Menachot 30a (ל.) — the Talmud in English

He said to him

Rabbi Abba:

We said

that the Torah scroll is invalid

only in a case of omissions,

when four letters are missing on every page

but with additions, we have no problem!

He can scrape away the excess letters.

This concludes the Gemara’s explanation of Rav’s first statement!

The other

statement, the second statement that Rav made concerning the laws of a Torah scroll, and which is challenged by the beraita, is this:

Rav said: One who writes a Torah scroll and has come to complete

the writing of the final verse in the portion of Ve-Zot HaBerakha,

completes

the writing

even in the middle of the page,

and he need not specifically complete the writing of the Torah scroll at the end of the page. [A page means a full column in a Torah scroll].

The Gemara raises an objection: One who writes a Torah scroll and has come to complete

the writing of the scroll at the conclusion of the portion of Ve-Zot HaBerakha,

should not complete it in the middle of the page in the manner

in which

he can complete

it at the conclusion of the other

Books of the Torah.

Rather, he shortens

the lines

and proceeds,

continually narrowing their width until he completes the words at the end of the scroll, “before the eyes of all Israel,”

at the end of the page.

This beraita is difficult for Rav, who permits completing the scroll in the middle of the page.

The Gemara answers:

When Rav said

that one may complete it in the middle of the page, he was referring

to the Books of the Torah,

which are made and written on parchment like a Torah scroll, but are not bound together and are not made with the sanctity of a Torah scroll; rather, each Book was written separately.

The Gemara asks:

But Rav said “Torah scroll,”

and how can it be said that Rav was speaking about separate Books?

The Gemara answers: What Rav said—that one may complete it in the middle of the page—was said with regard to the conclusion of the

Books of the Torah

within a Torah scroll, for example, at the conclusion of Genesis, Exodus, and so on. But at the conclusion of the Torah scroll itself, in the portion of Ve-Zot HaBerakha, in the verse “before the eyes of all Israel,” Rav agrees that one must complete it at the end of the page.

The Gemara refutes this:

Is that so? But Rabbi Yehoshua bar Abba said that Rav Giddal said that Rav said: “Before the eyes of all Israel”

was written

in the middle of the page!

It is evident that even at the conclusion of the Torah scroll Rav said that one may complete it in the middle of the page!?

The Gemara answers:

That

statement in which Rav said that “before the eyes of all Israel” was written in the middle does not mean in the middle of the page. Rather, he meant

in the middle of the line,

the final line of the scroll. But Rav agrees that one must complete it at the end of the page.

It was stated: The Rabbis say:

It is possible to complete “before the eyes of all Israel” in the middle of the page

and even in the middle of a line!

Rav Ashi said: “Before the eyes of all Israel” was written

in the middle of a line

specifically,

but not in the middle of the page; rather, at its end, so that everyone will know that this is the conclusion of the Torah [Taz].

Rabbi Yehoshua bar Abba said that Rav Giddal said that Rav said:

The final eight verses

of the Torah,

beginning with the verse “And Moses died there,”

one

person

reads them in the synagogue

before the congregation; the reading is not interrupted in those verses so that another person may stand and read them. 44 .

The Gemara explains:

In accordance with whom

was this law stated?

Not in accordance with Rabbi Shimon!

As it was taught

in a beraita: It is stated in the verse,

“And Moses, servant of the Lord, died there.” But is it possible

that

Moses was alive and wrote

by himself

“And Moses died there”

while he was still alive?

Rather, Moses wrote up to this point,

whereas

from here,

from the verse “And Moses died there,”

and onward, Joshua son of Nun wrote; this is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda. And some say

that

Rabbi Neḥemya

said this.

Rabbi Shimon said to him:

But is it

possible

that

a Torah scroll was lacking

even

a single letter,

and Moses called it a “Torah scroll”!?

And it is written

in the portion of Va-Yelekh: “And Moses commanded the Levites, etc.:

Take this Torah scroll and place it

etc.” Since you say that Moses did not write those final eight verses, the Torah scroll was incomplete. How, then, could Moses tell the Levites to take “this Torah scroll”?

Rather, up to this point the Holy One, blessed be He, would dictate

to Moses,

and Moses would repeat

after Him, so that he would not make a mistake,

and write. From here,

from the beginning of these eight verses

and onward, the Holy One, blessed be He, would dictate,

and Moses would write in tears

and would not repeat after the Holy One, blessed be He, because of his great anguish. 46 .

As it is stated below,

in the Book of Jeremiah, when Baruch explained to the officers how he had written the Scroll of Lamentations:

“And Baruch said to them: From his mouth he would read all these words to me,

Jeremiah,

and I would write them in the scroll in ink.”

