Menachot 29b — the Talmud in English

Agera, his father-in-law

his father-in-law of

Rabbi Abba ![](pamud.bmp "

exact page location")

the leg of the heh was severed for him,

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

the people

‘Remember this day’,”

by a puncture

because the leg was punctured.

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

in the leg of the heh

the size of a letter

yod

small, it is fit; but if not,

it is

unfit!

Rami bar Tamri, who was Rami bar Dikulei, the leg of the vav was severed for him

in the passage “And it shall be when He brings you” in the tefillin, in the word

“And He will kill”

the Lord every firstborn,”

by a puncture

because the leg was punctured, 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 clever nor foolish,

go and bring a child who is not clever [for if he is clever, he will understand that it is impossible to say “the Lord will be killed,” which is blasphemy toward Heaven, and necessarily he will read it as though “the Lord will kill” were written], and is not 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 kill,” it is fit,

for the letter is fit, since it is read as a vav.

If not

he reads it as a vav, then the meaning of the word

“He will be killed” is so, and it is unfit,

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

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

to the heights

to receive the Torah,

he found

Moses

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

such as the taggin of a Torah scroll

to the letters

of the Torah.

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

Why do You need to add the crowns to the letters?

He said to him: There is one man, who is destined to be [born] at the end of several generations, and Akiva ben Yosef is his name, who is destined to expound upon every thorn a multitude upon multitude of halakhot

from those crowns!

He said to him

Moses our master:

Show him to me?!

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

Go back behind you!

For 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 the voice of the Holy One, blessed be He, to walk backward.

Moses went

Moses our master

and sat at the end of eight rows

of the students who were sitting before Rabbi Akiva,

and he did not know what they were saying,

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

His strength weakened

of Moses our master, for he became distressed that he did not understand the manner of study in Rabbi Akiva’s study hall.

When he reached

Rabbi Akiva

a matter that requires a reason

an explanation,

his students said to him

to Rabbi Akiva:

Rabbi, from where do you have

this matter?

He said to them

Rabbi Akiva: This matter is

a halakha

that was stated

to Moses from Sinai

for this is the law transmitted from Moses our master, and there is no need to explain or prove it through reasoning or through a measure by which the Torah is expounded. Immediately

his mind was settled

of Moses our master!

Moses returned

Moses our master

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 thought before Me.

And you cannot apprehend the end of My thought.

He said before Him

Moses our master,

Master of the Universe! You have shown me his Torah

of Rabbi Akiva,

show me

the giving of

his reward. He said to him: Go back behind you

and see in a prophetic vision

! He went back behind him, and saw that they were weighing

the Romans

his flesh

of Rabbi Akiva

in the butcher shop

in the marketplace, the place where butchers weigh the meat [after he was killed for the sanctification of the 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?

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him

the Holy One, blessed be He:

Be silent!

Thus it arose in thought before Me!

Rabbi Akiva was judged according to what arose in thought before the Holy One, blessed be He, when He contemplated creating the world with the attribute of strict justice] [according to the Gra and the Tzafnat Paneah].

Rava said: Seven letters

in a Torah scroll, tefillin, and mezuzot, and likewise in the other written books of the Prophets and the scrolls,

require

each of them

three adornments

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

And these are they

the letters:

Shatnez Gatz

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

Rav Ashi said: I saw them

I saw

the meticulous scribes

the scribes who are exacting in writing a straight script

who made a hump for the roof of the het

who raised the left leg of the letter het upward and 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 made a hump on the roof of the het, that is to say,

to show and hint

“alive is He,”

the Holy One, blessed be He, and He dwells

in the height of the world,

for the het means “alive,” and the hump points upward.

And the reason

that they suspended the leg of the heh

is

as Rabbi Judah the Prince asked Rav Ami: What

is the explanation of what

is written

in the verse

“Trust in the Lord forever,

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

Rav Ami:

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

And this is the explanation of the verse: because they trusted in the Lord forever, they have in Yah the Lord, the Rock and refuge forever, in both worlds, this world and the World to Come.

He said to him

Rabbi Judah the Prince:

This is what is difficult for me

in this verse:

Why is it different that it is written

in the verse

“in Yah,” and it is not written “Yah.”

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

as Rabbi Judah bar Rabbi Ilai 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 of them He created another world. [And this is the explanation of the verse—“For in Yah 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 a yod, and this world

was created

with a heh,

or

whether the

this world

was created

with a yod, and the World to Come

was created

with a heh?!

When it says

in the verse in the passage of 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 a heh He created them”!

It follows that it is proven from here

that this world

is the one that was created

with a heh, and the World to Come

is the one that was created

with a yod.

And Rabbi Judah bar Rabbi Ilai explains:

And why was the world created with a heh

which is open below

because

this world

resembles a portico

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

so that whoever wishes to go out

to a sinful way of life

may go out,

that is, free choice is in the hands of man!

And what is the reason that its leg is suspended

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

This teaches 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 receive him back.

And we object:

Let him enter

that sinner

through this

lower opening through which he went out; and why do they need a special opening through which he can return in repentance? And we explain:

the matter is not possible

the matter cannot be done! In accordance with the words of

Reish Lakish:

For Reish Lakish said: What

is the explanation of the verse

that is written

in Proverbs:

“If it concerns scoffers

He scoffs, but to the humble He gives grace”?!

This teaches you: whoever

comes to defile himself, they open for him

an opening to become a scoffer 40 .

But whoever

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 repenting; therefore they open a special opening 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,

which is 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 who are 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 who are 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 Joseph said: These two matters,

two laws,

Rav stated in the books

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

and a beraita refutes him

and in a beraita we learned not in accordance with his words.

One

one law

is that which Rav said:

a Torah scroll that has two errors on every page and every page of the scroll

shall be corrected

the scroll; that is, it can be corrected and rendered fit. But when a Torah scroll has

three

errors on every page,

it shall be put into storage!

for it cannot be corrected.

And it was taught as a refutation of Rav

that we learned:

three

errors found on every page

he shall correct; four

errors

shall be put away!

A tanna taught: If there is in it

in a Torah scroll

one complete page

without an error,

it saves them all.

For even if there are four errors on every page, that page in which there is no error saves the entire scroll, since it is possible to correct it.

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

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

when it is written that the majority

of the scroll is proper.

For the majority of the letters are written without errors. And then, even though on every single page there are four errors or more, nevertheless, since the majority of the page is without errors, the complete page in which there is no error saves the entire scroll (according to the Shita Mekubetzet).

Abaye said to Rav Yosef: If there are on that page

complete

three errors, what is [the law]?

Shall we say that what was said—that one complete page saves the scroll—applies specifically when that page is entirely complete, without any error whatsoever? Or shall we say that every page in which there are not four errors, even if there are three errors in it, 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

has been given to be corrected,

it can be corrected,

it is corrected!

It corrects the page that has only three errors. And consequently, it saves the entire Torah scroll, even though there are errors on all the other pages, and through it the entire scroll can be corrected.

And these matters

that we say that if there are four errors on a page it shall be put away,

apply to omissions,

where letters were omitted from it.

But

if the invalidity is

through additions,

where extra letters or words were added,

we have no concern!

For the scroll is not invalid; rather, one scrapes off the additions, 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 spotted!

When he writes and adds between the lines what he omitted. But in the case of additions, scraping off the letters does not disfigure the scroll so greatly, and it does not appear spotted.

Agra, the father-in-law

his father-in-law

of Rabbi Abba, had

four letters

added

on every page

in his scroll,

in his Torah scroll.

He came before Rabbi Abba

to ask him whether the Torah scroll required being put away.