SEFER TORAH IN JAILS

The M. State Hospital for mental patients will have a chapel for Jewish patients. Someone stated that it is against Orthodox Judaism to have a Torah and an Ark in this chapel; that it would be a “desecration of the Torah to house it among mental patients.” Is this objection justified by Jewish legal tradition? (From Rabbi Harold L. Gelfraan, Maeon, Georgia.)

IT is a principle in Jewish law that just as it is wrong to permit that which is actually prohibited, so it is likewise wrong to prohibit that which is actually permitted. The legal literature constantly warns against adding prohibitions which are not justified. If, therefore, the person who said that it was “a desecration” to have the Sefer Torah in a mental institution is a scholar, please ask him for the basis of his opinion. I am not aware of any prohibition in the legal literature based upon the fact that the sick patients are insane and therefore no Torah may be housed among them.

These are sick people with various degrees of mental illness. The violent ones and those too deeply sunk inwardly will certainly not be permitted to attend services by the authorities. Those who will come to services are those who have various degrees of mental disturbance and certainly can understand the service, or part of it. The question is whether sick people may have the Torah brought to them, or whether they must wait until they are well to be able to go to the synagogue and hear the Torah read there.

This question of the Torah being brought to the sick was discussed as early as the sixteenth century by Meir of Padua, who says in his Responsum 88 that the only objection to bringing the Torah to the sick is if it is brought there on the day of the service merely for the purpose of the service; but if it is brought there a day or two previously and kept in an Ark, there is no objection at all. This has been codified in the Shulchan Aruch. The Shulchan Aruch in Or ah Hayyim 135:14 discusses the matter and combines the question of the sick with people who are kept in jail. While Joseph Caro himself says that we do not bring the Torah to people in jail, Isserles gives the later law which we follow, namely, that if the Torah is brought there previously and kept in an Ark it is quite permitted (see, also, Mogen Avraham, ad loc).

So it is clear that it is permitted to have a Torah prepared for the sick and for prisoners. But an additional question is involved in your question: During the week when services will not be held (or if they are held every day, then in the hours when the services are not held) the Torah would be in the charge of Gentiles. Is it permitted to put the Torah scroll in charge of the Gentile wardens all week? This question was discussed in great detail by Meir Arik, one of the great authorities of Galicia in the last generation, in his responsa Imre Yosher, II, 197:5. The question was asked by Rabbi Wolf Leiter of Pittsburgh. Rabbi Leiter was chaplain at the time at the Western Penitentiary on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. He had a Torah and an Ark in the chapel of the penitentiary, but asked the question of Meir Arik whether it was permissible to leave the Torah and the Ark under the care of Gentile wardens all week. Meir Arik connected this with the discussion in Yore Deah 291:2, whether a Jew moving out of a house in which a Christian will be the next tenant, may leave the mezuzah on the door (since it will now be under the care of a Gentile). Finally Meir Arik decided that if the Ark is well locked there is no objection to leaving the Torah under the care of a Gentile during the week.

So the law is clear: You may bring the Torah to the sick and to jails, especially if the Torah is kept there in an Ark. The Ark, if adequately locked, may be left in the care of the Gentile wardens.