Menachot 29b (כט:) — the Talmud in English

Agra, his father-in-law

his father-in-law of

Rabbi Abba

the leg of the heh was perforated,

an incident occurred in which the right leg of the heh [in the passage “Consecrate to Me every firstborn” in the tefillin] in the word “And Moses said to

the people

‘Remember this day’” was severed,

by a perforation

because the leg was pierced.

He came before Rabbi Abba. He said to him: If there remains in it

in the leg of the heh

the measure of a letter [

yod ]

a small one, it is valid; but if not,

it is

invalid!

Rami bar Tamri, who was also called Rami bar Dikulei, had the leg of the vav perforated

an incident occurred to him in the passage “And it shall be when He brings you” in the tefillin, in which the leg of the vav in the word “

And He will slay

the Lord every firstborn” was

by a perforation

because the leg was pierced, and that vav appeared like a yod.

He came before Rabbi Zeira. He said to him

Rabbi Zeira:

Go and bring a child who is neither wise nor foolish,

go and bring a child who is not wise [for if he is wise, he will understand that one cannot say “the Lord will be slain,” which would be blasphemous; he will necessarily read it as though it were written, “and the Lord will slay”], nor foolish [for if he is foolish, he knows how to read only a complete letter], and see

whether he reads it

if that child reads the word “

and He will slay” as a vav, it is valid,

for the letter is valid since it is read as a vav.

If not

if he reads it as a yod, then the meaning of the word “

He will slay” is indicated, and it is invalid,

since the letter vav is read as a yod, it follows that one letter is missing from the tefillin. 34 .

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: When Moses ascended

to the heavens

to receive the Torah,

he found

Moses

the Holy One, blessed be He, sitting and tying crowns

such as the tagin of a Torah scroll

to the letters

of the Torah.

He said before Him: Master of the Universe, what is holding You back?!

Why do You need to add crowns to the letters?

He said to him: There is one man who will arise after many generations, and Akiva ben Yosef is his name, who will one day expound upon every thorn countless laws

from those crowns!

He said to him

Moses our teacher:

Show him to me?!

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses:

Go back behind you!

The Holy One, blessed be He, showed Moses, in a prophetic vision, as though he were present in Rabbi Akiva’s study hall and hearing his voice. The Holy One, blessed be He, told him to go back.

He went

Moses our teacher

and sat at the back of eight rows

of students who were sitting before Rabbi Akiva,

but he did not know what they were saying,

for Moses our teacher did not understand their give-and-take concerning Torah matters. 35 .

His strength waned

of Moses our teacher, for he was distressed that he did not understand the method of study in Rabbi Akiva’s study hall.

When he reached

Rabbi Akiva

a matter that required an explanation [

a rationale ],

his students said to him

to Rabbi Akiva:

“Our teacher, from where do you derive

this matter?”

He said to them

Rabbi Akiva: This matter is

a halakha

that was stated

to Moses at Sinai

[for this is the law transmitted from Moses our teacher, and there is no need to explain or prove it through reasoning or through one of the interpretive principles by which the Torah is expounded]. Immediately,

Moses’s mind was put at ease

our teacher’s.

Moses returned

our teacher

before the Holy One, blessed be He, and said before Him:

“Master of the Universe! You have such a man, and You give

the Torah through me,

and not through him!”

He said to him

the Holy One, blessed be He:

“Be silent! Thus it arose in My thought.”

[And you cannot fathom the end of My thought.]

He said before Him

Moses our teacher:

“Master of the Universe! You have shown me his Torah

of Rabbi Akiva;

show me

the reward

he will receive.” He said to him: “Go back behind you”

and see in a prophetic vision

! He went back behind him and saw that the Romans were weighing

the

flesh

of Rabbi Akiva

in the butcher shop,

in the marketplace where butchers weigh meat [after he had been killed for the sanctification of God’s Name, when they raked his flesh with iron combs].

He said before Him: “Master of the Universe! This is Torah and this is its reward?!”

Is this the reward that Rabbi Akiva deserves?

He said to him

the Holy One, blessed be He:

“Be silent!”

Thus it arose in My thought!

Rabbi Akiva was judged in accordance with what arose in the thought of the Holy One, blessed be He, when He considered creating the world according to the attribute of strict justice] [based on the Gra and the Tzafnat Pane’ach].

Rava said: Seven letters

in a Torah scroll, tefillin, and mezuzot, as well as in the other books of the Prophets, the Writings, and the Megillot,

require

each of them

three embellishments

small tagin at their tops. Of these three tagin, one inclines to the right, one inclines to the left, and one inclines upward. 36 .

And these are

the letters:

shatnez gatz

shin, ayin, tet, nun, zayin, gimel, and final tzadi; the same law applies to final nun and ordinary tzadi.

Rav Ashi said: I saw them

I saw

in the precise scribes’

among the scribes meticulous in writing an upright script

that they raised the roof of the het

that they raised the left leg of the letter het upward Some explain that they raised the middle of the roof of the het, like a camel’s hump .

And they suspended the leg of the heh,

and they suspended the left leg of the heh in the air, as we do. They did not join it to the roof of the letter. And this is the form of the heh. 39 .

And the reason

that they raised the roof of the het, that is,

to show and allude

that He is alive

the Holy One, blessed be He, and He dwells

in the heights of the universe,

for the het signifies “alive,” and the raised projection points upward.

And the reason

that they suspended the leg of the heh

is

as Rabbi Yehuda Nesia asked Rav Ami: What

is the explanation of what

is written

in the verse, “

Trust in the Lord forever,

for in the Lord is the Rock of worlds”? He said to him

Rav Ami:

Anyone who places his trust in the Holy One, blessed be He, has a refuge in this world and in the World-to-Come.

