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Jul 10, 2011
Interesting Psak: Writing Last Letters Of Sefer Torah
Many organizations have fundraisers through the writing of a sefer torah. They sell each letter for a small amount of money, and they sell sections, parshas, and even an entire chumash for significant amounts of money.
As well, there are also plenty of people who donate a sefer torah to a shul or yeshiva on their own. At other times the raising of money for the writing and dedication of a new sefer torah is done as a community project.
The common denominator is that when the Torah writing is finally completed, a nice party, a hachnassat sefer torah, is generally arranged, and as part of the festivities, the main donors and other important people are honored with writing one of the final letters in the Torah.
There are generally two ways this is done:
As well, there are also plenty of people who donate a sefer torah to a shul or yeshiva on their own. At other times the raising of money for the writing and dedication of a new sefer torah is done as a community project.
The common denominator is that when the Torah writing is finally completed, a nice party, a hachnassat sefer torah, is generally arranged, and as part of the festivities, the main donors and other important people are honored with writing one of the final letters in the Torah.
There are generally two ways this is done:
- the sofer might write the outline of the letters, and the honoree then fills in the letter, thus writing the letter but keeping the handwriting fairly uniform.
- the sofer oversees it, but the honoree actually writes the letter himself. Being that most people are not trained scribes, this often causes a situation where the final psukim of the Torah are sometimes written in a clearly much sloppier fashion than the rest of the Torah. At times, the sofer might erase the psukim after the ceremony and re-write them himself, while at other times it is left as is, while at other times the sofer will go over the letters a second time later with ink so it would be as if he wrote them..
The question was recently asked of Rav Elyashiv about a situation in which someone, a mayor, was honored with writing a letter in the Torah in such a ceremony, with the person being a mechalel shabbos, can the Torah be considered kosher b'dieved?
The Interesting Psak
Rav Elyashiv's response, according to Kikar, was that even b'dieved the Torah is considered passul, invalid, and the entire letter must be erased and written from scratch. It is not enough to just pass over it with some ink.
According to Rav Elyashiv's psak, many sifrei torah might be considered passul, if non-religious (mechalelei shabbos) people were honored with writing letters, unless the sofer was aware and took care of the problem immediately. I don't even know how anybody would even be able to tell by looking at their own shul's sefer torah, and it would require relying on the memory of the gabbai who arranged the ceremony...
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Ok, what's a "mechalel Shabbos"? Someone who intentionally violated last Shabbos? Any Shabbos (ever in his lifetime)? Hasn't ever done teshuva for a Shabbos violation?
ReplyDeleteHow can one be assured that someone is not a mechalel Shabbos? Require a certificate from their rav? Spend a Shabbos with them to verify? Test them on hilchos Shabbos?
What if one is shomer Shabbos d'orisa but mechalel Shabbos medarabbonon? What if one does or does not keep common chumrot or community chumrot? (For example, if one doesn't keep rabbanu tam time in a community that does?)
BTW, not making fun as indeed the halacha is a sofer has to be a kosher ede - so indeed if part of the Torah is written by one who doesn't qualify it's a problem. (So in theory if the sofer refuses to give his wife a get, is addicted to anything [including cigarettes] or anything else that would make him not a kosher witness - then his safrus is not considered kosher.)
Akiva already made a good point, but I question his last assertion. "A sofer has to be a kosher eid." Since when?
ReplyDeleteThere is a mitzvah for each Jewish male to write his own sefer Torah. We won't go into why we mostly don't, and rely on the Rosh, etc. The mitzvah stands. So, if the person writing the sefer Torah does so for the sake of the sanctity of a sefer Torah, the sanctity of Hashem's holy name (where applicable), etc. - he has fulfilled this mitzvah. It is a kosher sefer Torah.
If you want to argue that for another person to rely on him, and use his sefer Torah, that he needs to meet the requirements of a reliable person - okay. But that isn't a halacha of writing a sefer Torah.
Similarly, I'd like to know Rav Elyashiv's rationale (IF he really said what was reported). Forgetting for the moment Akiva's cogent objections (and others like 'tinok shenishba'), does this mean that a person who doesn't keep Shabbat, but believes in the Divinity of
Torah and the commandments can't write a sefer Torah? Does it also mean he can't carry out other mitzvot, or just this one? The whole thing is a bit curious to me.
Mordechai - in halacha, I am sure you know, a mechalel shabbos b'farhesya is considered a rasha, and is not relied upon for anything.. his torah would not be good, nor would wine he touched, etc.
ReplyDeleteI did mean to include in the post, but forgot to, is the discussion, based on the Chazon Ish, of whether today non-frum people, including mechalelei shabbos b'farhesya, have that status of rasha, as almost all are considered tinok she'nishba. It miht not be universally accepted, but is accepted by many that the status of tinok she'nishba applies. This is how most people are able to include non-religious people in a minyan, for example.
if one has the status of tinok she'nishba, rather than mechalel shabbos b'farhesya, perhaps his sefer torah is still ok, at least b'dieved. Or maybe Rav Elyashiv argues on the chazon ish.
Rafi, I think you are mixing and matching issues.
ReplyDeleteThe reliability factor isn't an issue on the kashrut of the sefer Torah. If a Shabbat violator wrote such a sefer, otherwise following all the halachot sincerely - would we say he didn't fulfill the mitzvah of writing a sefer Torah. I argue that is not the case. Maybe I am wrong.
The only question would be the one of 'may others rely on his word that the sefer Torah was written appropriately?' That is answer is - indeed, maybe not.
But when the person writes one letter, having been reminded to write it for the sake of the mitzvah, and he affirms before writing that he is doing so, can we not rely on that? It is entirely possible that we cannot.
And the issue of wine isn't at all the same. The reasoning behind that decree isn't because of reliability. I wouldn't compare those two.
ny "relied upon" I didnt mean that we trust him to say he did it properly. I simply meant that we would accept his writing as being acceptable. I didnt mean any form of eidus.
ReplyDeletea mechalel shabbos bfarhesya is not accepted in many factors - he is a rasha. nowadays we often relate to most of such people as tinok she'nishba instead, perhaps based on theChazon Ish.
I am suggesting that if he were to be considered a tinok she'nishba,, perhaps the psul of writing a letter in the Torah would not apply to him, as he would not be considered a mechalel shabbos bfarhesya (defined as a rasha)..