Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

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, my dear friends, welcome back to the Everyday Judaism podcast. Today we are going to study the 28th simmon, simmon 28 in the Kitzah Shulchan Orch in the concise code of Jewish law. So today's halach is going to revolve around the laws of Sefer Torah, the Torah scroll and other holy books. After outlining in the previous simmon the obligation to study the Torah, now we discuss the laws of writing a Torah and, according to many authorities, the purpose of this obligation to write a Sefer Torah is to facilitate the study of Torah. So there's a mitzvah in the Torah to own a Sefer Torah, to write one. If you can't write one, have someone write it, commission someone to write it for you. According to this view, which is shared by the Kitzer, this obligation also includes the purchase of other Torah books. So if you go on Amazon, artscroll, feldheim, mosaica, any of those websites to buy Jewish books and to learn and read those books, that is part of the fulfillment of what the Torah says to write a Torah. The Torah commands us you shall write for yourself a Torah scroll. Okay, I don't know how to write it or I can't afford it Today. It's very expensive to have a Torah scroll commissioned. It can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000. It means a scribe will sit for almost an entire year to write your scroll. It's a lot of work, it's a lot of time and they presumably need to support their family as well, so it takes a lot. So to have that commission, okay, I can't afford that. But I could afford to spend $28 on a book and add it to my library and you know, we can buy a chumash, we can buy many, many magnificent books, so that that would be part of the fulfillment of this. Mitzvah. The halacha now begins Mitzvah saseh. It is a performative commandment. I'll call ishmi yisro lichto v'losey v'torah. For every Jew to write yisay v'torah Sh. For every Jew to write Yisheva Torah. That's the verse that we just mentioned. Our sages understood that this means to write the Torah. The Torah is called a Shira, a song. Like we mentioned previously in our Parsha podcast, it needs to be beautiful. We need to present it in a way that it is, and that's what the Torah is called a shira. It's a shira, it's a song. Everybody loves a good song. The Torah is a song.

02:59
If someone inherited a Sefer Torah, a Torah scroll, from their father, their father owned the Torah scroll. Now they inherited it. It's still a mitzvah for them to have their own Torah scroll. If you hired a scribe to write a Sefer Torah for you, if you purchased a Torah scroll, or if you commissioned someone to write the Torah scroll for you and they found a mistake in that Torah scroll, now that you fixed that Torah scroll, you bring it to a scribe, you have him fix it. It's repaired now. It is as if you now recommissioned the Torah and that would be fine.

03:41
So what many people do? I almost did this. I almost did this. Someone offered me a Torah scroll that had survived the Holocaust and he said to me you can have it, just pay for the cost that it costed me to ship it from Europe to bring it to my location. I brought it to a sofa, to a scribe, our local scribe here in Houston. He looked at it and he said look, it's not kosher, I can fix it, but it'll cost you more to buy a new one than to repair this one. It'll cost you more to buy a new one because the amount of repairs that were necessary were so extensive it would be more difficult to repair it than to write a brand new one. So I didn't end up going with it. It was a bargain, but still it was not a kosher Torah scroll, the Asulim Kor Sefer Torah.

04:35
It's prohibited to sell a Torah scroll. You don't sell Torah scrolls. Ach b'shasatcha gadol yaseh she'el eschochem. However, if someone is in a great need, or if the congregation or the community is in a great need, then you must consult with a rabbinic authority. Typically, if, for example, if the community needed a mikvah and you had an extra Torah scroll, you can sell that Torah scroll to finance the mikvah right, because that's a higher priority item than having an extra Torah scroll.

