Siman 24 - Rules of the Torah Scroll for Public Use

 

NECESSITY THAT A TORAH SCROLL BE PERFECT (se'if 1)

 

Rav Ganzfried explains that a Torah scroll is not fit for use if even one letter is incorrect.  (The only exception is for certain vowels which are sometimes omitted and sometimes included.  In principle, we should disqualify a scroll even for these letters, except for the fact that it is nearly impossible to verify that a scroll lacks even such a minor error.)

 

This exacting attitude towards the words of the Torah scroll has beauty and meaning on many different levels.

 

On the simplest level, respect for the exact words and letters of the Torah connects us personally to the Giver of the Torah.  I once had a landlord who rented out his apartment but left one room locked and unused - the room where his son had lived until he fell in battle.  The father left this room as his son had left it, despite the seeming waste and the lost income.  The reason he did this was not because he attributed any special significance to the order of objects in the room, but merely because the order was that of the son whom he loved.  Likewise, the significance of the order of letters aside, we cherish the order of letters in the Torah because these are the exact letters which we received from the Holy One, blessed be He.  At this level, the precise text is a kind of "memento" connecting us to the unique IDENTITY of God as the Giver of the Torah, quite apart from the message which God transmitted to us.  It establishes a personal, sentimental connection which both testifies to and contributes to our love of HaShem.

 

At a deeper level, our tradition asserts that there IS significance to the exact letters and the exact words of the Torah.  As in a work of art, form and content complement each other.  Let us explain this idea.

 

The revelation to Moshe included the written Torah and the oral Torah.  Whereas the latter is a compendium of laws and rules of conduct, significant because of its content, the written Torah's holiness is immanent not only in its CONTENT but also in its FORM.  Indeed, our sages often infer content from this form, drawing intricate legal and spiritual insights from the exact letters or even the form of the letters of the Torah (1).

 

Finally, our esoteric tradition teaches us that the entire written Torah consists of Divine names (2).  The exact order of the letters comprises various manifestations of Divinity.  As a matter of fact, this ESOTERIC explanation is closely related to the simplistic and sentimental explanation we brought first.  The letters of the Torah are esteemed not only because of the message they may carry but also because they are a DIRECT revelation and manifestation of HaShem's connection to the Jewish people.

 

"AND A LITTLE CHILD WILL LEAD THEM" (YESHAYAHU 11:6) (se'ifim 5-6)

 

The Kitzur mentions that if we are unsure whether a letter is properly formed, we show the letter to a child - one who knows the alphabet, but is not so clever that he can infer it from the context.

 

This custom is in itself a beautiful tribute to innocence, as well as a testimony to humility.  Even after the greatest sages have discussed the matter, in the end they refer the decision to a young child.  I was once present when one of Jerusalem's leading sofrim (scribes) came with a question to one of Jerusalem's leading posekim (halakhic decisors) with a question regarding a certain letter in another scribe's script.  This question, which was difficult enough to climb the ladder of "appeals" from the acquirer of the parchment (himself not an ignoramus) to the scribe to the Rav, was in the end referred to the expert judgment of a six-year-old boy!

 

In addition, the underlying law contains an important lesson.  We may ask, what difference does it make if the letter is indeterminate by itself?  After all, IN CONTEXT we can clearly and unambiguously identify the letter!

 

The problem is that when we rely on context to give meaning to the individual letter in effect we deny the significance of the letter.  Each individual letter in itself becomes superfluous, gaining its importance only from its ability to aid us in reconstructing the text.  But the way of the Torah is to endow the individual with unique value.  The text, after all, exists only by virtue of those letters which it comprises.

 

An ancient tradition connects each Jewish soul with one letter of the written Torah (3).  This association joins the TEXTUAL principle which recognizes the unique importance of each letter with the ETHICAL principle which recognizes the unique importance of each human being.  The halakha insists that "We do not trade one soul for another" (4), and according to this principle, the Torah categorically forbids taking one person's life in order to save the life of another, or even of several other human beings.  Each human being is created in God's image, and it is impossible to reduce this Divine image to a mere calculus of benefit and loss.  

 

This explains halakhic opposition to removing vital organs from patients on the edge of death even when these organs could save the life of a young person who is in need of a transplant.  This principled stand is far from popular, but it is in complete accordance with Jewish values, which refuse to negate the value of a single life, a single soul.  Indeed, our sages tell us that it is exactly for this reason that God originally created the world with only one human being instead of directly creating a community - to tell us that one who sustains a single soul, it is as if he sustained the entire world (5).

 

This insight is really very simple and intuitive.  Every human being naturally shrinks from committing an act of murder, for any reason whatsoever.  However, our simple moral sense can be overwhelmed by our jaded sophistication, which sometimes stifles our inner moral voice in favor of myriad greater social considerations.  Sometimes the simplicity of a young child is needed in order to remind us of the simple fact that society is itself only a collection of individuals, and if we fail to recognize and esteem each individual on his or her own terms, then society itself loses all value and significance.

