A Flaw Found in a Torah Scroll - Rabbi Eyal Peled shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You are listening to the “Lema’an Yishme’u” podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 Greetings to all our dear and valued viewers. We’re continuing our series on the laws of Torah reading, and now we’ll discuss cases where there’s an error in a Torah scroll. We’ve spoken about mistakes made by the baal korei; now we’re talking about an error in the writing of the Torah scroll itself. What are we supposed to do when we discover one? This question really has two parts. First, we need to know what counts as an error that invalidates the Torah scroll we’re reading from. Second, what do we actually do when we find one? How do we handle it? Of course, that depends on when it happens, which reading it happens during, and the circumstances. We’ll begin with the second question: how do we proceed if we find an error that invalidates the Torah scroll and we can’t continue reading from it? First, by way of introduction, it’s important to know that there are essentially two approaches. You could say three, but for our purposes, there are two accepted approaches. One is the ruling that was followed until some time ago, based on the Rema and the Ketzos Hashulchan. That was how people ruled until a particular responsum of the Tzemach Tzedek was found. When it came to light, it became clear that the Tzemach Tzedek rules differently on this question. So, in practice, there’s also a disagreement among Chabad rabbis

02:39 Speaker 2 about which ruling to follow. On the one hand, there’s already an established practice of following a particular authority. True, the Ketzos Hashulchan hadn’t seen that responsum, but ultimately, that’s how people had been accustomed to rule. The question is whether we now change the practice we’ve grown used to, which has already become a kind of established halacha for us, or continue with it. Generally, it’s accepted that where the practice has already been to follow the Ketzos Hashulchan, we continue to follow that ruling. But in new shuls, new minyanim, and so on, where no particular ruling has become established, we follow the Tzemach Tzedek’s ruling. So, because of our special regard for it, we’ll start with the Tzemach Tzedek’s approach. What does the Tzemach Tzedek hold in these cases of an error in a Torah scroll? First, let’s discuss a situation where there’s no other Torah scroll. I have only this one. That might be the case in many shluchim’s communities, in remote places or wherever, where there’s just one Torah scroll, and we discover that it’s invalid. What do we do? The Tzemach Tzedek says the following: If the error isn’t in the same book of the Torah that we’re reading from—say we’re now in Shemos, and the error is in Bereishis, Vayikra, or Bamidbar—we take it out from the outset and read from it with the blessings, just as usual. That’s the Tzemach Tzedek’s view. Although the scroll itself is invalid, since the defect is in a different book, he relies on an opinion among the halachic authorities that permits this. So we take out that Torah scroll even from the outset and read from it with the blessings as usual. But if the error is in the same book we’re reading from, what do we

04:41 Speaker 2 do in that case? From the outset, we don’t take out that scroll; we look for another one. But if we’ve already taken out this Torah scroll and it has an error—even if the error is in the very parsha we’re reading—and we have no other scroll to take out, the Tzemach Tzedek says we continue the reading with the blessings as usual. Notice that we’re talking about an invalid Torah scroll. Even though the defect is in the parsha we’re reading, the Tzemach Tzedek says we don’t stop in the middle; we continue the reading with the blessings. There’s just one difference: we don’t call up a separate maftir. We call up seven people, and the seventh is the maftir. When the seventh is the maftir, we don’t say the half-Kaddish before the haftarah. Instead, we say it after the haftarah, after the blessings following the haftarah. The basis of the Tzemach Tzedek’s ruling is that we rely heavily on the Rambam. There’s a certain apparent contradiction between what the Rambam wrote in the Mishneh Torah and what he wrote in his commentary on the Mishnah or in a responsum—there is a responsum of the Rambam on this subject. In any event, the Rambam holds that one may read from an invalid Torah scroll. According to the Rambam’s approach, the requirement for a valid scroll is for fulfilling the mitzvah of writing a Torah scroll: for a person to fulfill that mitzvah, it has to be a valid Torah scroll. But for the public Torah reading, an invalid scroll doesn’t prevent anything. You can still read from it with the blessings; it isn’t an impediment. That is