This is the explanation of the verse: Because they trusted in the Lord forever, they have in the Lord a Rock and refuge forever, in both worlds, this world and the World-to-Come.

He said to him

Rabbi Yehuda Nesia:

This is what is difficult for me

about this verse:

Why is it written

in the verse

“in the Lord,” and it is not written, “in the Lord” with only one letter?

Rav Ami said to him: The explanation of the verse is

as Rabbi Yehuda bar Rabbi Ila’i expounded: These are the two worlds that the Holy One, blessed be He, created, one with the

letter

heh and one with the

letter

yod,

for the Holy One, blessed be He, divided His Name into two letters, and with each one He created a different world. [This is the explanation of the verse, “for in the Lord is the Rock of worlds”: with these two letters, yod and heh, the Lord created the two worlds.]

And still,

I do not know whether the World-to-Come

was created

with the yod, and this world

was created

with the heh,

or

whether the world

this

was created

with the yod, and the World-to-Come

was created

with the heh?!

When it says

in the verse in Genesis, “

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created”

and we expound,

“Do not read ‘when they were created,’ but ‘with heh He created them’!”

the meaning is that it is proven from here

that this world

is the one that was created

with the heh, and the World-to-Come

is the one that was created

with the yod.

And Rabbi Yehuda bar Rabbi Ila’i explains:

And why was this world created with a heh,

which is open below?

Because

this world

resembles a portico

that is completely open on one side, and so this world is open,

so that anyone who wishes to leave

for a sinful way of life

may leave,

that is, free choice is placed in a person’s hands!

And what is the reason that its leg is suspended

the inner leg of the heh is suspended and is not connected to its roof?

To teach you:

if he returns

if that sinner returns

in repentance, they bring him in

They raise him through that upper opening between the left leg and the roof of the heh, and accept him back.

And we challenge this:

Let him enter

let that sinner enter

through this

lower opening through which he left; why is a special opening needed through which he can return in repentance? And we explain:

The matter is not possible

it cannot be done! As stated by

Reish Lakish:

For Reish Lakish said: What

is the explanation of the verse

that is written

in Proverbs: “

If one joins the company of scorners

He will encourage him, but to the humble He gives grace”?!

To teach you: One who

comes to defile himself, they open the way for him

an opening to become a scoffer. 40 .

But one who

comes to purify himself,

after he has sinned,

they assist him,

for he requires assistance from Heaven because of the evil inclination that prevents him from returning. Therefore, a special opening is opened for him so that he can return, and the lower opening is not sufficient for him.

And what is the reason that the heh

has

a crown,

a small crown on the left side of its roof?

For

the Holy One, blessed be He, said: “If he repents, I will tie a crown for him!”

And why was the World-to-Come created with a yod?

Because

the righteous in it are few

and they resemble a yod, which is a small letter.

And why is its head bent

of the yod?

Because the righteous in it

in the World-to-Come

have their heads bowed

because one is embarrassed before the other,

because of their deeds, which are not alike,

and the honor of one is greater than that of the other.

Rav Yosef said: These two matters,

two halakhot,

Rav stated in the books

in the laws of Torah scrolls, [and below the second halakha will be explained]

and a baraita refuted him

and in a baraita we learned contrary to his words.

One

of the halakhot

is that which Rav said:

A Torah scroll that contains two errors on every page of the scroll

should be corrected

the scroll—that is, it can be corrected and rendered valid. But when a Torah scroll contains

three

errors on every page,

it must be set aside for burial!

For it cannot be corrected.

And it was taught in a beraita as a refutation of Rav,

for we learned:

three

errors found on every page

may be corrected; four

errors

and it must be placed in geniza!

The tanna taught: If there is in

a Torah scroll

one complete page

without an error,

it saves them all.

Even if there are four errors on every page, the single page without an error saves the entire scroll, since the scroll can be repaired.

Rav Yitzḥak bar Shmuel bar Marta said in the name of Rav: And this

—what we said, that one complete page saves the entire scroll—applies specifically

when the majority

of the scroll is proper.

When the majority of the letters are written without errors. Then, even though there are four or more errors on every page, nevertheless, since the majority of each page is without errors, the complete page that has no error saves the entire scroll, as it is possible to repair it [according to the Shitah Mekubetzet].

Abaye said to Rav Yosef: If that page

is complete

with three errors, what is the ruling?

Does this mean that the fact that one complete page saves the scroll applies specifically when that page is entirely complete, without any error whatsoever? Or does it mean that any page that has fewer than four errors—even if it has three errors—is also considered a complete page and saves the entire scroll!?

He said to him,

Rav Yosef:

Since

a Torah scroll that has three errors on every page

is given to be repaired,

it can be repaired,

it may be repaired!

The page that has only three errors can be repaired. Consequently, it saves the entire Torah scroll, even though there are errors on all the other pages, since the entire scroll can be repaired on its account.

And these words

—that we say that if there are four errors on a page it must be placed in geniza—apply

to omissions,

where letters were omitted from it.

But

if the invalidation is

due to additions,

where extra letters or words were written,

we have no concern!

The scroll is not invalid; rather, the extra letters are scraped away, and the scroll is valid.

The Gemara explains:

Why do omissions not

benefit from correction?

Rav Kahana said: Because it appears

that the Torah scroll

is speckled!

This is because when one writes and adds between the lines what had been omitted, the scroll looks speckled. But in the case of additions, scraping away the letters does not disfigure the scroll to the same extent, and it does not look speckled.

Agra, the father-in-law

his father-in-law

of Rabbi Abba, had

four

extra letters

on every page

in his scroll,

in his Torah scroll.

He came before Rabbi Abba

to ask him whether the Torah scroll required geniza.