he begins to write the closed parsha in the middle of the line like this. You know here, he completes the space that one needs, and one begins from the next line.

It comes out that according to the Rambam, a parsha setuma is specifically the one that can begin with space in the middle of a line. And if it ended at the end of a line, it ended at the end, the parsha ended at the end, and he begins from the beginning of the second line, an empty line, and he begins to write the closed parsha in the middle of the line like this. That the entire line is his, further here the Rosh disagrees, and I don’t remember what is the law in the parsha setuma.

Main Principle: Petucha at the Beginning of the Line, Setuma in the Middle of the Line

Okay, this is the Rambam’s halacha, opening a parsha petucha and a parsha setuma. With knowledge of the matter, the Rambam conducts this. Parsha petucha at the beginning of the line always, that a parsha petucha is always the beginning of a new line, and a parsha setuma begins, the Rambam is always in the middle of a line. The Rosh holds however that it cannot be, that means, it won’t be called a parsha petucha or it won’t be called a parsha setuma if there is just empty space at the beginning of a line, it must be closed from both sides the parsha setuma, and the Torah is also regular with columns, seemingly to fulfill both, one must see exactly, but that’s how it comes out.

Halacha: Error in the Spacing of Parshiyos — Invalid and Has No Remedy

Now the Rambam says like this, the two interesting stringencies, yes? The Rambam says, full and deficient, if he erred, he is not corrected for full and deficient, etc., we learned that one must be careful about every full and deficient, every time that a vav is missing for a mitzvah, yes, this one can fix, as they learned that full and deficient one can fix, one can add, scrape off and add, according to the law that they learned more than four one cannot, etc.

The Rambam says there, if someone erred in the spacing of the parshiyos, that with how much one must add for a setuma and petucha or petucha and setuma, one did the opposite, or that he separated with empty space in a place where there is no parsha, if he left extra empty where the halacha doesn’t say that one must leave empty, or that he wrote in its usual way and he didn’t make any space at all between parshiyos, or that he changed the form of the lines, he didn’t make the lines in the manner how one must write lines, there is such as Shirat HaYam, and other songs, Shirat Ha’azinu, which one must write in a certain order, a brick upon a brick, this is invalid, and it has no remedy, it has no remedy, except, the only remedy a Sefer Torah has written from several pages, not to invalidate all the other pages, one should remove from where it’s sewn together, one should remove that page where he erred. Yes, one must cut out the page and make an entirely new one.

Why can one not erase and change a bit, I don’t know. The sound of the Rambam, he had a Gemara. Seemingly this is the word, one must erase too much. Because I don’t believe that there is a matter because it must be written in order, no, not such a thing. In short, it’s not clear what is the explanation. It’s seemingly a further matter of the manner as we learned that there is a limit how much one can fix, simply because it’s improper that a Sefer Torah should be patched up.

Already, and this is the Rambam’s halacha. The Rambam is this seemingly also a bit of an introduction that he will now say. Because it is very serious. A closed or closed verse is invalid, and one cannot even correct it. Therefore it is very important.

The Rambam’s List of All Parshiyos — Introduction

The Rambam says like this, because… the Rambam now begins something. You understand what you learned the laws, now he will do more. Now the Rambam comes as the great man of comprehensive knowledge, the doctor who knows everything, he comes out and says, “I will now write you everything that one must know, what I corrected from the Sefer Torah.”

Why did the Rambam have to do this? Because the Rambam claims that most Sifrei Torah are invalid. Why? Because I saw great confusion in all the books that I saw in these matters. It’s not just a nice thing. Because I saw great confusion in all the books that I saw in these matters. He says, all the books that I saw, in all the books that I saw in these matters, all the books that I saw I saw great confusion. And also the masters of the mesorah, there is a book called “Mesoret Sofrim”, it writes lists. Mesorah means people who make lists. What is the meaning? People who make lists. Who divide and combine the opinions regarding closed and open sections, they make lists, but they disagree in these matters like the dispute of the books themselves. That means, one says that the Sefer Torah must have so many errors, and the differences from one Sefer Torah to another. Okay, we look in a list in the book, which has a list, not the Torah, but the list. The problem is, there is more than one book, and the books have the same dispute as the Torahs. The book doesn’t help at all.

He says, “I will write the correct list, that is, all the parshiyos of the Torah, I will write all the parshiyos of the Torah according to the closed and open sections, and how the lines must look, in order to correct from them all the books and to correct them.” In order to correct.