06:40 Speaker 2 the Rambam’s approach. We don’t follow his ruling from the outset, but the Tzemach Tzedek relies on it very heavily after the fact and in similar circumstances. So the Tzemach Tzedek says that if we have no other scroll and we’re already in the middle of the reading, we continue reading from the invalid scroll. We just don’t call up a separate maftir: there are only seven people called up, the seventh reads the haftarah, and we say the half-Kaddish after the haftarah. All that applies when there’s no other scroll—only this invalid one. If there is another Torah scroll in the shul, and we discover a defect in the one we’re reading from, it depends on when we notice it. The Tzemach Tzedek says that if we discover the defect between one aliyah and the next, it’s simple: we put the Torah scroll back in the Aron Kodesh, take out another scroll, and continue the reading from it. We don’t even need to repeat the verse containing the error. As we said, after the fact we rely on the Rambam: although the scroll is invalid, if we’ve already read from it, we’ve fulfilled our obligation and don’t need to repeat the reading. So we take out another scroll and continue reading from that point as usual. That’s when we notice the error between aliyos. But if we notice it in the middle of an aliyah—someone has been called up to the Torah, and while we’re reading we see that the scroll is invalid—what do we do? The Tzemach Tzedek says that if we’ve already read three verses for him, meaning that it’s possible to

08:42 Speaker 2 stop here, because we’ve already read three verses, and we’re not within three verses of the end of a section or within three verses of the beginning of a section—places where we also can’t stop. If I’ve begun a new section and haven’t yet read three verses, I still can’t stop. Likewise, if I would be stopping fewer than three verses before the end of a section, I can’t stop there. But when I can stop—when we’ve already read three verses with this person called to the Torah, and I can stop there—that’s what we do. We stop the reading, and he recites the concluding blessing over the Torah, over the invalid scroll. Then we replace the Torah scroll, bring another one, call up a new person, and continue the reading from that point on. But what if we haven’t yet read three verses with the person during whose aliyah the error was found, or we’re at a point where, as we said, we can’t stop? What do we do? The Tzemach Tzedek says that we continue reading from the invalid scroll and stop at the first opportunity, as soon as we can. Then we stop, and the person during whose aliyah the error was found recites the concluding blessing over the reading. We replace the Torah scroll, bring a new scroll, and continue the reading from there. So in situations where we can’t stop, we continue reading from the invalid scroll until the first point where we can stop. Then we stop immediately, he recites the concluding blessing, we replace the Torah scroll, and we continue reading. What about a case where we find the error during the seventh aliyah? The Tzemach Tzedek says that if the error is found during the seventh aliyah, we finish the parsha with the seventh person called up. We don’t take out another scroll; we finish

11:03 Speaker 2 the parsha with the person called up for the seventh aliyah, and he recites the blessing at the end. He will also be the maftir. As we said, we’ve already encountered a situation like this, where the person called up for the seventh aliyah is the maftir. I won’t call up another maftir, because, after all, the scroll is invalid. We do read everything with the seventh person and finish the parsha with him, but he will be the maftir. So he recites the haftarah with its blessings, and we say the half Kaddish after the haftarah. As we said, in a case like this, the half Kaddish is said after the haftarah. All this applies to ordinary errors, which we’ll look at and discuss later. But when it’s a very serious error—for example, if two words are missing from the Torah scroll—that’s already a very, very serious error. It can happen; things like that can happen. In a case where two words are missing from a Torah scroll, we follow the Tzemach Tzedek’s ruling as follows: If the person called to the Torah during whose reading the two missing words were found has already read three verses, he stops, recites the blessing, and we replace the Torah scroll, as we said. If he hasn’t yet read three verses, or the error is at a point where he can’t stop—for example, within three verses of the end of a section, as we said—then, unlike before, we don’t continue until a point where we can stop. Instead, we stop immediately, replace the Torah scroll, bring a new Torah scroll, and continue reading from the new scroll. At the end of that person’s aliyah, he recites the concluding blessing over the new scroll, and we continue. That is what we do when the error is as serious as two

