Menachos 30
Summary
- A sponsored learning begins on *Menachot* daf 30 at the word אידך, and it proceeds through a series of rulings and *baraitot* about how a *sefer Torah* is finished, how the final eight *pesukim* are read, and the relative value of buying versus writing a *sefer Torah*. It then brings detailed scribal standards for constructing *yeriot*, columns, margins, spacing between lines, words, and letters, and how to handle words that do not fit at line ends. It records a major dispute about what to do when a scribe omitted Hashem’s Name, presents differing *halachic* conclusions and the reason the rulings are not stated explicitly in the names of the *tannaim*, and then examines רבי חנינא’s statement that the *halacha* follows רבי שמעון שזורי and that this is true in every place he is taught, repeatedly testing which case that rule refers to until concluding with later attributions to Rav Pappa and Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak and pausing for continuation.
- A sponsorship is stated לעילוי נשמת מרים שרה בת יעקב משה, with a wish that her נשמה should have an עלייה. A prior statement of Rav Yosef is framed as containing two points contradicted by a *baraita*, and the text moves to the second point beginning with אידך.
- A statement of Rav says that one who writes a *sefer Torah* and comes to finish it may finish even באמצע הדף, with דף explained as a column. A *baraita* challenges this and says that one who comes to finish a *sefer Torah* may not finish באמצע הדף in the way one finishes *chumashim*, and instead he shortens and continues until the end of the column. The *gemara* answers that Rav’s statement is about *chumashim*, understood as a separate scroll containing one *chumash*.
- The *gemara* asks how Rav could be speaking about *chumashim* if he said *sefer Torah*, and it answers that he means the *chumashim* of the *sefer Torah*, so *Bereishit*, *Shemot*, *Vayikra*, and *Bamidbar* may end in the middle of a column but not the last one, *Devarim*. The *gemara* challenges this from רבי יהושע בר אבא בשם Rav Gidel בשם Rav, who says that דלעיני כל ישראל may be finished באמצע הדף. The answer is that this was said about באמצע שיטה, the middle of a line, not the middle of a column, with further views recorded and the conclusion והלכתא that it is באמצע שיטה דוקא.
- רבי יהושע בר אבא אמר Rav Gidel אמר Rav rules that שמונה פסוקים שבתורה are read in the synagogue by a יחיד, meaning they are not split into two *aliyot* and must be read by one *oleh*. The *gemara* states that this does not follow רבי שמעון and brings a *baraita* about how the Torah could include וימת שם משה, with רבי יהודה (and some say רבי נחמיה) saying that Moshe wrote until that point and Yehoshua bin Nun wrote from there. רבי שמעון rejects the idea that a *sefer Torah* is missing even one letter and cites לקוח את ספר התורה הזה ושמתם אותו וגו׳, and he explains that until that point הקדוש ברוך הוא אומר ומשה אומר וכותב, while from there הקדוש ברוך הוא אומר and Moshe כותב בדמע, supported by the model of Baruch writing words from Yirmiyahu without repeating them while writing. The *gemara* concludes that the rule of a יחיד reading the last eight *pesukim* can fit even רבי שמעון because they were written in a different manner, expressed as הואיל ושינו שינו.
- רבי יהושע בר אבא אמר Rav Gidel אמר Rav teaches that one who buys a *sefer Torah* מן השוק is like one who grabs a *mitzvah* from the marketplace, while one who writes it is treated by the verse as though he received it from Har Sinai. Rav Sheshet adds that if one corrects even one letter, it is as if he wrote the entire *sefer Torah*, and this is connected to leaving a final portion for someone to fill in a letter.
- A *sefer Torah* is described as made of multiple pieces of parchment sewn together, called a יריעה, with common vernacular קלף. Before writing, שרטוט is required, including horizontal lines and vertical divisions setting writing areas and margins. The material is presented as subject to major discussion among the Rishonim and Poskim and as detailed and potentially confusing, with an intention to translate and give a basic explanation.
- A *baraita* teaches that a person makes a יריעה that is between three and eight דפים, with fewer or more prohibited. Too many columns are avoided because it appears like an אגרת, and too few are avoided because the eyes wander when reading very long lines. A standard is given that a line’s length should not exceed three occurrences of the word למשפחותיכם.
- If a יריעה could fit nine columns, it is not divided into three and six but into four and five for beauty. The *baraita* limits the standard rules to the beginning and end of the *sefer Torah*, and at the end it allows פסוק אחד אפילו דף אחד, which the *gemara* corrects to mean פסוק אחד בדף אחד.