The Problem of Scribal Error in the Rambam Itself

Now there will only be one small problem. What will be if there will be a scribal error in the Rambam?

That means, the Rambam’s book now becomes like the Sefer Torah that lies in the Temple courtyard, from which the king wrote. Yes, but I say, there will only be one small problem. What will happen if in the Rambam itself there will be a scribal error, ah? Didn’t it occur to him that there can be a scribal error in the Rambam itself?

The Rambam lives, and he discusses with students, and he sends letters. One hopes that the best that one can comes in. I will tell you a story about this.

The Rambam’s Source — The Book Known in Egypt

The Rambam says like this. The Rambam says, “Because I saw,” he says, “the scribes who relied on this, they didn’t look in the Mishnah or in the Oral Torah. What is there? The book known in Egypt,

The Rambam’s Approach to Open and Closed Sections

Speaker 1: The Rambam’s is more than one book, and the books have the same dispute in the Torah. The book doesn’t help at all. He says, I will write the correct… “And I saw to write here all the parshiyos of the Torah, and I will write all the parshiyos of the Torah according to the open and closed sections, and how the songs need to appear, so that all the books will be corrected from them”.

Now there will only be one small problem, what happens if there is a scribal error with the Rambam? He says, because the Rambam’s book now becomes like the Sefer Torah that lies in the Temple courtyard, from which the king writes. Yes, but I say that here there will only be one small problem. What happened? If the Rambam itself becomes a scribal error, ah? Didn’t it occur to him that one can make that there can be a scribal error from the Rambam.

Okay, the Rambam lives, and he discusses with students, and he sends letters. One hopes that the best that one can comes in. Be well, I told you the story, and we have a part in this. I told you a story about this.

The Source: The Book Known in Egypt

Speaker 1: The Rambam says like this… Okay, the Rambam says, from where do I take all these things? He says, the book that we relied on. He didn’t on what there is no Mishnah, no Oral Torah. What is there? There is a book known in Egypt, here a book known in Egypt that includes twenty-four books of Egypt, a collection of Tanach, as the Rambam earlier at the end of the chapter spoke that here is which books are arranged in Egypt.

Yes, this is if it’s clear, the Rambam is the book that the Rambam says he’s not that book, but that book means that one writes a scroll, such a long book, this is a Chumash like a large one here many years the book that is known… on how did one help oneself in Egypt or in Jerusalem? Ah, therefore.

That means known in Egypt is known, I know where it lies in Egypt, or where it lay when the Rambam found it, as if it lay in Egypt at the time when he found it… But, the word is… or the word is… in Jerusalem it was accepted. So you mean, that the case is here only something from Egypt, but it was only from Jerusalem? Because only good… it was there many years that this was the main book of the generation. There one used to… from there one used to correct. That these are all the books. Yes? Right.

Ben Asher — Who He Was and His Work

Speaker 1: And which Yaakov relied. Why did the Rambam rely on a trustworthy man Ben Asher? He will tell you right away. There was one who was called Ben Asher, and he corrected this book, and he was engaged in this for many years. This was his project of correcting this.

Who was Ben Asher? And he corrected it many times as it was copied. He corrected it as it is written, and on this they relied on him. So already time of the kingdom? As it was copied? Perhaps this means it? I don’t know what is the explanation. So the Rambam tells you about Ben Asher. I don’t know what the explanation of the word is. Who copied what? Seemingly he means one repeated that Ben Asher corrected the book many times.

He says, and on this I relied on it. This he means to say. And on this I relied on it, not yes, I tell you, in the Rambam itself, the Rambam wrote a Sefer Torah. And on this I relied in the Sefer Torah that I wrote according to the law. The Rambam fulfilled the law of writing a Sefer Torah, and he took, on that one he replicated the Sefer Torah, the script of Ben Asher.

Who Was Ben Asher

Speaker 1: And this was the… from there he took this. This is the… Ben Asher was who? From the time of the Geonim he lived in Tiberias. He was called something Ben Asher, I don’t know what his first name was.

Speaker 2: You don’t know, or I don’t know.

Speaker 1: And he wrote, he didn’t just write, he mainly corrected. This is the true grammar. Because to write is not enough, because one writes a book, usually naturally, even the greatest sage writes a book, he makes a few mistakes. The virtue of this book is only that… it’s clear that the book was lost, or one didn’t have access most people most of the time.

