Menachos 30 - Cycle 14
Summary
- Today's *shiur* on Menachos *daf* 30 begins on 29b with Rav Yosef citing two halachos of Rav about a *Sefer Torah*, one about how many mistakes per page still allow correction and one about where the Torah may be finished on the final lines, and the *Gemara* tests these rulings against *beraisos* and resolves the contradictions by distinguishing between missing versus extra letters and between finishing a full *Sefer Torah* versus *chumashim*. The *sugya* then treats the last eight *pesukim* of the Torah and why a *yachid* reads them, ties this to the dispute whether Moshe wrote them or Yehoshua did, and explains “Moshe writes *bedema*” with multiple approaches brought by *Rishonim* and later *meforshim*. The *Gemara* continues with the mitzvah of writing a *Sefer Torah*, including the status of buying one from the marketplace and the significance of correcting even one letter, and then shifts to technical halachos of parchment layout, margins, spacing, and how to fix errors involving writing the Divine Name. It concludes with statements that the halacha follows Rabbi Shimon Shezuri and a lengthy clarification that this rule is not being applied to the earlier cases suggested, while several other tractates’ cases are raised and rejected as the intended referent.
- A Sefer Torah with two mistakes on each page is corrected, and with three mistakes on each page it is placed in *genizah*, but a *beraisa* challenges this and rules that three mistakes per page is corrected and only four mistakes per page requires *genizah*. A further *beraisa* rules that if there is one complete page it saves the entire Sefer Torah and it is corrected, and Rav Yitzchak bar Shmuel bar Marta in the name of Rav limits this to a case where most of the Sefer Torah is properly written. Abaye asks whether the saving page may contain three mistakes, and Rav Yosef answers that since the Sefer Torah is found fixable it is corrected and that page saves the rest. Rav Yosef further limits the strict threshold of too many mistakes to missing letters, while extra letters are not treated as a problem to the same degree, and Rav Kahana explains that missing letters make the scroll look *menumar*.
- Agra, the father-in-law of Rav Abba, has extra letters in his Sefer Torah and asks Rav Abba if it can be corrected. Rav Abba rules that the earlier restriction is only for missing letters and that extra letters are not a significant obstacle and the scroll can be corrected.
- Rav rules that one writing a Sefer Torah may finish even in the middle of a page, but a *beraisa* challenges this and requires shortening until the end of the page so that “*le’einei kol Yisrael*” is written at the end. The *Gemara* answers that Rav refers to *chumashim*, and then refines the answer in light of Rav Gidel in the name of Rav that “*le’einei kol Yisrael*” may be in the middle of a page by explaining it as the middle of a line while still being at the end of the page. The *Gemara* records a dispute, with the halacha concluding that it is in the middle of a line but not the middle of a page and must be at the end of a page. Bnei Yissaschar explains the wording link between “*le’einei kol Yisrael*” at the end of the Torah and “*vayomer eilav le’einei kol Yisrael chazak ve’ematz*,” and he teaches that Torah is never “finished” because one is always in the middle of a line with more Torah to learn, which matches the practice not to end those words at the end of a line.
- Rav teaches that the last eight *pesukim* of the Torah are read in shul by a *yachid*, and multiple explanations are given, including that in earlier times the *oleh* read himself until later practice instituted a *baal korei*, and that the last eight *pesukim* may be treated as a distinct unit in different ways. The Rambam explains that “*yachid korei osan*” means they may be read even without a *minyan*. The Mordechai explains that the *yachid* is a renowned *talmid chacham*, and this becomes the basis for the *minhag* that these *pesukim* are read for Chasan Torah on Simchas Torah by a great *talmid chacham* to avoid any denigration of their *chashivus*. The *Gemara* says this does not follow Rabbi Shimon, because Rabbi Yehuda (and some say Rabbi Nechemya) holds Moshe wrote until there and Yehoshua wrote the last eight *pesukim*, while Rabbi Shimon insists Moshe wrote the entire Torah and explains that until there Hashem speaks and Moshe speaks and writes, and from there Hashem speaks and Moshe writes *bedema*.
- The simple explanation is that Moshe writes with tears because he is in pain at hearing of his death. Halachic implications are brought about whether a scribe must verbalize each word when writing from dictation or copying, with the *sefer terumah* and others distinguishing between copying and dictation, the Mishnah Berurah requiring verbalization when the words are not known, and the Bach asserting that pronouncing the words is what gives a Sefer Torah its *kedushah* so the words should always be said. Rashi explains Moshe cannot pronounce the words because he is crying, and the Ritva in Bava Basra defines *bedema* as writing not with ink but with tears. The Gra and Chasam Sofer explain that the Torah was originally a series of letters and Moshe divided them into words, but for the last eight *pesukim* Hashem tells him to write the letters in a mixed way, with *dema* meaning mixture, and Yehoshua later divides them into words so Moshe wrote the letters while Yehoshua finalized the word divisions. Tiferes Shlomo says Moshe cries because writing “*veha’ish Moshe anav me’od mikol ha’adam*” about his own humility disturbs him, and Machsheves Avraham says Moshe cries because leadership passes to Yehoshua and he loses the position of leading *Klal Yisrael*. Rav Chaim Kanievsky answers the question of Moshe taking twelve steps on Shabbos by noting Moshe’s great height, and the question of writing on Shabbos is addressed by the approach that writing *bedema* is not a full act of writing.