13:08 Speaker 2 missing words. If that error occurs during the seventh aliyah—in the previous case, we said we would continue reading with him until the end—in this kind of case, we won’t continue reading with him. So here’s what we do. If we’ve read three verses with him, we stop, he recites the concluding blessing, we replace the Torah scroll, and a new person is called up to continue from there. But if fewer than three verses remain until the end of the parsha, we’ve found the error and see that fewer than three verses remain. Are we going to call up someone new now? What would we read with him, two verses? You’re not allowed to read just two verses. So what do we actually do in this situation? The Tzemach Tzedek says something interesting. First of all, he says this could also happen during the last aliyah on Rosh Chodesh or on a Monday or Thursday, when we’re not allowed to add people to the reading. There too, we use the same solution. The Tzemach Tzedek says that in such a case we read what remains from a Chumash: we open a Chumash and read the remaining verses. As we said, fewer than three verses remain—either two verses or one. We read those verses from a Chumash and recite the blessing. The person called up for the seventh aliyah recites the concluding blessing over the Torah, and we move on to maftir. Of course, what does “maftir” mean here? He recites the haftarah with its blessings. There is no separate maftir in this situation; he recites the haftarah with its blessings, and the half Kaddish is said after the haftarah. That is what happens in cases of errors. Everything we’ve said so far follows the Tzemach Tzedek’s ruling. Now we’ll see what the Ketzos Hashulchan holds. His ruling is essentially based on the Rema; it’s a kind of decision between opinions. There really are many opinions. Anyone who looks at the source of

15:12 Speaker 2 this halachah will see that there are a great many opinions on it. We see that the Mechaber rules completely differently, and there are several approaches. The Rema made a kind of decision between them, and that is also how the Ketzos Hashulchan ultimately rules in practice. So the Ketzos Hashulchan says the following: If there is no other Torah scroll, and you have a Torah scroll that we’ve discovered is invalid, with no other scroll available, then he rules as follows. Unlike what we said earlier, it makes no difference to him where the defect is—whether it’s in the same book of the Torah or not. You don’t take out or read from a Torah scroll like that. But if you’ve already begun reading, discover a defect in the middle of the reading, and there is no other Torah scroll, he rules as follows. Suppose we discover the defect during someone’s aliyah—it doesn’t matter whether it’s the first, second, third, or any other aliyah. If we discover it during the third aliyah or any subsequent aliyah, we complete that person’s aliyah with him. We finish his aliyah using the invalid scroll, but he doesn’t recite the blessing. After we finish his aliyah—say it’s the third aliyah—we finish reading the third aliyah with him, but he doesn’t recite the blessing at the end. Instead, we call up more people, until we have completed seven aliyos. Those people do not recite blessings over the Torah scroll. We read their aliyos without their reciting the blessings. But the person during whose aliyah the error was found—in our example, the person called up for the third aliyah—stays there at the bimah. He listens to the entire Torah reading, intending to fulfill his obligation. He listens without letting his attention wander, hearing the entire reading as it is read with the people called up after him. And at the end, after we finish the

17:18 Speaker 2 For the parsha, there is no maftir. We call up seven people to complete the parsha. In addition, he must not only listen; he must read along with them quietly. In other words, he reads quietly everything read with the subsequent people called up, who, of course, are called up without a blessing. He reads the entire parsha along with them, and at the end he recites the concluding blessing. That is because we effectively attribute the reading to him: he already began the reading. He began the third aliyah with a blessing, so he is the only one who can recite the concluding blessing. He therefore remains standing there while we call up additional people. He reads the entire reading along with them quietly. When we finish reading the parsha, he recites the concluding blessing over the Torah reading, reads the haftarah with its blessings, and we say the half Kaddish after the haftarah. That is what we do when the error is found in the middle of an aliyah from the third aliyah onward. But if the error is found in the middle of the Kohen’s or the Levi’s aliyah, we follow the same procedure we described, with one difference: in that situation, we read the haftarah without a blessing. When the error is found in the Kohen’s or the Levi’s aliyah, we do the same thing. We complete that aliyah and call up the subsequent people, while the Kohen or Levi reads quietly along with the baal korei. We finish the parsha, and he recites the concluding blessing over the Torah reading, but the haftarah is read without a blessing. That is how the Ketzos Hashulchan rules. Now, what if the error that invalidates the Torah scroll is found after the third aliyah, or one of the other aliyos, when the person has already recited the concluding blessing? Until now, we have been discussing an error found in the middle of an aliyah.