Keter Aram Tzova — The Physical Book

Speaker 1: Today they found, yes, there’s a whole story about this. It used to be located in… later it was located in Syria, and therefore it’s called Keter Aram Tzova, which is Syria. It’s assumed that this is the sefer that the Rambam speaks of, this is the sefer hayadu’a b’Mitzrayim (the sefer known in Egypt).

Discussion: Is it attributed to Ezra HaSofer?

Speaker 2: But no, the Rambam doesn’t say that it’s attributed to Ezra HaSofer.

Speaker 1: No, Ezra HaSofer doesn’t come in. It’s Ben Asher. There’s no connection to Ezra HaSofer. No, no, no. It’s not a Sefer Torah at all. It’s not a Sefer Torah at all. No, not about Ben Ezra. It’s not a chiddush. No, no, he said mipei hashemu’ah (from oral tradition), but the Rambam had a sefer, the Rambam had a sefer. But it’s not clear that the Rambam’s was from Ben Asher. It’s not correct. Yes, and chas v’shalom whoever would say such a thing.

Ben Asher from the Chachmei HaMesorah

Speaker 1: The Rambam… Ben Asher was from the chachmei hameso’rah bizman hage’onim (the sages of the mesorah in the time of the Geonim), perhaps the greatest. There’s the machloket (dispute) Ben Asher Ben Naftali in certain things, he was his colleague or in his time. But he, how is it called, he made the sefer that the Rambam speaks of. I don’t know if Ben Asher wrote it himself even, it could be that a sofer wrote it, but the main virtue is that he was very strongly megiha (corrected) it.

The Story of Keter Aram Tzova

Speaker 1: And one can actually see in the sefer that was in Syria, and later it came to Eretz Yisrael. The parts, the missing parts were burned or lost during what happened in 5708 (1948), when the Arabs saw that the Jews were making a state, they made a big pogrom there in Syria.

It’s not with swords, it was in the shul in Syria, in Aleppo, and the Arabs made a pogrom, and somewhere in that pogrom they burned the shul. Some Jew went and grabbed the sefer, but he came too late, or whatever exactly the story was. A part, a large part of it is missing today. That is, almost the entire majority of Chumash is missing, there’s most of Tanach, but most of Chumash is missing, about half of Sefer Devarim. And it also doesn’t end until the end of Tanach, the whole thing isn’t there.

Where One Can See the Sefer Today

Speaker 1: But one can see the sefer, it’s there, and one can go see it, in Eretz Yisrael there’s a museum, yes, the Israel Museum, and there’s a special chamber, it’s called Heichal HaSefer. There one can see the sefer, the original manuscript of Ben Asher, which is called Ketav Aram Tzova, Keter Aram Tzova. And there are also other scrolls from the Qumran scrolls, other things that one can see there, but one can see the sefer there. One can also see pictures on the internet.

The Precision of Keter Aram Tzova

Speaker 1: And the point is, this is the sefer that the Rambam himself also looked at. And one actually sees, the chachmei hameso’rah shebizman hazeh (the sages of the mesorah of this time) say that this sefer is actually remarkably precise. Not only that, there is, and one can see how one can check that a sefer is precise, because there’s mesorah that records, mesorah counts numbers, how many times there’s chaser (deficient spelling), how many times there’s malei (full spelling).

Comparison with Other Manuscripts

Speaker 1: And one can see that a simple dispute is one thing, but one can see most other sefarim, even old manuscripts, Ketav Yad Leningrad, and other manuscripts that are also almost a thousand years old, or a bit older, Even Shushan, yes, etc., all these chevra (group), all these sefarim, one sees, I don’t remember the numbers, but they’re not precise al pi atzman (according to themselves), it doesn’t match with their own, it’s not coherent.

And the entire Keter Aram Tzova, the entire Tanach, a huge large sefer, there are I think three or four errors that are known, but aside from that it’s one hundred percent precise.

The Reason for the Precision

Speaker 1: And apparently the reason is because the commentator sat, and this was his main sefer, he sat on this for twenty, forty years, I don’t know, he went over everything and fixed and fixed, and one actually sees in the sefer there are erasures, one can see he changed things. And this is what the Rambam relied on this sefer to take from it.