05:08
Okay, halacha number two, v'chein mitzvah al kol ish liknos sha'ar sifrei kodesh shalom na mitokhon k'gon mikra mishnah gemara v'poskim she'yilmod mitokhon v'gam yash ilun la'achirim. He says as well. Additionally, like we mentioned previously, there is a mitzvah for one to purchase other types of books that are Torah, books like a Torah, like a Chumash, like this one, this magnificent interlinear Art Scroll Chumash, or the regular stone edition Chumash, or a Mishnah, or a Gemara, or the Halacha, the books of Halacha. And today we have magnificent resources. Art Scroll has done the most miraculous work in making it available for the English reader to learn almost everything. I mean, you have the Midrash, you have the entire Midrash translated. You have the entire Talmud, you have the entire Chumash, you have the entire Mishnah, everything elucidated beautifully, done so beautifully. We have them all here in the magnificent Torch Library. But all of that to purchase those books is a magnificent mitzvah. Mi she'en bi yadu maseges, mi she'en yadu maseges, liknos lo sefer toro. So he says what's if you don't have funds to purchase all of those books? So the ones that you're able to afford to learn from those are more important than just nice books.

06:39
A woman once called up a bookstore and said I need for my living room, I need some purple books and blue books and red books. You know different colors. That's not. It's not there to beautify your home. It's there, to a new word that I made up, to holify your home, to make it holy.

06:58
Now one of the things that I failed to mention in the translation here is that it's also a mitzvah to loan out your books, to loan it out so that other people can learn from it. So if you have a book that could be of use to other people, you have a mitzvah, a special mitzvah, to lend it to them so that they can use it, and now the influence that they have from that book is your merit as well. Amr Rabi Sinu Zachon Lebracha, our sages of blessed memory, said V'itzitkoso Omedes Lo'ad, and his righteousness endures forever. Ze'a Kosev they explained that this refers to one who writes, as well as one who purchases books Ze'a Kosev, v'uadina Konesvorem, v'mashin L'Aacherim, as well as one who lends them out to others. So if you have a library, that you can share this.

07:49
By the way, it used to be the way that people would lend books out all over the world. You think they had a Talmud in every library. Everyone had a book of Talmud. No, you had one, in a community, maybe, and people would reserve time to learn from it. You know the Mishnah talks about.

08:08
What do you do if two people are reading from a Torah scroll? It says you should be very careful not to pull it, whether or not two can, whether one should just be, why don't you just get another book? Well, it was expensive, it was very expensive. It wasn't just 20 bucks to buy a book. It was expensive to buy a book and sometimes it was out of a scroll and it was parchment, and parchment gets worn and torn, etc. Etc. Okay, halacha, number three A person has to have tremendous accord, great honor to a Torah scroll, to a Sefer Torah, and it is aMitzvah, li-yached lo-mokom, and it is a mitzvah to provide for it a special, designated place for it to reside.

08:53
V'l-chabed es ha-mokom ahu, v'l-hadru b'yoser, to honor that place and to beautify it exceedingly. V'lo yorek. A person should not spit towards the Sefer Torah and a person should not hold the Sefer Torah without a cloth separating the Torah scroll. As we know, in our congregations today they all have covers. You're not supposed to hold the Torah beer. You can't touch the Torah. You're not supposed to hold the Torah beer. You can't touch the Torah. We learned this previously. You're not supposed to touch the parchment beer-handed. That's why when people kiss the Torah, they use either the tzitzit, they use the talis, they use a garment, a cloth. You're not supposed to touch it directly. Haroah es hanos.

09:40
A Sefer Torah. Someone who sees a Sefer Torah being carried, tzarech l'amad, someone who sees a Sefer Torah being carried. You have to stand up, torah. If you're, sometimes they'll do this in synagogue they're going to take out the Torah, to roll it, to prepare it for Shabbos. So, for example, on a Friday, you're in synagogue and you're finishing up your prayers and they pull out the Sefer Torah. They pull out the Torah scroll from the ark, bring it to the bima to roll it up, to prepare it for Shabbos, for special reading. You have to stand up when the Torah scroll is being carried and remain standing until the Sefer Torah is put back in its place. At she yachnis es ha-sefer Torah l'mekomor O. At she ino reu ehu od, or unless you don't see it anymore, or unless you don't see it anymore, it's gone to a different room, then you can sit back down and in a synagogue, when the Seva Torah is removed and returned to the Holy Ark, it is a mitzvah, an obligation upon everybody before whom the scroll passes to escort it until its destination, same with the person who does Hagba and the person who rolls, the person who has Glila. They should also they should escort the Torah back till the Torah is put back in its place in the Ark.