19:30 Speaker 2 We discovered it in the middle of the aliyah of the third person called up, or of the Kohen or Levi, as we said. But what happens if we discover the error between aliyos, after the person called up has already recited the concluding blessing for his aliyah? In that situation, the person whose aliyah has just ended does not leave the bimah. We read the entire rest of the parsha with him, without a blessing. We do not call up anyone else. We read the rest of the parsha with that person, without a blessing, and he also reads the haftarah without a blessing. That is what we do in this situation. If the error is found during the seventh aliyah, we complete the parsha with him, and he reads the haftarah with its blessings. If the error is found during the seventh aliyah, we complete his aliyah with him, he recites the concluding blessing, and he reads the haftarah with its blessings. We say the half Kaddish after the haftarah. All of this follows the Ketzos Hashulchan’s approach when there is no other Torah scroll: we have only one, and it turns out to be invalid. What happens when there is another Torah scroll? Here is how we rule. If, immediately after he recites the blessing over the Torah scroll—this ruling also appears to accord with the Tzemach Tzedek—immediately after he recites the blessing, we notice that the Torah scroll is invalid, we take out another Torah scroll and he continues. He does not need to recite the blessing again. We take out another Torah scroll and proceed with the reading from the new scroll, provided he has not diverted his attention or spoken about things unrelated to the reading, and so on.

21:28 Speaker 2 So we take out the new Torah scroll and continue—or, more precisely, begin the reading from the new scroll without his having to recite another blessing first. If we discover the error between one person’s aliyah and the next, we do the same thing. We simply take out a new scroll, return the invalid one to the ark, and continue the reading from that point onward with the blessings and so on. The Ketzos Hashulchan does say that when the error is found between aliyos, it is preferable from that point onward to call up seven people. Say we found the error after the third aliyah, took out a new scroll, and are now continuing with the fourth, fifth, and sixth aliyos. The Ketzos Hashulchan says it is preferable not to do that. Instead, we should divide the remaining reading, from the fourth aliyah to the end, into seven parts and call up seven people to the new scroll. That way, we still have the advantage of seven people being called up to a valid, properly prepared scroll, rather than counting those who were called up to the invalid scroll. He holds that this is preferable from the outset if possible. It is not indispensable, but it is preferable. Now, everything we have discussed up to this point concerns an error found between aliyos. In that case, the ruling is straightforward. The Tzemach Tzedek ruled the same way: we simply bring another scroll and continue the reading from it. What happens if the error is found in the middle of someone’s aliyah—in the aliyah of the person during whose reading we discover the error in the Torah scroll? This could also be during the seventh aliyah or the maftir aliyah. The ruling is as follows. If

23:34 Speaker 2 we have already read three verses with him and can end the aliyah at that point, we stop there, recite the concluding blessing, take out a new Torah scroll, and call up the subsequent people from that point onward. This ruling is also similar to the Tzemach Tzedek’s ruling; there is no difference between them here. The difference arises when we discover the error but have not yet read three verses with him, so we cannot stop the reading there, or when we have read three verses but are at a point where we cannot stop. By the way, it is important to know that there are certain passages in which one cannot stop at all, even if three verses have been read and everything else is in order. These include the passages of the rebuke, the Song at the Sea, the Song of Haazinu, and the forty-two journeys. Perhaps there is another passage where we cannot stop in the middle. So what do we do when we cannot stop? According to the Tzemach Tzedek, as we said, we continue until we reach the earliest point where we can stop. But the Ketzos Hashulchan does not rule that way in this case. He says that if you have not yet read three verses with the person called up and you discover an error in the Torah scroll, or if you cannot stop at that point, you do not continue reading from that scroll. You stop, and that person does not recite the concluding blessing. Instead, you take out a new Torah scroll and continue the reading from it. You do not have to return to the verse containing the error; rather, you continue the reading from that point onward in the new Torah scroll. After completing that person’s aliyah, he recites the concluding blessing. That is the change. That is the difference between the ruling of the Ketzos Hashulchan and