What the Rambam Took and What Not

Speaker 1: Now, there’s a somewhat interesting thing, the Rambam took from this sefer only the petuchot u’setumot (open and closed sections) of the Torah, he didn’t bring the nusach (text version) there as purposes of nekudot (vowel points), ta’gin (crowns on letters), I don’t know what’s there, but nekudot or malei v’chaser (full and deficient spellings), even other things, the Rambam didn’t, he did write, he took the yud-gimmel (13), the Rambam’s Sefer Torah he did write, he wrote his sefer, we don’t know what the Rambam had regarding that matter.

Letters That Are Different

Speaker 1: There are two or three letters in the Torah that are different, yes, the Tosafot on “hadeku” with an alef or with a hei, and such things, and apparently we don’t know what the Rambam wrote, if one would go with the Rambam’s Chumash we would have to do as he does, although we don’t have his own manuscript.

Reconstructing the Rambam’s Nusach

Speaker 1: But they did find, there is about what they reconstructed, they figured out what was written there. First of all, it was already… But what were they meticulous about? Yes, two things, there are people who made lists of the sefer before it was burned or lost, there were researchers, people went there and transcribed. And also one can see from the mesorah, one can see other places that he held in the Torah, the manuscript.

Tanachim That Are Printed According to This

Speaker 1: So, there are today Tanachim that are printed this way, but the Ashkenazic script has a few letters that are different. And Teiman doesn’t hold this way. Apparently if one would go according to the Rambam one would have to do like him, but the custom of most sofrim is not to follow this. So we’re waiting to see how our friends HaGaon Rav Yitzchak…

In any case, I’m already making a Sefer Torah. My Chumash, my Chumash, no, my Chumash is copied from one who already did this. So, my Chumash is according to… yes, it’s based on the… on based on HaRav… what’s his name? Rabbi Mordechai Breuer, who worked very much to make it according to the mesorah, the original mesorah.

The Dispute: Did Ben Asher Actually Correct the Petuchot U’Setumot?

Speaker 1: Now, there’s an interesting thing, an interesting dispute which is my opinion. So the Rambam, as we said, didn’t bring the letters, he said there are no doubts. He brought the parshiyot (sections), because the Rambam… it could also be because of this, because he saw, parshiyot, letters one can always fix, the Rambam says, but the parshiyot, it’s pasul haTorah (invalidates the Torah), one can’t fix it. So because of this it was more important to bring all the parshiyot.

The Claim Against the Rambam’s Assumption

Speaker 1: But there are those who claim, there’s a very interesting thing, there are those who claim, there are today a few Jews who have written articles about this, the collections have argued about this, it’s actually a question whether what the Rambam assumed is correct.

The Rambam assumed that the parshiyot setumot and petuchot that are written in the Keter of Ben Asher, Ben Asher corrected them. Now, it’s true that Ben Asher corrected the mesorah of the sefer and the nusach of the sefer, but there’s no proof at all that he also corrected the parshiyot petuchot and setumot. It could be that he held altogether that there’s no mesorah at all on this, every sofer does differently.

Evidence from Old Sefarim

Speaker 1: And one looks in old sefarim one sees that there are very many variations in petuchot and setumot, not even… much more variations than there are in the letters and nekudot and so forth. And one doesn’t see even once that they should have fixed a parsha petucha and setuma. One doesn’t see any hagahot (corrections) on this at all.

Ah, there should have even been made a list, something should have been written about this. So there are those who claim today that perhaps it’s not correct at all that Ben Asher corrected the petuchot and setumot that the Rambam assumed. It could be that this was simply how the sofer made it, and certainly it’s somewhat worthwhile because it’s an old sefer, but…

Technology to See Erasures

Speaker 2: I’m just telling you a halacha. I’m just telling you a halacha. I’m just telling you an interesting thing. They use technology to see if the parchment he fixed.

Speaker 1: One can see that there’s an erasure? Yes, one can see. Our friend Rav Neriah was working on it on the parchments, like others, and one can, there are ways that one can do like an X-ray with computers that there lies underneath still something a correction. Yes.

The Miraculous Story: All Jews Began to Do Like the Rambam

Speaker 1: Anyway, this is the story of this, and the interesting, the miraculous story is that after what I told you there were two copies that the Rambam wrote, but later all Jews began to do like the Rambam.

Technology to Discover Overwritten Text in Manuscripts

Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yes, interesting thing.

Speaker 2: How can one go over?

Speaker 1: They use technology to see. One can see, one can see. Our friend Rav Neriah showed me, he works on it, on the sefarim of others. One can, there are developments that one can do like an X-ray, one can see that there lies underneath still something ink.