11:06
Halacha number four Ba'afilu shar, sifrei kodesh, even other holy books. We must accord tremendous respect for them. Im munacham al-salfsal. So here's some practical halachas that come into play frequently. So if you have a bench, many times in synagogues they'll have a bench right. So you have a book sitting on the bench as well. Someone finished praying. They put their prayer book down, they put their chumash down.

11:34
You're not allowed to sit on the same surface where a book is sitting. So lift up the book and then you can sit down. You can't sit on the same surface. Therefore, if they are lying on a bench, im munachim, alasafsal, asulef shalav asafsal, it is forbidden to sit on the bench.

11:50
Elo im hasfar munachim, unless the books are placed al-ezadav or on a certain object, any object. They're not directly on the same surface that you're sitting on. That would be disrespectful for it, and that item that it's sitting on, that it's resting on, should be about one hand's breadth above the surface that you're sitting. If the sitting on a surface upon which the book the holy Torah book, whatever the book of Mishnah, the book of Halacha, whatever it is is placed on, has been placed, is forbidden, then certainly it is prohibited. Definitely it is forbidden to put books on the floor.

12:39
A person should not place an open book on his knees and lean his two elbows upon it. This is considered a disrespectful posture. Right? You're not reading a novel when you're learning Torah. You're not reading New York Times. That you can do. You're sitting back on a beach chair. You want to read your New York Times, that's one thing, but that's not the way you read Torah Right. Additionally, by the way, we're going to see it in a minute that this is the front of the book, this is the back of the book. The front of the book should always be facing up, always be facing up. If you see it facing down, turn it over, give it a kiss, place it properly. A book should never be faced down. That's part of the things we're going to see in a minute.

13:33
In situations of pressing need, it is permitted if it is absolutely necessary. I'll give you an example To sit upon a surface that contains other holy books, but if it's an actual Torah scroll, it is forbidden to sit on that place. One may place a chumash. So there is a list of priority. We mentioned this previously. The number one is the Chumash. Okay, the Torah scroll, the five books of Moses, is always on the top.

14:19
Now the prophets and the writings. So the prophets can be on top of the writings, the writings can be on top of the prophets, but neither of them can be above the Chumash, above the five books of Moses, above the Torah. It cannot on top of the prophets, but neither of them can be above the Chumash, above the five books of Moses, above the Torah. It cannot. The Torah is always on top of even the prophets and writings, and the same, by the way, applies for the Mishnah and the Talmud and Halacha. It goes in order of, in a descending order of, I would say of history and of sacredness, exactly, thank you. So always the chumash is on top. You never place a siddur on top of a chumash. You never place any of the books that we have in the magnificent library. The chumash always goes on top. If you're carrying a bunch of them together or if you're piling them up on the table, it should always be the chumash on top. Halacha, number eight.

15:17
Sefer Torah, shebola, gonzen Oso. What happens if a Sefer Torah was worn out, like the one that I was trying to purchase, completely worn out, Such a Sefer Torah? We hide it away. What does that mean? We bury it. We bury it on the ground.

15:36
This law applies to all other holy books. If you have a sitter, you have a prayer book, you have a chumash you have you use from your childhood. It's all worn out already. The pages are torn, it's falling apart. You don't throw it out, you bury it. V'chein sha'ar, sifrei, sfarim v'kisvei kodesh.

15:55
V'tashmishai kedusha, asor l'sofran All other holy articles, artifacts asor l'sofran. You're not allowed to burn them. You're not allowed to throw them out, you have to bury them. By the way, this applies also for a talis. A talis that's worn out shouldn't be thrown out. It's a mitzvah, something that was used for a mitzvah. Someone has an old pair of tefillin which are no longer kosher, for whatever reason. You can't throw them out. You can't throw them in the garbage. You even double wrap them. You cannot do that. You've got to bury them. Ein zorken, kisvei kodesh.