25:34 Speaker 2 The ruling of the Tzemach Tzedek. As we saw, according to the Tzemach Tzedek, we continue reading from the invalid Torah scroll until we reach the first place where we can stop, and then we take out a new scroll. But according to the Ketzos Hashulchan, no: we stop immediately where the defect is found. The person called up does not recite a blessing over that reading. We take out a new scroll, continue the reading from there, and at the end of the aliyah he recites the concluding blessing. After that, we continue in the usual order, as we discussed earlier. The Ketzos Hashulchan says: What if we notice the error after the seventh aliyah? Until now, we’ve been discussing cases that occur during the aliyos, up to and including the seventh. But if we notice the error after the seventh person’s aliyah, then according to the Ketzos Hashulchan, if we have not yet said Kaddish—since we usually say Kaddish after the seventh aliyah—if we have not yet said the half Kaddish and discover that the Torah scroll is invalid, the seventh person reads the haftorah and says Kaddish after reading it. The defect need not have been in the seventh aliyah; it could have been in an earlier aliyah. The point is that we noticed the error only after the seventh aliyah. In that case, if the half Kaddish has not yet been said, the seventh person reads the haftorah and says Kaddish afterward. We do not take out another scroll. Again, if we notice the error after the seventh aliyah, we do not take out another scroll. Rather, the seventh person reads the haftorah with its blessings and then says the half Kaddish. But if he has already said Kaddish—if that seventh person has already said Kaddish—then we call up someone else. He reads three verses from this Torah scroll without a blessing, and then recites the haftorah with its blessings. That is an interesting ruling. I have not gone into why

27:40 Speaker 2 he ruled that way, but that is what he says. He says that if the seventh person has already said Kaddish and we then discover an error in the Torah scroll, we call up another person. He reads three verses without a blessing from what is, in fact, the invalid Torah scroll, and recites the haftorah with its blessings. That is his ruling. If we discover the error during the maftir aliyah—maftir has already been called up, and we discover the error during his aliyah—then he finishes the reading. We do not take out another scroll. He finishes the reading, does not recite the concluding blessing over it, and reads the haftorah with its blessings. So again, if we discover the error during the maftir aliyah, we do not take out a new scroll. Maftir simply finishes the reading; he does not recite the concluding blessing over the Torah reading, but reads the haftorah with its blessings and then says the half Kaddish. Yes, the half Kaddish has already been said. So he simply reads the haftorah with its blessings. That is what we do according to the ruling of the Ketzos Hashulchan. As we said, these are complicated situations, and it is worth reviewing them—especially for someone who is the rabbi of a shul, or who makes halachic rulings. It is worth knowing how to handle situations like these. They can happen, and it is unpleasant to be left standing there, not knowing what to do. So that is more or less a summary of all the situations: how we handle errors in a Torah scroll according to the Ketzos Hashulchan and according to the Tzemach Tzedek. We should just mention that the Sephardic approach, based on the Mechaber, is different. The Mechaber is very stringent. According to the Mechaber, the moment an error is found, we stop immediately. It does not

30:03 Speaker 2 matter what happened or what the circumstances are: we stop immediately, and we cannot recite a blessing over that Torah scroll. We cannot continue with it at all. We stop immediately, take out another scroll, and continue the reading from the new scroll without a blessing until he finishes the reading. That is the Mechaber’s approach. If we find an error in a Torah scroll, we immediately take out another scroll and begin from the verse in which the error occurred. We read three verses from the valid scroll, including the verse in which the error occurred, and the same person recites the concluding blessing. After that, we continue as usual. That is the Mechaber’s approach, following his teacher, Mahari Bei Rav. That is how he rules; he is stringent on this matter. So the Sephardic approach would apparently be the same: they are stringent about errors in a Torah scroll and immediately take out another scroll. You have to go back to the verse in which the error was found, read at least another three verses, recite the blessing, and then continue with the aliyos. We have discussed situations involving an error in a Torah scroll. We have seen that there are several approaches to what we do when we discover an error or defect in a Torah scroll. What is important to know now is which errors require us to take out another Torah scroll and prevent us from continuing to read from the one in which we found the error. There are different kinds of errors in a Torah scroll. We are not studying the laws of STaM here, but these matters have practical implications. At the very least, we will try to cover the more common situations and summarize which errors require us to take out another scroll, and which allow us to continue with the current one. There is also a discussion among the halachic authorities about whether, in a situation where I can continue

