Ep. 29 - Laws of Invalid Torah (Siman 24)

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Living Jewishly Podcast.

00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back. Welcome back, my dear friends, good Sunday morning. I hope everyone has a Shavua Tov, an excellent, fabulous, fantastic week. This week we're going to learn Simen Chof Dalet, the 24th chapter in the Kitzah Shochon Orch, and we're going to learn the laws of an invalid Torah scroll. So last week we talked about all the laws regarding the reading from the Sefer Torah, from the Torah scroll.

00:35
But now what happens if a Torah scroll is invalid? So, number one if an absolute error is found in a Torah scroll, it is invalidated, put aside and another Torah scroll is used. So what is an invalidation? An absolute invalidation. It's page 270. In the Art Scroll, ketz Hashanah, page 270, and you're welcome to follow along. We have a summary that I've written out that you can enjoy. For those of you who are online, you can look at any of the previous episodes. Click on that fabulous link and download chapter 24. Okay, an absolute invalidation includes the following An extra letter, so just a random extra letter that was added to the scroll.

01:30
A missing letter, a switched letter. Now, there are two different types of switched letters A switched letter that changes the reading, even if the meaning remains the same, or a switched letter that changes the reading. Okay, so it changes the reading or changes the meaning of the word. Either of those invalidate, they're considered an absolute invalidation. A missing essential letter of a word, like a missing yud in the word tira, right, al-tira, avraham. So the yud is an essential letter. So if it's missing that yud, it would be also invalid.

02:12
A letter was split in two or two letters so close together that they look like one letter. So if one word was split into two, so it's, let's say, vayomer and it's the Vav Yud, and then a space, and then Aleph Mem Resh, so it's really one word but it has a space between them. Or if there are two letters that are so close together, it looks like one letter, right, and it looks like one letter to a child. What does that mean? It looks like one letter to a child. It looks like one letter to a child. What does that mean? It looks like one letter to a child. We will see shortly in which situations we call a child to look at the Torah and discern what letter is this, because we know the context, so we know what letter it should be. But the child will just see the letter for what it is and be able to identify it or not be able to identify it, and then it would be rendered an invalid Torah scroll.

03:10
An extra word is found or a word is doubled, so there's just a random word that's added in, or if it's a word that's written twice, a closed portion was open or an open portion was closed, and we know that means every portion has a certain amount of letters before the next portion begins. Some portions have a new line, some portions have no break at all. It's just like an extra letter space and it continues Like between the portion of miketz. Between those two portions there's no separation, just a word that moves on like another word, but where it's supposed to be open, it's closed, or where it's supposed to be closed, it's open. That's also invalidating. Additionally, a space was added where it wasn't warranted. Okay, so now we know, between each of the four of the five books of the Torah that we have, between Genesis and Exodus, between Exodus and Leviticus, between Leviticus and Numbers, exodus and Leviticus, between Leviticus and Numbers and between Numbers and Deuteronomy, there's always four lines separating between them. Okay, what's if there's four lines just between a random verse, one and the other? That would be invalidating. So if the mistake of the switched letters does not change the reading or meaning.

04:46
A replacement Torah is not needed, since such mistakes are not guaranteed to be corrected in the replacement Torah. Okay, so I made a little error there in my typing it out, but there are certain mistakes that don't change the meaning, don't change the reading. We don't know. There's no guarantee that in the replacement Torah it's going to be better. So therefore, now, again today, you have to understand. Today we're 2025, we have unbelievable technology which is used for this specific matter.

05:29
Almost every single Torah scroll that you will find goes through a computer scan. It goes through a scan with OCR, with optical character recognition, where it will identify every single letter. It'll tell you if it is indeed including every letter that needs to be there or if there's any letter missing, if there's any letter duplicated. The computer will identify every mistake. It knows exactly what letters are supposed to be there and those are the only letters that are there. Another thing is that there used to be.

06:11
You know how is a Torah scroll written. How is a Torah scroll written? A Torah scroll is written by a scribe. A scribe needs to be a righteous, pious Jew, and they're only allowed to be doing one thing they can't be listening to heavy metal. They can't be listening. They have to be focused on their writing. How do they write? They write from an existing kosher scroll. They can't be writing just by heart, by memory. They must be writing it from an existing. So they have another scroll there. They're reading letter for letter and writing it out.

06:49
Sometimes that can result by mistake, in writing a duplicate word. You didn't realize that you wrote Vayomer and you wrote Vayomer, vayomer. You wrote it twice. That would invalidate the scroll. Now, sometimes you don't realize it. So you're reading the Torah portion in synagogue after the Torah scroll was already dedicated. The Torah scroll is already in use, and suddenly you realize there's an extra letter. These are things that are important to be evaluated in advance to ensure that such mistakes are not present.