- A precedent is cited from the verse “*vayomer lahem Baruch mipiv yikra elai es kol hadevarim ha’eileh… va’ani kosev al hasefer b’dyo*” that writing involves dictation and verbal formulation. The *Gemara* says that even according to Rabbi Shimon, the last eight *pesukim* remain different because “*ho’il ve’ishtani ishtani*,” so their special reading halachos still make sense.
- Rav teaches that one who buys a Sefer Torah from the marketplace is like one who snatches a mitzvah from the marketplace, while one who writes it or has it written is considered as if he received it from Sinai. Rav Sheshes teaches that one who corrects even one letter is considered as if he wrote it, and the Rosh in Sanhedrin is cited that even if one inherited a Sefer Torah there remains a mitzvah to write one’s own, though the Rosh says this applies when people learned from Sifrei Torah and that in later times buying and producing printed sefarim fulfills the idea of the mitzvah. Ritva suggests that for completing letters the best words to fill in are “תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה קהלת יעקב,” and Rav Elyashiv is cited as preferring to fill in a *yud* because a flawed *yud* can invalidate and be confused with a samech. The idea is added that the mitzvah is connected to owning the Sefer Torah, leading to a practice of lending the Sefer Torah to the shul while retaining ownership, and a question is raised about whether the mitzvah applies to women with a practical difference for ownership retention.
- A *beraisa* teaches that one makes a *yeriah* of three to eight columns, not fewer and not more, because too few looks cramped and too many risks tearing during *hagbah* and looks like a letter. The standard column width is measured by writing “למשפחותיכם” three times across, and if one has a nine-column sheet it is divided four and five rather than three and six. This applies at the beginning and middle of a Sefer Torah, but at the end one may write even a single *pasuk* on the last page and even a single page, which is clarified as a single *pasuk* on a single narrow column with one word per line. Rav Meir Shapiro in *Or HaMeir* applies this to *Daf Yomi* and rules that even if the last *daf* of a *masechta* has only a small amount, learning that amount is still considered learning a *daf*.
- The *beraisa* sets margins for a Sefer Torah as one *tefach* at the bottom, three fingerbreadths at the top, and between columns two fingerbreadths, while for *chumashim* the margins are smaller. The spacing between lines is a full line’s height, between words is a small letter’s width, and between letters is a hair’s breadth, and *Divrei Chaim* notes that the older large spacing was once considered beautiful but that contemporary writing aesthetics differ. The text warns not to make the script too small merely to achieve the required margins and spacing, including spacing between *parshiyos pesuchos* and *sesumos*. Rules are given for not pushing too much of a word beyond the margin, requiring at least three letters inside and no more than two outside, and for a two-letter word to be rewritten at the start of the next line rather than thrown between columns.
- If one errs regarding the Divine Name, Rabbi Yehuda requires scraping what was written and inserting the Name, with the scraped word then suspended between lines, while Rabbi Yosi allows suspending the Name as well. Rabbi Yitzchak allows erasing and writing over the erased area, Rabbi Shimon Shezuri allows suspending the entire Name but not part of it, and Rabbi Shimon Elazar in the name of Rabbi Meir forbids writing the Name on scraped or erased areas and forbids suspending it, requiring removal and *genizah* of the entire *yeriah*. Rav Chana in the name of Rav rules “*halacha tolin es Hashem*,” while Rabba bar Rav Chana in the name of Rabbi Yitzchak bar Shmuel rules “*halacha mochek v’kosev*,” and the *Gemara* explains the rulings are phrased as halacha statements because the attributions of the views were reversed by some transmitters.
- Rabba bar bar Chana says in the name of Ulla and Rabbi Chanina that the halacha is like Rabbi Shimon Shezuri and that wherever he rules the halacha follows him, and the *Gemara* challenges what case this statement refers to. The *Gemara* rejects that it refers to the suspended Divine Name dispute because other amoraic halacha statements already frame the issue differently. The *Gemara* then considers and rejects that it refers to the case of *ben pekuah* in Chullin 74b, the case in Gittin of one who says “*kisvu get l’ishti*” in danger including *hamefuresh* and *hamisukan*, and the case in Demai about asking an *am ha’aretz* on Shabbos and Rabbi Shimon Shezuri’s extension to weekdays, because each would have required the statement to be reported alongside other known halacha attributions. The *Gemara* further considers the case of Egyptian beans planted for seed where part took root before Rosh Hashanah and part after, requiring mixing in a threshing floor so tithes are taken proportionally from old on old and new on new, and it rejects this as well on the same reporting-structure grounds, leaving the statement unresolved within the provided continuation.
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