Speaker 2: Yes.

The Miraculous Story: From Rambam to Ramban

Speaker 1: Anyway, this is the story of this. The miraculous story is, after what I told you will be as the Rambam wrote, and how later everything was switched to the Ramban.

Speaker 2: Are there even manuscripts from the Rambam himself?

Speaker 1: Yes.

An Error in Our Sifrei Torah — Parashat Tzav

Speaker 1: So the story is, it was, there’s still today a discussion in their dispute. In Parashat Tzav there’s one parsha that in our Sifrei Torah it’s apparently missing, one should apparently make it. There was an error in the Rambam in the sefarim. One knows why the error happened, I don’t have strength, I didn’t write it here. But look into Parashat Tzav, you’ll see. They thought that the Rambam means… it could be the Rambam himself made an error, or it’s perhaps an error in the copying from the Rambam. There are two parshiyot that begin with the same letter, the same words, it’s hard to catch which one he means.

Speaker 2: “Vayedaber”?

Speaker 1: No. There is in Parashat Tzav, there where it says, if I remember, there where it says about the chelev (fat), “kol chelev” (all fat). One of the “vayedaber” is it perhaps so? Yes, I don’t remember which. There is, in the Yemenite sefarim they have it correct, they have both parshiyot petuchot or setumot, I don’t remember. By us one is missing, simply.

Speaker 2: Interesting.

Speaker 1: I don’t remember anymore how that parsha begins. So that’s another thing.

To Whom We Owe Our Sifrei Torah

Speaker 1: Another miraculous story that he brings, Harav Rabinovitz here, is that it was, all our sefarim are built on two or three gedolim who even involved themselves in this topic. Why was the Rambam accepted? Because no one involved themselves in this.

Rabbi Meir HaLevi Abulafia (the Ramah)

Speaker 1: After the Rambam came, there was Rabbi Meir HaLevi Abulafia, yes, the Ramah, yes, the Yad Ramah. He was very strongly involved in making the Sefer Torah correct. He has a sefer called “Mesoret Seyag LaTorah,” where he goes through all the parshiyot. And he took the petuchot u’setumot from the Rambam. He didn’t know the correct one, he sent a letter to Rabbi Yehuda ibn Tibbon that he should send him the original manuscript of the Rambam, not manuscript, or a more precise copy.

And remarkable things, he was also a great opponent of the Rambam, the first dispute was against the Rambam, because he said that the Rambam doesn’t hold of techiyat hameitim (resurrection of the dead), so hashkafa-wise (philosophically) he was very against the Rambam, but in his Sefer Torah he used the Rambam’s mesorah, which the Rambam wrote there. So all Sifrei Torah come essentially from him.

The Meiri, Minchat Shai, and Others

Speaker 1: The Meiri also wrote a sefer on Sefer Torah, I don’t remember what it’s called. After that there’s the Minchat Shai from the Acharonim, and a few more people.

It’s very interesting, it’s such a topic that I want to be a bit with taste in this. Yes, but among all thousands of gedolei Yisrael that the sages, it is that one can count about ten people throughout history, and our Torah lies on a few people. They didn’t, it doesn’t lie on them, they involved themselves, they deserve to make it correct.

The Rambam’s List of Petuchot U’Setumot

Speaker 1: Anyway, this is the Rambam’s list. The Rambam makes here a long list of every parsha petucha and setuma in the Torah, and apparently our Torahs, as I said, it matches with the Rambam except for one that we apparently don’t do correctly. One can ask the rabbis what to do about this.

He counts out every sefer, he counts out Sefer Bereishit, every parsha, literally I won’t say it, he goes with the parshiyot I mean, even the parshiyot. He counts out every parsha, he counts out which is petucha or setuma, or which is both. Yes, every single, not every parsha, every parsha petucha and setuma, yes. Which we won’t say because we’ll go crazy. He even makes a total in the end, a number of how much there is in each sefer and in each Chumash.

He had nerves for… Hashem gave the Rambam more nerves than us, because he did it. If our job would have been our job, we would perhaps do it, but it’s not our job. We are after all… okay, if it would have been our job, when we write a Torah, we copy and we do what the Rambam did.

Hilchot Shirot — Shirat Ha’azinu

Speaker 1: After that there are the shirot (songs). A shira, the Rambam has already mentioned a few times, must be written like a shira. What is a shira? There are two shirot in the Torah basically. Okay.