07:28
Now two letters that look attached, and it seems the attachment came about after the scroll was written. It is kosher, provided that the letters have not changed form. So, for example, I'll give two examples here that the halacha brings. However, if it seems that it became connected at the time of writing like a final nun, you know how a final nun goes. It's a long letter, it's a straight line down that was touched by the previous letter, tav, which has an extension out of its leg. You know how the tav looks. So that means the tav was written properly and then the nun was written on top of it. Okay, so the tav protrudes leftward. This is invalid and may not be used until it is repaired during the weekday.

08:24
So we have to understand that on Shabbat we are not allowed to correct a Torah scroll. We are not allowed to make any adjustments to the scroll on Shabbos Can't erase. It's a biblical prohibition, one of the 39 fundamental prohibitions of Shabbat. You're not allowed to edit or correct or erase a letter, a word in a Torah. You can't write on Shabbat either. So what happens if it's on Shabbat? You cannot make these corrections on Shabbat. It needs to be done during the weekday. Now if the letter after the Tav was a Vav, so it's not a long line down, it's a shorter line down, which is straight but not long.

09:14
It is assumed that the damage occurred after the Torah was written and it is rendered kosher and a replacement is not needed. Okay, so let me explain what that means. How can that happen later? So you have to understand how ink works on parchment, the way a Torah scroll is written is you need to have hide from a kosher animal? It's a thick parchment. On it you write with an ink and quill. That ink does not like the ink that we use and the paper that we use. The paper absorbs the ink, but on a parchment the parchment does not absorb the ink. The ink sits on top of the parchment. It dries onto the parchment. Therefore, for example, our sages teach us that one should never leave to fill in or a Torah in a place that's extremely hot or extremely cold and the cold does more damage to the ink on parchment than the heat does.

10:29
The heat can make it run, it can make the ink run, but the cold can pop off the letter. It can flake right off of the parchment. It gets cold the ink and pops right off. Therefore, it is very, very important that if someone has to fill in, they should never keep it in their car, not when it's hot, not when it's cold, because the cold weather can have the letter pop off the parchment. It's very dangerous halachically, it's very spiritually dangerous for this object, for this tefillin or Torah. Okay, so now how can the mistake happen after the fact, after it was written? It can happen because, let's say, the Torah scroll was left in a car by mistake and now it gets really hot, it's Houston weather, it's 130 degrees in the car, and now the letter could run a little bit from the ink and it attaches to another letter. That's something which is concerning. Now, if the mistake happened after the fact, then it is rendered kosher and replacement is not needed.

11:43
A letter that lost its form from writing or from use is invalid. So if it does not have its form anymore, either it wasn't written properly or it was used so much that it lost its form. It became rounded, it doesn't have its proper form, it is invalid. For example, if you have the difference between the letter Dalet and the letter Resh, right, so they're identical letters, but the Dalet has a little indentation sticking out on the top right of it. So what's if it got rounded? It got worn out and used for 100 years, right? And Torah scrolls are used for decades. A good Torah scroll could be used for decades, and we'll see soon I'll share with you an example of a Torah scroll that just got worn out and is not valid anymore.

12:36
Now, something also very interesting. I've had many, many people bring me tefillin to get checked. We have a local scribe in town and I've brought him dozens of tefillin. I brought him Torah scrolls. I brought him many different things that were being evaluated for whether or not they're kosher. So one individual brought me a pair of tefillin and he says these are tefillin from my grandfather. Okay, I got it checked out. He was not kosher. And this grandchild was unwilling to accept the fact that his grandfather's tefillin were not kosher Because he thought that they were never kosher. That's not true.

13:16
Tefillin don't last forever. It's ink that is sitting dried on parchment and after 20, 30, 50, 100 years it can flake off or it can evaporate almost, and then you have just an impression on the scroll which looks almost reddish. It's not black anymore. I had a Torah scroll that was brought to me from a pre-Holocaust Torah scroll from Europe and I brought it to the sofa and he said look, it definitely was once a kosher scroll, but after so many years of travel, of use, it's no longer kosher. He says you can fill in all the letters and make it kosher, but it's cheap. It's cheaper to write a brand new scroll than to repair the old one, because it's just going to be so much, so difficult to trace every letter and to ensure that every letter is properly written after the fact. So these are things that are things to take into consideration with a Torah scroll and with tefillin. When a tefillin, a pier of tefillin, is not kosher, it does not mean that the tefillin were never kosher, it means that at this moment it's not rendered as kosher.