 

THE NECESSITY FOR ALL FIVE BOOKS (se'ifim 10-11)

 

In se'if 11 the Kitzur explains that if there is a significant tear in the stitching between the parchments, the otherwise fit Torah scroll is disqualified (until it can be restitched).  Paradoxically, in se'if 10 the Kitzur rules that even if there is an actual error in the scroll - surely a more serious lack - if absolutely necessary, we may read from the scroll from a different "chumash" - a different book of the Five Books of Moses than the one with the error.

 

The explanation for this paradox is that there are slight differences between what is considered a completely proper Torah scroll and what is considered an adequate scroll for congregational reading.  In fact, the gemara suggests that it is fundamentally possible to read for the congregation even from a single "chumash" - as long as it is written on parchment according to all the rules of a Torah scroll.  The reason we do not allow this in practice is because it does not befit the dignity of the congregation to read from a chumash (6) - the community should exert themselves and acquire a full sefer Torah.

 

There is no doubt that Moshe received explicit prophecies from HaShem revealing the commandments of the Torah in stages throughout our sojourn in the Sinai desert.  However, there are two opinions in the Talmud as to how these prophecies were transcribed and crystallized into five distinct and precise books.

 

One view says that Moshe completed each book in turn, as the prophecies comprising that book were received - "the Torah was given scroll by scroll."  The other view maintains that Moshe waited until the entire Torah was revealed to him; only then did he undertake to transcribe it - "the Torah was given completely sealed (7)."

 

The best-known commentary on the aggadot of the Talmud, the Maharsha, relates these two views to the two different ways of relating to the Torah.

 

From the point of view of HaShem, and of the perfect scintillating prophecy of Moshe, the Torah is complete, unified and undivided - as HaShem Himself is One.  However, as the laws of the Torah have to find their expression in the fractured, multifarious world of mundane circumstances and human nature, they seem separate and distinct.  Indeed, taken to extremes the acknowledgment of and reconcilement to this variation becomes polytheism, in which different EXPRESSIONS of the One God are mistaken for independent powers.

 

To take a mundane simile, a similar phenomenon exists in art.  Some artists say that they conceive, and even perceive, an entire complex work of art such as a symphony or a novel in one glance or flash of insight - a flash which is afterwards painstakingly transcribed into notes and measures or words and paragraphs.  Moshe Rabbeinu was able to grasp the entire Torah as a single unified flash of God's immanent presence in the world - a presence which afterwards had to be painstakingly translated into hundreds of detailed laws and statutes, together with their oral explanations.

 

We traditionally refer to the entire Torah as having been received "from  Sinai" (8).  This seemingly contradicts BOTH explanations.  Whether the Torah was given scroll by scroll or given in its final form all at once, it was not complete until the very end of our sojourn in the desert - the very end of Moshe's life!  But the traditions do not really contradict.  The revelation to Moshe at Sinai, the glimpse he received into God's ways and His mission for his people, embodied the entire grand vision which afterwards was explicated - by HaShem Himself - as a system of detailed observances.

 

Our sages explain that Moshe's prophecy was different from that of other prophets, as Moshe perceived God's word through a "clear lens" and the other prophets through an unclear lens (9).  Unlike the visions of the other prophets, who were not law-givers, Moshe's vision was clear and focused - he was able to discern the fine details of how God's will would be expressed in human action.

 

Now we have a little more insight into our ruling.  A Torah scroll is fit and complete only if it contains all five books - if it encompasses the entire ambit of the Jewish people's Divine mandate.  Otherwise, it is not "a Torah" but merely "Torah" - not "THE law" but merely "law."

 

However, the congregational reading of Torah is at root public Torah study.  That is why we precede it with the blessing over the Torah, and that is why we are able - with some deviation from the usual practice - to read from the Torah, with blessings, on the night of Simchat Torah.  For this purpose, it is enough to hear the laws and statutes in a context which grasps the vastness of Torah from one particular angle, and it is enough to have one of the Five Books.  

 

However, it does not suit the dignity of the congregation to be satisfied with this possibility.  It might seem that the congregation does not strive to encounter the entire Torah, the entire compass of Divine revelation.  For this reason we do not read from a scroll of a single chumash in the congregation - but we may be lenient if the current chumash is complete even if another book is not perfectly fit.

 

 

Endnotes:

 

(1)  A few examples: Shabbat 115b; Eiruvin 21b; Menachot 29b.

(2)  Introduction of the Ramban's commentary to the Torah, based on the Zohar Yitro (II:87a).

(3)  See Chavot Yair 235, Chatam Sofer Kovetz Teshuvot 52.

(4)  Mishna Trumot 8:12, Tosefta Trumot 7:20; Mishna Ohalot 7:6; Sanhedrin 72b.

(5)  Mishna Sanhedrin 4:5.

(6)  Gittin 60a.

(7)  Gittin 60a.

(8)  Mishna Avot 1:1.

(9)  Yevamot 49b.