16:29
One may not discard copies of the Holy Scriptures Afilo, halachos v'agados, even halacha or agadek works, but also la'afoch, osan alpneim. So you can't throw them out in the garbage. Even you write your notes of class. It's teachings of Torah. You're not allowed to just throw out that. It's holy. Similarly, it is prohibited to turn them face down. We just mentioned that they're not allowed to be face down, and if you did find them to be face down, it is proper to turn them over properly. Our custom is to kiss them, because it was sort of like an offense to the book that it was upside down. Give it a kiss and put it faced up. Halacha, number seven. Ein lahashtim b'mayim bifnei sfarim u'le'esat sorach al kolponim y'munachim gvoyim asorat fochim.

17:24
Now, this is obviously not something that's relevant today per se. Oh, I was going to give you an example. Let me give you an example. Let's say you're transporting books from one place to another. You put them in the back seat of your car and now you're a passenger in that car. So you have, on the bench of the back of the car you have books, torah books, piled up. I've had this before and then you're sitting right there. So you have no choice. What are you going to do, right? So in such a case, it's okay if it's books, but not okay if it's a Torah scroll. That's an example of where you have no choice. You're transporting it from place to place. Also, that's a temporary state. But okay, we hear. What did we say? That is not so relevant today, because today we have proper bathrooms. It used to not be the case.

18:10
One may not urinate in the presence of a Sefer, torah or books. So if, for example, there's a library and there's a bathroom which is open to the library, that would be inappropriate for one to use the restroom in the presence of those books. In case of need, a person has a tremendous need and we don't have a curtain or the door is broken or something like that. So in such a case One may, provided that at the very least they have A, the books placed at a height of tent facham. So it's sort of like a different domain. Today, typically, you don't have bathrooms or areas that people use the facilities even near where people have books, usually it's a separate room. Today we have bathrooms which are proper. It used to not be that way. It used to be that people would have a little area, let's say a tent, and they'd go outside of the tent in the forest and they would use the restroom. That would be inappropriate if it's in a near distance. Okay, halacha, number eight, ein lasos.

19:14
One may not make ma'apos, some ilm covers or garments for a holy article from materials that had served a mundane purpose. Okay, meaning you don't take your bath towel and make it into a cover for a Sefer Torah. That is inappropriate. It's something which is. It's unbecoming of something which is so holy to be covered by something which is so mundane. Ubedievet shekvar na'asu muter If, after the fact it was done, then it may continue to be used. Aval middavish nishtamish bo'akum afilibidi evad asor. However, material that was used for idolatry, that may never be used, and if it was used by mistake, you have to stop using it immediately, because we don't use things that we use for idolatry for things that are holy. Asol lihishtamish besefer. One may not use a book for personal benefit, for example, to stand it up as a shield from the sun. So you're reading a book on the couch and the sun is bothering you, so now I want to just place my chumash there so it blocks from the sun, and that way you don't use Torah books, judaica, for that kind of purpose.

