TRR 73-76

DIVIDING UP AN UNUSABLE TORAH SCROLL

QUESTION:

A Sefer Torah, unusable for public reading because of errors, etc, (pascal) is generally buried in the cemetery. Would it be permissible, instead of burying it, to separate it into the five books of the Torah and then bind each book separately for the purpose of study, or just to preserve them? (Asked by Professor Abraham J. Karp, Rochester, New York)

ANSWER:

The first question involved is whether this Sefer Torah was intended or devoted for public reading in the synagogue, or whether it was a personal Torah bought as a fulfillment of the commandment that each person is in dutybound to have a Sefer Torah written for himself? If it has been devoted or used for public reading, it may never be sold (and therefore, of course, never cut up). But if it is a private possession some authorities say that it too may never be sold; but the general opinion is that a privately owned Sefer Torah, not used in public reading, may indeed be sold but only for the special purposes of marriage or study (Shulhan Arukh Yoreh Deah 207, and Orah Hayyim 133:10). If, then, this is a privately owned Torah, then dividing it for the purpose of convenient study certainly involves less disrespect to the Torah than selling it outright or stowing it away in some cupboard.

If, however, it is a public Sefer Torah, or even if it is still privately owned but lent to the synagogue for public reading in the service, then it cannot be sold even for the purpose of study and certainly might not be divided up. However, if, even it is a public sefer torah, but it is now unfit for public reading owing to errors in it, then one might well reason that it, too, like a private owned Sefer Torah, might be divided up for the purpose of study.

Yet on the face of it, it would seem that such a dividing up of the Torah would not be permitted. The Talmud (Menahot 32a) says of a Sefer Torah that is old, (i.e. too old to be used for its public purpose) its parchment may not be cut up for mezuzah because this would be bringing the Torah down from a higher sanctity to a lower one. This law is given in the Shulhan Arukh Yoreh Deah 280.

This question of cutting up Torah parchment for mezuzah is related to another problem taken up by Moses Sofer (Hatam Sofer Yoreh Deah 279). The question there concerns the following: A scribe repaired a Sefer Torah by attaching parchment patches cut from its own borders. This type of repair seems to be prohibited. But what is nearer to our question is the following: A scribe took an unfit former Torah (one that simply should be buried or put away, being no longer usable) and cut this unfit Sefer Torah into patches to repair the relatively fit Sefer Torah. Should this be permitted? Moses Sofer is inclined to be strict even about cutting up the pasul Sefer Torah for this worthy purpose. In fact, he considers the pasul Sefer Torah as still retaining some sanctity and therefore if it is put away or buried, it should be buried in its entirety.

It is questionable, whether this strict decision of Moses Sofer would be generally accepted by scholars. After all, none of the codes count it as law that a pasul Sefer Torah must be kept intact or buried intact.

The law states precisely that it is a Sefer Torah that is old (balah ” worn out”) which may not be degraded in its holiness by converting its parchment into mezuzot. Moses Sofer, of course, realized that the descriptive adjective is important. But what if “old” does not mean pasul, but simply that the Torah has been worn out with years of use. It is still a valid Torah but is no longer taken out of the Ark to be read regularly. It is such a Torah that may not be converted to mezuzot. But suppose the Torah is not merely old but is actually pasul, unfit, for public use and is only to be buried? May not parchment from that Sefer Torah instead of being buried be converted into mezuzot? Surely this conclusion is permissible.

Actually, what Moses Sofer mostly objected to was mutilation of the unfit Sefer Torah by the scribe cutting it up into strips to use the pieces of parchment as patches on the kosher Sefer Torah. But suppose the scribe had not mutilated the unfit Sefer Torah but had merely, for some other reason, divided it up into the five separate books, leaving each intact? Would Moses Sofer have objected to that? It is not likely. In fact, one of the commentators on the Shulhan Arukh, Abraham Wahrmann, in his Eshel Abraham (cited by the Pit hei Teshuvah in Yoreh Deah 270) on the following question: May a Sefer Torah be sold by a raffle? Meir Eisenstadt says that if the Torah is to be sold by raffle, it would be better if it were sold unsewn, with each section separate. Thus we see that even a valid Sefer Torah may be unsewn. Certainly, then, an unfit Sefer Torah may be divided into each of the five books.

Evidently, it was a frequent practice to have the Pentateuch in separate five volumes written on a parchment scroll like the Sefer Torah. See Shulhan Arukh Yoreh Deah 283 where the practice is described of having the various books of the prophets. This was done for the purpose of study. Of course, such an arrangement does not have the sanctity of a Sefer Torah which is read in the synagogue service. Clearly the purpose of the questioner here is analogous to this older form of practice. It is proposed that the pasul scroll be divided up into the five books and each book bound and kept, treasured in fact, and read and studied. Although according to Isaac Bar Sheshet a pasul Sefer Torah has no sanctity at all (see Isserles to Shulhan Arukh Yoreh Deah 282:18), nevertheless it is handled with reverence, either put away where it is safe or buried in the cemetery. Surely this suggested disposal of a pasul Sefer Torah (which actually has no sanctity) is a reverent one and one may say, besides being permitted, is to be recommended.