32:32 Speaker 2 reading from the current scroll, I am even allowed to take out a new one. It could be a kind of slight to the scroll: if you can continue reading from it, then by taking out another one, you are, as it were, treating this one as invalid. That is why it is important to know which errors require us to take out another scroll and which do not, so that we can continue reading from the current scroll. First of all, there are open sections and closed sections. We will not go into what an open section or a closed section is right now; that is a subject for another class on the laws of STaM. But if a change was made in the Torah scroll—if the scribe made an open section closed, or a closed section open, or inserted a break where there should not be a section break, and so on—then we take out another Torah scroll. That is an error for which we take out another scroll. There are also words in the Torah scroll that have a keri and a kesiv: they are written one way, but we read them another way. If the scribe wrote the keri instead of the kesiv, that is also a problem. For example, just off the top of my head, the word for a young woman is often written without the final hei, but it must be read as na’arah, not na’ar. Suppose the scribe wrote the keri—na’arah, with a hei. In that case, too, the scroll is invalid, and we must take out another Torah scroll. If a word is repeated—if he wrote the same word twice—we take out another scroll. Another situation is when letters touch one another. That, too, is something that can occur. Letters touching one another can happen when

34:37 Speaker 2 The writing—it can also happen afterward, but in general it depends on whether the letters are joined along the entire length of the letter, so that its whole length is attached to another letter, or whether they are joined in a way that changes the letter’s shape. I look at it and it looks like a completely different letter. I can’t recognize the letter at all. The attachment has changed it; it now looks like an entirely different letter. Let me give an example: if a reish becomes attached to a vav, it can turn into something like a tav or a ches. In that case, of course, another Sefer Torah must be brought out. Or if an open mem has become closed, another Sefer Torah must be brought out. There is also a case where the legs of a hei or a kuf touch the top of the letter. Here the Biur Halachah writes that if the contact is only as thin as a hair, he thinks one can be lenient. But the Ketzos Hashulchan, relying also on the Pri Megadim, writes otherwise: even if the leg of the hei or kuf touches the top by no more than a hair’s breadth, I must bring out another Sefer Torah. I cannot continue reading from this one. But if two letters are joined only at the beginning or in the middle of a letter, I also bring out another Sefer Torah. If I have no other Sefer Torah, though, I can continue the reading from this one. So when the attachment is only at the beginning or in the middle of a letter, we bring out another Sefer Torah. But if there is no other Sefer Torah, we can rely on the poskim who do not consider it invalid and continue the reading. Only in that case, the seventh person called up will also be the maftir; there will not be a separate maftir. In a case

36:43 Speaker 2 where the attachment is at the end of the letter, I can say that the letter was originally written properly and only became attached at the end. In that case, we do not bring out another Sefer Torah. If the attachment is only at the end of the letter, I do not bring out another Sefer Torah. If a letter has split in two—the ink there simply dried up, I don’t know what happened, part of it was erased and the letter split in two—then I bring out another Sefer Torah. Even though it was whole when it was written, if it later split in two, I bring out another Sefer Torah. There are also cases where the ink, so to speak, flakes off. If all the ink has flaked off, it is as though the letter was erased, and I bring out another Sefer Torah. But if the ink has not flaked off through its full thickness and a thin layer remains, I do not bring out another Sefer Torah. If all the ink has flaked off and only what is called “rust” remains, a kind of reddish residue, the Chasam Sofer holds that one can be lenient even in that case, but in practice we rule otherwise. If only a trace of that reddish residue remains, we bring out another Sefer Torah. That is also the ruling of the Aruch Hashulchan. If the leg of one of the long, straight letters—such as a nun, a vav, a final nun, a final chaf, and the like—has broken off, it depends on how a child reads it. We need to cover the lower part for him, so to speak, and if he still reads it as a vav, a nun, or a chaf, we do not bring out another Sefer Torah. But if he no longer reads it as that letter and instead reads it as another letter, or if in place of

38:39 Speaker 2 a vav he reads it as a yud, for example, or reads a final nun as a vav, then we do bring out another Sefer Torah. Sometimes there is wax on the letters. I don’t know how that happens, but the poskim discuss wax dripping onto the letters a great deal. Perhaps it could just be dirt as well. In any event, if wax has dripped on a letter but the letter is still recognizable—the wax is a thin, transparent layer and one can read the letter through it—then we read it as it is. Of course, if it happens on a weekday, I remove the wax. But when it happens on Shabbos, I cannot remove it from there. Some hold that this constitutes erasing; others say that it is muktzeh, and so on. So I cannot remove the wax from there; it is also a form of fixing something, and so on. I would not remove it—unless, as one of the poskim writes, and the Shulchan Aruch also brings this, I can scrape from the outside, from the other side, so that the wax falls off. In that way, I can remove the wax even on Shabbos. In any event, if the wax is not thick and the letter is visible through it, I continue the reading and do not bring out another Sefer Torah. But if the wax actually covers the letter and the letter cannot be seen, the Sefer Torah is invalid, and I need to bring out another one. When there are differences in the spelling of words as plene or defective—meaning that a word was written without a letter, a letter is missing, and so on—or the letters were written in a different order, for example, keves was written instead of kesev, or kesev instead of keves, I bring out another Sefer Torah. So, when I have