20:30
You don't use it for your personal benefit as a screen from the sun or to use it as a. I don't want anyone to see what I'm doing here, so I'm going to use my Torah book as my little partition, my little barrier. Avol im ha-shemesh zorach ha-sal ha-sefer shuhu lo-med bo. But if the sun is shining upon the book that you are currently studying, from murto lo-hagen me-sefer a-cher, then you can shield the book with another book. You can shield your eyes from the glare with another book. You can shield your eyes from the glare with another book. So you're not doing it for yourself, you're doing it to protect the book and you're not acting out of personal benefit. Similarly, placing a book beneath another book from which you are studying, studying in order to elevate the book that you are studying. So you see, I use a little podium here to hold my book up. Can I use another book underneath to prop up my book? Are you allowed to do that? So he says yesh lahater, this could be permitted. Aval ein laniach sefer betoch sefer acher. However, one should not place a book, a Torah book, in another book as a placemark Shaloh yitzdarech l'chapes acharkach, in order that one not need to search it at a later time. Makom limudah, the place where you're holding, meaning you don't make one book your placemark for the other book. Lo yisartet eze kuntris. One should not etch lines into a blank notebook, al sefer. So you're in the middle of putting together your, let's say, you have this canvas and you're starting to do you need to just make some lines. You don't use a Torah book as your ruler to make those lines as a notebook has, because that canvas or another notebook that you may be using has no holiness until one has written Torah thoughts into it. Similarly, one should not place a paper or the like into a book for safekeeping. So, for example, there are some people who I've seen use Torah books as, like their safe to place cash. Right. It's not appropriate to use a holy book as your personal piggy bank. Right, where am I going to hide my money? I don't want my cleaning lady to get to it. I don't want to put it. Buy a safe. You don't put it, you don't hide it in your books. That's not appropriate for one to do.

23:19
One who destroys holy writings over the love, the low One who destroys holy writings over he violates. One who destroys his holy books violates the transgression from the Torah. Says it in Deuteronomy 12, verse 4, and you shall not do this to Hashem, your God. One must therefore object to book binders who paste into book covers, into the tablets of the book, pages of holy writings they use, they'll take, just they'll just paste it in there. It's not appropriate, it's not respectful.

24:00
One must also be very careful when giving old, holy books to a non-Jewish craftsman to rebind them. Make sure that you take the old binding, they put a new cover, they put a new binding. What are you doing with the old one? It's holy, it's holy, you got to take it back. From the non-Jewish book binder, say you doing with the old one? It's holy, it's holy, you got to take it. Take it back from the non-Jewish book binder Say I just want the old scraps back because I need to bury them. Sheik hu mehemes aluchas yishanos La'atzniam, so that he can hide them away, like we said, to bury them. Filoyitnim ha'uman l'sefer chol. And then we don't want, definitely we don't want that bookbinder, that craftsman, to now use those books as a cover for his secular book, whatever it may be. Okay, we have three more halachas left, halacha 11.

24:58
It's not appropriate to purchase a Torah scroll or a pair of tefillin or a mezuzah from a non-Jew At a price that is higher than market value. Why Kedesh l'ol har gilon? It is forbidden in order that some unscrupulous non-Jews should not become accustomed to stealing or to finding them l'ganvam u'l-gazlon and then inflate the prices. They're going to steal them and then sell them back to the Jewish community for a profit. However, if he is selling them at a fair market value, you're obligated to buy them, even if they must be buried. So if you have a non-Jewish bookseller and you see that there's a holy book there, there's a Talmud, there's something there, it's a mitzvah for you to buy it from them because they don't know how to deal with it appropriately. You can, even if it needs to be buried, it's a mitzvah to buy it from them so that it can have its proper dignified burial.

26:09
And if the non-Jew is asking for a high price although one should not purchase the holy articles at that price one should engage him in conversation, persuasive words, and perhaps he will agree to sell him at a fair sell these books at a fair market value. And if, however, he remains steadfast in his price, he should just leave them with him. One should not ask of a non-Jew to sell them at a discounted price. You shouldn't ask him for a discount for your market value. Don't ask him to sell it, for I'll buy it for a dollar. Because then he's going to say you know what? I'm just going to throw it out. You don't want them to do that either. He'll become angry, he'll discard them, throw them out, and then it's a total disrespect to those holy books.

27:06
I want to share with you a phenomenal story. So there was a sofa, a scribe, and there are shops in Jerusalem that you can walk in and you'll see a scribe sitting and writing to fill in writing mezuzahs. You'll see he's sitting there all day and writing. And he also buys and sells scrolls, whether it be a Megillah, whether it be a scroll for mezuzah, whether it be scrolls for tefillin they sell them there as well. So an Arab gentleman walks in one day clearly it was stolen and he says to him hi, do you want to buy these tefillin? Do you want to buy these religious articles? So the sulfur looks at the tefillin.