First of all, Shirat Ha’azinu. And the Rambam doesn’t say here Shirat Ha’azinu, I don’t know. He says that the way it goes is, and here he doesn’t lay down the entire list, but the way it goes is, yes, kol shita v’shita (every line and line), every line in Shirat Ha’azinu has in between a revach (space), which is like a parsha setuma, which has only one letter in the middle, but it’s open from both sides. It comes out every shita is divided in two.

Says the Rambam, one writes it in sheva v’shishim (seven and sixty), yes, ah, sorry, seventy-seven lines. I think we don’t do so, we make it a different number of lines. I don’t remember. There’s also about this perhaps a bit of dispute, yes, there are about this girsaot (versions), many girsaot in this.

In short, and the Rambam counts out precisely which side, the right side or the left side of the order, comes out which pasuk in Ha’azinu. Which word? Which letter is he reading pesukim? So, which word, which word. Ha’azinu hashamayim va’adabera, ya’arof kamatar likchi, tizal katal imrati, kis’irim alei desha v’chirvivim alei esev etc. So this is Shirat Ha’azinu, and he goes through the whole thing there.

Shirat HaYam — Ariach Al Gabei Levana

Speaker 1: After that he says that Shirat HaYam one writes thirty lines. So, the first line… we saw learned earlier that there are lines above and below the shira. No, by the Shirat… sorry, ariach al gabei levana (brick upon brick) means Shirat HaYam. That means ariach al gabei ariach, levana al gabei levana (brick upon brick, brick upon brick). Actually, yes, right, only two lines, two columns. Shirat Ha’azinu is only two columns.

And I told you that the Rambam already said earlier that here the lines before and after the shira one also has some certain custom how one writes them, simply which letters begin, which word begins the lines. Because there is, one doesn’t write in a Torah only Shirat Ha’azinu on a column, one writes a bit from above and a bit from below, and so it is also by Shirat HaYam. And there’s a custom which precise pesukim one writes from above and from below.

And after that, Shirat HaYam says the Rambam one writes on thirty lines. The first line one writes kidarka (in its way). That means without any spaces, “az yashir” until “vayomru.” And after that…

Discussion: Why Doesn’t the Order of the Shirot Match the Pesukim?

Speaker 2: One speaks less it matches.

Speaker 1: If you want to talk about the poetry of the songs (shiros), it doesn’t make sense at all, unfortunately. I mean, I don’t understand why the poetry should connect so strongly with the space (revach). I see that there’s a different order (seder), not that I understand it with my intellect (seichel), and my Chumash doesn’t look like that. My Chumash looks according to my intellect, and not according to the tradition (mesorah), not according to the… the Shulchan Aruch and the Sefer Torah that’s written in my Chumash. A beautiful Chumash (Chumash mehudar). Yes, I say that I want Torah study (Torah limud), I want to understand.

But certainly one may, there’s no question. I say this, it’s perhaps simply a hint (remez) for the ba’al korei (Torah reader) that he should remember with what melody (nigun). Yes, there are those who say that all those places that are empty, there one must sing, that there comes a certain melody in the song (shirah), and there one makes a… a part of the embellishments in the manner of reading (ofen hakriah).

I’ve noticed that in Shiras Ha’azinu and in Shiras HaYam. Shiras Ha’azinu I don’t remember.

How Does One Make Shiras HaYam?

Speaker 1: In short, the Rema explains, the first approach (shitah rishonah), how does one make Shiras HaYam? Yes, the first approach is aruchah. The other approaches are, one makes one in the middle, it goes one one, right? The first line one makes in the middle one space (lach), and the other one makes two spaces (lecher), correct? That means, you have a line that has one space in the middle, and you have a line that has two spaces from both sides. It comes out that you have as it were (kiv’yachol) three parts, and it’s space opposite text (revach keneged haketav), and text opposite space (ketav keneged harevach). This is what’s called ariach al gabei levenah. As it were, what ariach al gabei levenah means I don’t know. Ariach means a half, and levenah means a whole, something like that. It’s like you have a line, and under it there is text (ketav), an empty line and under it text, and so on repeatedly (chozer chalilah) until the end of the song. That’s how one makes it.

I’ve noticed that the verses (pesukim) also don’t match. Not every place where there’s an empty place is there also an etnachta or an end of a verse (sof pasuk).

Speaker 2: It’s true that it doesn’t match.