14:36
Okay, if the parchment was punctured in or around the area of a letter. So, for example, let's say there's a hay letter, hay which has a space in the middle, in the middle of that hay there was a puncture of the parchment. Now, an older scroll may not have had such high-quality fabric not fabric but parchment hide like we do today. Today they're well-processed, right. That means they're hides that are taken. They're probably put through machines to flatten them, to make them, make sure that they're of perfect condition to be used for a Torah scroll or for a tefillin, or for a mezuzah or for any other use, like a megillah. The megillah is written on a parchment. So what's if it was a poor quality parchment or a parchment that was used for many, many years and eventually it gets a little hole in it, it gets a little puncture in it. Now what's if it's in the middle of or in the area of a letter? If the complete letter stands fully, it isn't invalid. If the ink flakes off a letter and it is no longer black, it is not valid. Okay, I remember I told you that Torah scroll that I brought to the sofa. It was, the letters were there, you could read the entire Torah, but it wasn't black anymore. It was more of like a reddish tint to it, like a maroonish look to it, because the actual ink had evaporated already and it was just the remnants of what was the ink. That was probably written 150 years ago. So it was once a Torah scroll that was valid, but today it is no longer valid.

16:23
Number eight if there is uncertainty about whether a letter retained its form or not, it should be shown to a simple child who knows the olive bet. Why simple child, not a brilliant child? Don't bring the smartest kid who will be able to understand the context right. Who cannot? Specifically a simple child who cannot deduce the context. And if he reads and identifies it properly, it is kosher. Otherwise, if the child cannot decipher it, it's unfit for use. Okay, so if you bring the child, you say what letter is this? And he says this is a shin. And really it's not a shin, it is an ayin or whatever. They make a mistake on the letter. So if the child can't properly deduce it, we assume that the mistake is invalidating of that Torah scroll. Invalidating that Torah scroll.

17:19
Number nine if multiple children were asked and there is disagreement, you follow the majority. So let's say they're bringing 10 children into the synagogue and six of them say that it's one letter, the correct letter, and four of them say that it's a different letter, the incorrect letter, you follow the majority and vice versa. Number 10, the child is only asked if the adults themselves cannot clearly discern the letter. But if the adults realize the error, like the yud of an ayin that separates. So an ayin is written, it's like this okay. And then you have a yod that is attached to it. So that's the ion. Okay, for those of you online that might be reversed, okay. So if you have that, what happens if this yod that's attached becomes detached? Detached, okay, so now it's two separate letters. So if the adults are able to see that mistake, you need to call a child. Even if the child will say, yeah, that's an ion, we see that they're not connected, it still is invalid. Okay, you don't bring a child for every situation. It's only if we don't know whether or not it's valid or invalid or whether it is identifying of the correct letter. So continuing, number 10. The child is only asked if the adults cannot clearly discern the letter. But if the adults realize the error, like the yud of an ayin that separates, even if the child correctly reads the letter, it is still invalid.

18:51
Number 11. When showing the letter in question to the child, the preceding letters are covered, but not the following letters. The reason the preceding letters are covered? Because the child could then just say, oh, he reads the whole word and he knows it. It makes sense, even if he doesn't know what letter it is, but he knows that the Vayomer is written like that. So this mem, which looks like a test or looks like a different letter, he'll be able to deduce it from the context. Therefore, the previous letters are covered, but not the following letters.

19:25
Number 12. If the parchment has a puncture by a letter and we are unsure that the letter is the correct one, we cover around the letter and ask the child to disclose what he sees that letter alone. Now, sometimes the parchment may be punctured but it is held together by the ink. The ink is sort of like the glue that's holding it together. The same is with a letter that had flaked ink where the impression remained. You cover the surrounding letters and you ask the child Number 13.

20:01
When an invalidation is found between aliyahs so let's say that invalidation is found you're calling up the third person on a Rosh Chodesh, on a Tuesday Rosh Chodesh, or on Monday and Thursday, not on Shabbos, okay, sorry, even if it's on Shabbos, sorry, even if it's on Shabbos, it doesn't make a difference, it's between Aliyahs. When the new scroll is brought out, you resume where you left off. So you were beginning with the third Aliyah, you continue the third Aliyah and you make sure to call up the appropriate number of olim. So if you had Shabbos, where you call up seven people minimum to the Torah, so you're already called up three you call up another four, you resume where you left off and make sure to call up the appropriate number of olim, including those who were ole already to the invalid Torah. So on Shabbos, however, if you can call up seven to the new scroll, it is preferred. So if you can call up the full circuit of seven again, then you don't call up the people who were called up. I don't think you call them up again to the Torah. But if you can call up another seven, then you call up another seven, number 14, if the invalidation was found mid-Aliyah. So you're in the middle of reading and now you found it.