40:39 Speaker 2 a difference in plene or defective spelling, if the difference affects pronunciation or meaning—pronunciation, for example, as we said, keves or kesev—then keves and kesev do not differ in meaning. We know we are talking about a lamb, whether we call it keves or kesev; the meaning is the same. But the pronunciation is different. Keves is pronounced keves, and kesev is pronounced kesev. Those are two different pronunciations, so I bring out another Sefer Torah. The same applies if there is a change in meaning even though the pronunciation does not change. For example, if instead of “venimtzeh damo” with a hei, it says “venimtza” with—sorry, instead of “venimtzeh damo” with a hei, it says “venimtza damo” with an alef. Although there is no difference in pronunciation and I pronounce both “venimtza,” there is a difference in meaning, so I bring out another Sefer Torah. But if the plene or defective spelling involves only one of the letters alef, hei, vav, or yud used as a vowel letter, rather than as part of the root of the word—for example, “avoseinu” written without a vav—then according to the Rema, there is no need to bring out another Sefer Torah. That is the Rema’s position and ruling: when the missing letter is an alef, hei, vav, or yud serving as a vowel letter, I do not need to bring out another Sefer Torah. But the Mechaber is stringent. He maintains that even with such a missing letter, I would need to bring out another Sefer Torah. And although this would seem to be a dispute between Sephardim and Ashkenazim, it is noted that many leading Ashkenazi authorities took the Mechaber’s position into account. Among them is the Shevet Halevi, who agreed with the Mechaber and held that one should be stringent even when the missing letter is an alef, hei, vav, or yud and it changes neither the meaning nor the pronunciation. Even so, the Shevet Halevi takes the Mechaber’s view into account and holds that another Sefer Torah must be brought

42:42 Speaker 2 out. I think the Shulchan Hatahor also takes the Mechaber’s view into account. So we have to bear that stringency in mind. If I find a doubled letter or word in a Sefer Torah, it depends. If a word is doubled, I bring out another Sefer Torah. But with a letter, it depends on where the extra or doubled letter is. If it is at the beginning or end of the word, so that I could erase it and the word would be correct and readable, it does not invalidate the Sefer Torah, and we do not bring out another one. But if the letter is in the middle of the word, so that erasing it would simply split the word in two, I do bring out another Sefer Torah. Now, sometimes letters in a Sefer Torah extend, apparently, beyond the line. They go outside the line. That does not invalidate the Sefer Torah; one does not have to bring out another one in such a case. But if the letters are part of Hashem’s Name, there is a distinction. If the entire Name is outside the line, that is all right. I mean the Name itself, not letters attached to it, as in “leElokeinu” or something like that. If all the letters of the Name “Elokeinu” extend beyond the line, that is still all right; there is no need to bring out another Sefer Torah. But if only part of Hashem’s Name extends beyond the line, that is more serious, and in that case we bring out another Sefer Torah. Now let’s talk a little about changes in the shapes of letters. What kind of change in a letter’s shape requires me to bring out another Sefer Torah? Let’s start with the letter beis. A beis is supposed to be square. If it was written rounded at the top, we do not bring out another Sefer Torah, because at the bottom it is still

44:44 Speaker 2 It should be square and have a sort of heel at the bottom. But as long as it is square at the bottom, even if it is rounded at the top, we do not take out another Torah scroll. If it is rounded at the bottom as well, then of course it does not have that heel; or if it has an obtuse angle, it is invalid, and in that case we take out another scroll. The same applies if the letter beis is very narrow, no wider than the thickness of the quill. In that case we take out another scroll. It already resembles a nun, and we do not accept it. We take out another Torah scroll in such a case. The letter hei: it has the part that looks like a reish, and then the separate stroke inside. That stroke needs to be at least the size of a yud. If it is smaller than a yud—what is called a small letter—then although that is not good, I do not take out another scroll for that. If that stroke is smaller than a yud, I do not take out another Torah scroll. Now, that stroke is supposed to be toward the end, so to speak, right? There is the horizontal line of the hei, the vertical line, and the separate stroke that stands at the end of the letter, opposite the end of the roof. What happens if that stroke is in the middle of the hei? As long as it is right in the middle, that does not invalidate it. We do not take out another scroll. But if it is farther to the right, getting close to the beginning of the letter, it is invalid, and in that case I need to take out another Torah scroll. With a yud, there is what is called Rabbeinu Tam’s point. A yud has an upper point and a lower point; Rabbeinu Tam’s point is the lower one, which protrudes from the yud. If that point is missing,