Speaker 1: For example, I don’t remember. Do you understand what I’m saying? Especially not here, here there’s really only one word each time, the beginning and the end. So I don’t know exactly on what the divisions (chalukos) are built. The tradition (mesorah) says that one writes this way. I don’t know what’s the secret of it. A Ben Yochai can perhaps say the secret (sod) of why exactly this way. I don’t understand.

Speaker 2: Do you understand?

Speaker 1: By Shiras Ha’azinu I understand at least two verses. Shiras HaYam is a bit interesting, what is the matter (inyan) of the whole order?

Anyways, what, it looks like two corners of water and in the middle a group of Jews are stretched out.

Speaker 2: Ah, the sea (yam), one sees waves like this, I can hold it back?

Speaker 1: Yes, yes. I don’t know what is the secret of Shiras Ha’azinu and Shiras HaYam. It’s awesomely interesting. But this is the tradition, this is how one writes it now.

Halacha: Letters in a Song — Like a Hair’s Breadth

Speaker 1: Further, the entire Torah, when one writes it in the form of a song (b’ofen shirah), like Shiras HaYam that he mentioned, when one writes it, the letter must be very close to its neighbor (tzrich shetehei os semuchah lachaverta beyoser), the letters should be very close one to the other, but should not touch (aval lo tidbak), but they may not touch, but should not touch, but also not far, so that a word should not appear as two words (kedei shelo tira’eh teivah kishtei teivos), that a word should look like one word, there shouldn’t be extra space. And there should be between letter and letter like a hair’s breadth (veyihiyeh bein os le’os kechut hase’arah), between one letter and another there must be at least like a hair’s breadth. Also not more, exactly like a hair’s breadth. Whatever, a bit more, the point is, it should be close.

Why Is the Rambam So Afraid of This?

Speaker 1: Why is the Rambam so afraid of this? I understand, but the Rambam is very afraid that it should look like two words, that a word should not appear as two words (shelo tira’eh teivah kishtei teivos). I don’t understand why he’s so afraid of this.

Further, the child who is not accustomed (tinok she’eino ragil), who doesn’t know the verses, he can’t notice, he can’t… he won’t know that this is one word. He can read it with errors (te’usim), he will indeed notice and insert the letters differently, and so forth.

Speaker 2: That is, why should he suddenly worry so much about this?

Speaker 1: Do you understand? That means it’s like two… one must be very precise, because on the one hand one must be careful that they shouldn’t touch, because we learned earlier that if they touch it’s invalid (pasul), but they may not look like two words, they may not be too far. It must be exactly so. Interesting, from this comes out the halacha.

Innovation: The Entire Chapter Is “Laws of Spaces”

Speaker 1: Ah, I catch what’s going on here, I catch what’s going on here. One can say this, the chapter is… spaces in the Torah. The space there where you stand, the white letters (osiyos levanos) that the Baal Shem Tov says that this is the higher level. The entire chapter is laws of spaces (hilchos space). Do you catch it? How one places a large space, how one places a space before a song says a certain kind of space, and how one places a space between letters. Very interesting. An entire chapter of laws of spaces. Do you know how much space there is in the Torah? The chapter is about the topic (nusah) of spaces.

And then we said the whole time that this is the letters of the Torah, because the letters of the Torah lie in the letters that don’t stand.

The Chapter as “Laws of Spaces”

Speaker:

The chassid goes here. One can say this, the chapter is the laws of spaces in the Torah. The space there where stand the white letters (osiyos levanos), which the Baal Shem Tov says that this is the higher level.

The entire chapter is laws of spaces. Do you catch it? How one places a large space, how one places a space before a song, this has a certain kind of space, and how one places a space between letters. Very interesting.

The entire chapter is laws of spaces. You know how to space out the Torah is the chapter of the prophet and spaces out. And this is the background of open sections and closed sections (pesuches and sesumos) of the Torah.

The Difficulty in Understanding the Order of Pesuches and Sesumos

Another thing that one doesn’t understand is why, yes, besides what there is. Why, no, why seemingly it would make sense, where there is a break (hefsek) there should be a pesuchah, a larger break seemingly is a pesuchah and a smaller one is a sesumah.

But whoever learns this Rambam sees that it’s very difficult to explain why here it comes this way and there it comes that way. It’s not something that anyone I know understands. There are answers (tirutzim), but it’s difficult to understand.

So, one must know.

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Until here Chapter 8.