27:51
Now, for those of you who own a pair of tefillin, you know that the hand tefillin and the head tefillin are very different. The hand tefillin are just a clean square. The head tefillin have three slices in them and making it four different compartments. And so the sofa is a smart guy and he looks at the first one. He says, wow, this is beautiful, it's stunning. Then he takes out the one for the shalrosh, for the head, to fill in. He says what are these cuts here? What's this? He says this needs to be a set and these are cut. It's worthless, I have nothing to do with this. He says if you want, I'll give you a few dollars for it, but this is not worth anything, right? So, sure enough, the guy's like fine, I'll take a few shekels for it, you know. And he gives it to him for a few shekels, of course, the tefillin bag had a name on it and he finds the person who lost it and returns the tefillin that were stolen. So it's interesting that that's a very smart, astute scribe who knew how to do it.

29:03
But this is a whole black market out there of Arab women who are writing mezuzahs sitting in their basements in Gaza. I'm serious, this is a real story. And they were writing mezuzahs, you know all fake, fraudulent, not written appropriately, not written according to halacha. But someone who doesn't know says oh, it's a mezuzah, I bought it in a gift shop, it must be fine and many times if you buy a mezuzah, sometimes people think mezuzah means the case.

29:32
That's not true. Mezuzah means the actual parchment inside the case. The casing outside is just a nice decoration. It's the inside that really counts and I've seen many people come to the scribe. I actually sat with the scribe here in Houston a few days ago and he told me stories which were frightening stories. People came with mezuzahs that were not kosher. They were photocopies. Some people don't even have photocopies. There's nothing in there. They think that because they have a nice case, it's a mezuzah. That's not a mezuzah. It's. That's not a mezuzah. It's not the casing, it's what's inside it, it's the parchment.

30:06
And it's worthwhile for every person to have their mezuzahs checked, have search online from a scribe in your community. It's important. Have your tefillin, have your mezuzahs, have them checked at least twice every seven years. Halacha says to ensure that they're not, especially in Houston heat. If you have a mezuzah outdoors, it's very important to ensure that it doesn't get faded from the sun or from the heat. Okay, halacha number 12.

30:33
Imnafal sefer Torah miyado. If a sefer Torah scroll, torah scroll, falls from one's hand, afilu b'nartikou, even if it is covered, tarekh l'hisanos, if it is covered, you're obligated to fast. It is customary that anybody who saw the scroll fall is obligated to fast as well. There's some really amazing stories. There was a synagogue out in Portland Oregon that on Yom Kippur the person who put the Sefer Torah back fainted right by Kol Nidre. He fainted and the Torah scroll fell on the floor and the whole congregation needed to fast. Now, another day, because of the Torah scroll that fell.

31:16
But they found even more that they said this was a sign from Hashem. They needed to do something to change. They instituted some significant change in their congregation by hiring a rabbi. They didn't have a rabbi. They said, we're fine as is, we don't need a rabbi. And they hired a rabbi and that rabbi really led the congregation to unbelievable heights of growth in their Yiddishkeit. So this is a very important thing. We have to be very, very careful with the Sefer Torah. It's not a toy. It's not a toy, it's not a joke. It's something which is of highest, of paramount importance and paramount holiness.

31:51
And finally, halacha, number 13, asu lichtov pasuk, it is prohibited to write a verse of scripture below sirtut without etching the line on the parchment. This is for those who are scribes. You're not allowed to write even one verse without there being. If you look in the Torah scroll, you'll see that there's an etching to keep it on a line that one may not write secular content as well. It is also prohibited for one to write the script of the Torah for non-Torah purposes. It's a very holy font and that font should not be used for other things other than Torah purposes. My dear friends, this concludes Semen 28, the 28th Semen of the Kitzah Shochon Orch, and now we will open the floor to our Ask Away number 12, I believe it is Ask Away number 12. So, my dear friends, those of you online, we look forward to seeing you next week at our Everyday Judaism podcast.

32:55 - Intro (Announcement)
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