46:39 Speaker 2 although it is a very serious problem, the halachic authorities write that we do not take out another scroll in such a case. So if I see a yud in a Torah scroll without Rabbeinu Tam’s point, that does not cause me to take out another Torah scroll. The letter chof needs to be rounded. If it is square at the top but rounded at the bottom, I do not take out another Torah scroll. It is still rounded at the bottom, and it is still recognizable as a chof and not a beis. If it is the other way around—square at the bottom and rounded at the top—there is a difference of opinion. In that case, each person should act according to his understanding. But when the chof is as we described, it is a matter of dispute. Yes. If it is square both at the top and at the bottom, another scroll must be taken out, because it is no longer a chof; it is a beis. Asking a child does not help here either, because a child is not familiar with the chof used in scribal writing, so he will call it a chof in any case. At any rate, when the chof is square both at the top and at the bottom, I need to take out another Torah scroll. The letter lamed has a roof—the long stroke that runs from top to bottom. At the top of that stroke, it has a sort of projection to the left. That is the projection of the lamed that makes the upper part look somewhat like a vov. Now, if I have a lamed with only

48:43 Speaker 2 a straight stroke, without that projection at the top of the letter, this too is a case where I may not have to take out another scroll. Actually, there is a difference of opinion about this case. Some say that another scroll must be taken out, and others say that we do not take out another scroll for it. So it is a matter of dispute. In such cases, each person can, as appropriate, rely on one opinion or the other. A reish with an angle at the top: a reish is supposed to be rounded. If it has an angle at the top, we ask a child. If he still reads it as a reish—and presumably he will—that is fine, and there is no need to take out another scroll. A shin with a wide base: the base of a shin is supposed to taper off and end in something like a point, narrowing like a triangle. But if the shin has a wide base, then although that is not good, we do not take out another Torah scroll for such a defect either. A tov whose left leg is positioned opposite the middle of the roof: we do not take out another scroll. It is similar to the hei. If it is opposite the middle of the roof, we do not take out another scroll, but if it is farther to the right, it is invalid and we take out another Torah scroll. As for the tagin, the ornamental strokes on the letters, there are letters that need them, such as Shatnez Gatz and Bedek Chayah. The tagin are supposed to be separate. There are three of them, each in its own place. But if they are joined at the bottom, forming something like a shin, or if they touch one another, we do not take out another Torah scroll for that. If tagin are missing—

50:40 Speaker 2 the tagin of Shatnez Gatz—there is a difference of opinion about whether another scroll must be taken out, so here too each person should act according to his understanding. But if the tagin of Bedek Chayah are missing, everyone agrees that this does not invalidate the scroll, and we do not take out another one. There are other defects that are not necessarily in the letters, but in the scroll itself. For example, if the stitches between one sheet and the next have torn. The halachah says that if the stitches have torn, even if most of them have torn, as long as five stitches remain intact and the join is still secure with those five stitches, we do not take out another scroll. Usually there are twelve stitches joining one sheet to the next. So if seven of the twelve stitches have come undone and five remain intact, we still do not take out another scroll. But if fewer than five stitches remain, some still want to say that if the sheets are nevertheless firmly joined, it is acceptable. Generally, though, once that many stitches have come out, we need to take out another scroll; this scroll is invalid. If a sheet of the Torah scroll has torn, then it depends: if the tear is only in the blank margin and has not reached the letters, we do not take out another scroll. But if it has reached the area of the letters, even if it has not torn the letters themselves and has only gone between them, we take out another scroll. If, however, the tear is between one sheet and the next, but extends so far that it runs alongside three lines of writing, then even though it is between the sheets, the tear is so deep that it extends the length of three lines of text. That too is invalid, and we need to take out

52:43 Speaker 2 another Torah scroll for such a defect.