21:21
There are various opinions and rulings and each locale should follow their custom. If no custom is known, the following should be observed should be followed Once the error is found, you stop reading immediately, replace the scroll with a different one with a kosher one and resume reading exactly where you left off, or from the beginning of the verse, if it was found mid-verse and ensure to read at least three verses in the new scroll. So imagine, in the last verse that you were reading you found the mistake. You go back two and read three, a total of three. The Ola then recites the final blessing but does not recite the first blessing. Again, all right, number 15. The first blessing again All right, number 15. If no replacement scroll is available, then you continue reading, but no blessings are recited. Okay, there's no more scrolls.

22:20
You're living in a neighborhood, in a community where there's no backup scroll, there's only one. What are you going to do now? You continue reading. You have to read the Torah.

22:31
We mentioned last week that if you don't have a Torah scroll, you read it from a chumash, right? So this is no different than reading from a chumash, but nobody recites any blessings for the Torah. There are opinions that if a mistake was found in one chumash, like Bereshish, it would be permitted to read from a different chumash, like Exodus Mishmos, in the same scroll. This opinion may be followed in a place where no second scroll is available. So imagine you found a mistake in the end of Genesis. You're allowed to read it. Read from that same Torah scroll for the book of Exodus, but this should only be used where there's no other Torah scroll available to be used.

23:11
Number 17. For Shabbos, mincha Torah reading the invalid scroll need not be brought out. You only have one Torah scroll. You don't need to bring it out, since this custom of reading by Mincha on Shabbos was only established for those who don't attend synagogue on Mondays and Thursdays and won't have the ability to read from the Torah during the weekdays of Monday and Thursday. But here, since they are there, there is no need to bring out that Torah scroll if it is invalid. Okay, number 18.

23:46
If the parchment is partially torn, if the majority of the seam, so the parchment is torn by the seam. So if the majority of the steam still holds, the parchment is torn by the seam. So if the majority of the steam still holds, you may continue reading from it. If not, another Torah should be used. If none are available, if five stitches still remain intact or if the tear is from another Chumash, like from the Genesis part, and you're reading in the Exodus part, then even if only two stitches remain, it may be used.

24:18
Okay, now here is a very important piece of the final parts of this simmon. Okay, the final parts is what do you do if there is fat or wax covering the letters of the Torah? Now, why would there be wax or fat? Well, remember, electricity wasn't common 200 years ago or 100 years ago. So how would people learn from a Torah? They would use a candle at night and they would read from the Torah. But what happens from candles? There's wax or fat and that would drip on the Torah. So now, it's not necessarily rendered invalid. Let's see If wax or fat was found on a letter during the weekdays, it should be removed immediately.

25:09
If it is on Shabbos, if the wax was in an area that is not being read, it does not invalidate the entire scroll and may be used. So if it's not in our portion, but we see that in the portion right before, there's wax there, it does not invalidate the Torah scroll. If the letters, if it was on an area to be read, if the letters are visible through the wax, it may be used. Because we remember previously we mentioned that you cannot read from the Torah scroll by heart Ever. You're not allowed to read from memory. You're not allowed to read by heart with your eyes closed. Someone who's blind cannot read from the Torah, and someone who has a great memory and doesn't know how to read shouldn't either read from the Torah scroll. You must read the words from the Torah. If it's visible through the wax or the fat, then you can continue reading from it and it's not considered invalid. It may be used If the letters are not visible through the wax.

26:12
One may try to remove the wax through an unusual manner on Shabbos. That means, for example, such as bending the parchment for the wax to pop off. So if you bend scroll a little bit, the wax would pop off. So you can try to do that. But you can't directly go and try to take it off on Shabbos because that is a prohibition. If the letter remains unreadable, since it is forbidden to read Torah by heart, the Torah scroll is rendered unusable and invalid.

26:49
Number 20, when removing the wax on the weekdays, extra caution should be used not to damage the letters beneath, especially if it has the names of Hashem. So if it has the name of Hashem and now you scratch it off and you erase the name of Hashem, that's a biblical prohibition. You're not allowed to erase the name of Hashem. So what do you do? How do you remove the wax? During the weekday? What they do is they would warm up the parchment a little bit and then it'll melt the wax easier than it'll melt the ink. Again, you've got to be careful, because the ink is also very sensitive to heat. So you've got to be careful that it just be very, very cautious to warm up the wax and then you can scrape it off or rub it off gently and without invalidating the Torah scroll. My dear friends, this concludes Semen 24, the laws of an invalid Torah scroll. And, my dear friends, I look forward to our next session. Ask away.

28:08 - Intro (Announcement)
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Ep. 29 - Laws of Invalid Torah (Siman 24)