- The *baraita* sets margins for a *sefer Torah* as a bottom margin of a טפח, a top margin of three אצבעות, and a gap between columns of two אצבעות. For *chumashim*, it sets a bottom margin of three אצבעות, a top margin of two אצבעות, and a gap between columns of a thumb. It requires spacing between lines of כמלא שיטה, between words of כמלא אות קטנה, and between letters of כמלא חוט השערה.
- The *baraita* rules that one should not make the writing smaller due to the lower margin or the upper margin, and not due to spacing between lines or between paragraphs. It allows writing somewhat into those spaces rather than distorting the script size.
- If a five-letter word reaches a line end and does not fit, the scribe does not write two letters inside the column and three outside, but writes three inside and two outside. If a two-letter word does not fit, he does not place it between columns and instead returns and writes it at the beginning of the next line, even though partial letters of a longer word may extend.
- A dispute is presented about one who errs regarding Hashem’s Name by forgetting to write it and continuing. רבי יהודה says he scrapes what he wrote, suspends the scraped word by writing it between the lines, and writes Hashem’s Name on the scraped place because it is not proper to suspend Hashem’s Name. רבי יוסי allows suspending Hashem’s Name, and רבי יצחק allows wiping wet ink and writing. רבי שמעון שזורי says the entire Name may be suspended but part of it may not, while רבי שמעון בן אלעזר משום רבי מאיר forbids writing the Name on a scraped or wiped place and forbids suspending it, requiring the entire יריעה to be removed and placed in genizah and rewritten.
- Rav Chananel בשם Rav rules הלכה תולין את השם, while Rav bar Chana בשם רבי יצחק בר שמואל rules הלכה מוחק וכותב. The *gemara* asks why each did not simply say the *halacha* follows the corresponding *tanna*, and it answers משום דאפכי להו, because the attributions of the opinions are sometimes switched.
- Ravin bar Chanina quotes Ulla quoting רבי חנינא that the *halacha* follows רבי שמעון שזורי, and not only that but every place where רבי שמעון שזורי teaches, the *halacha* follows him. The *gemara* asks which case this statement refers to and rejects applying it to the omitted-Name case because earlier *amoraic* rulings are already stated there and רבי חנינא is not listed among them.
- The *gemara* suggests the referent may be the case of בן פקועה, where a fetus found alive after the mother is slaughtered is sometimes permitted without its own *shechitah*, and it states that רבי שמעון שזורי is lenient even if it is five years old and plowing, because its mother’s slaughter purifies it. The *gemara* rejects this because זעירי said in the name of רבי חנינא that the *halacha* follows רבי שמעון שזורי there, and the earlier multi-quoted statement would have included that context explicitly.
- The *gemara* suggests the referent may be a *get* case in which originally a man going out in chains to be executed who says כתבו גט לאשתי is treated as authorizing writing and giving, and later this is extended to one leaving by sea or caravan, with רבי שמעון שזורי extending it further to אף המסוכן. This is presented as relying on the understanding that a preoccupied or endangered person who says “write” intends “write and give.”
- Another suggested referent involves *demai* produce from an עם הארץ where *maasrot* may not have been separated, and a special leniency due to Oneg Shabbat is described as allowing asking the עם הארץ whether *maaser* was separated. A case is then described where *maasrot* were separated and תרומת מעשר fell back in without enough to nullify it, creating loss if treated as *terumah*, and רבי שמעון שזורי is lenient to ask the עם הארץ and rely on his word even during the week, stated as אף בחול שואלו ואוכל על פיו. The *gemara* rejects this as the referent because רבי יוחנן already rules הלכה כרבי שמעון שזורי במסוכן ותרומת מעשר של דמאי.
- The *gemara* proposes that the referent is the ruling of רבי יוסי בן כיפר משום רבי שמעון שזורי about פול המצרי planted for seed, where some took root before Rosh Hashanah and some after, making two different years of *maaser* and forbidding separating from one for the other. The solution is to pile everything together in the גורן so that taking *terumah* and *maaser* results in taking new for new and old for old within the mixture. The *gemara* rejects this as the referent because Rav Shmuel bar Nachmani אמר רבי יוחנן already rules the *halacha* like רבי שמעון שזורי there.
- Rav Pappa says the statement is about אשידה, while Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak says it is about wine. The text stops with an intention to continue the explanation the next day.
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