This indicates that Jeremiah spoke the words of prophecy, while Baruch merely wrote them and did not repeat them aloud, since they were words of lamentation and he was in anguish.

The Gemara explains:

Shall we say

that the statement of Rav Giddal, who said that Rav said that one person reads the eight verses, is

not in accordance with Rabbi Shimon?

According to Rabbi Shimon, since Moses wrote them, they are no different from the other verses of the Torah, and the reading may be interrupted between them, allowing another person to read part of them.

The Gemara answers:

Even if you say that it is in accordance with Rabbi Shimon,

nevertheless, the reading may not be interrupted in them,

since they are different,

for they differ from the other verses in that they were written in tears. Therefore,

they are different

also with regard to their status, from the other verses of the Torah scroll: only one person reads them in the synagogue. 47 .

And Rabbi Yehoshua bar Abba said that Rav Giddal said that Rav said: One who purchases

—that is, acquires—

a Torah scroll from the marketplace

is

like one who “snatches” a mitzva from the marketplace,

for although he has fulfilled the mitzva, nevertheless, had he written the Torah scroll and exerted himself in it, he would have had an additional mitzva. 48 .

If one writes it

rather than purchasing it from the marketplace,

the verse regards him as though he received it from Mount Sinai! [

For the attribute of mercy can say that just as he exerted himself here, so too he would have exerted himself to travel in the wilderness to receive the Torah from Mount Sinai. Nimukei Yosef].

Rav Sheshet said: If one corrected

a Torah scroll,

even a single letter

that contained an error,

the verse regards him

as having

written it.

He is no longer considered like one who snatched a mitzva from the marketplace. 49 .

The Sages taught: A person may make a sheet

of a Torah scroll

from one containing three pages to one containing eight pages.

That is, each sheet may contain from three pages to eight pages.

Less than this,

than three pages,

or more than this,

than eight pages,

he should not make!

He should not make one containing fewer than three pages, so that the stitches will not be too close to one another, as it is not aesthetically pleasing for a Torah scroll to have adjacent stitches , and he should not make one containing more than eight pages, so that the stitches will not be too far apart, since the stitches enhance the beauty of a Torah scroll. 51 .

Nor may he make more than eight columns, so that the stitches will not be too far apart, since the stitches add beauty to a Torah scroll. 51.

And one should not increase

the number so as to make eight

pages

in a sheet when he has a small sheet,

because

the pages will be narrow in width

and each page will appear

like

a letter

rather than like a page of a book.

And one should not reduce

the number so as to make three

pages

that are broad in a sheet when he has a large sheet,

because his eyes will wander

when he comes to read, on account of the width of the lines, and he will err at the beginnings of the lines.

Rather,

the measure of the width of a page required as a mitzva is

such that

he can write on it

“according to your families” three times!

Its measure is one tefaḥ. [Hagahot Maimoniyot].

If a sheet came into his hands

which, according to the measure of the other pages in that scroll, is a sheet

of nine pages,

he must divide it, as we said that he should not make a sheet of more than eight pages.

He should not divide

the sheet in the measure of

three

pages

on this side

and a measure of

six on that side. Rather,

it should be divided into

four

pages

on this side, and five

pages on that side, so that one will not be excessively larger than the other. 52 .

When are these matters stated,

that one should neither reduce nor increase the number of pages?

At the beginning of the scroll,

and in its continuation.

But at the end of the scroll, even if

he has only

one verse

left to write, he should write it over the entire sheet,

and even one page

he should make from the entire sheet.

The Gemara raises a difficulty: Is it possible that

“one verse” is what entered your mind?

He must complete the Torah scroll at the end of the page, so how can one verse fill the entire sheet?

The Gemara answers:

Rather, say

that he may make

one verse on one page

by shortening the lines and writing one word on each line, so that he completes the verse at the end of the page [and the rest of the sheet may remain blank]. 53 .

The beraita continues:

The measure of the margin

—the blank space that must be left in a Torah scroll—

below:

at the end of the writing, one leaves

a tefaḥ

blank.

Above,

it is sufficient to leave

three fingerbreadths,

as the hand does not handle the upper margin as it does the lower margin [Nimukei Yosef].

And between page and page

one leaves

the space of two fingerbreadths.

And in the Books of the Torah,

which are not made as a Torah scroll but are made with the margins of a Torah scroll,

below

one leaves

three fingerbreadths, and above, two fingerbreadths.

And between

each

page and page

in the Books of the Torah one leaves

a space the width of a thumb.

And between

each

line [

line]

and line

one should leave a space, both in a Torah scroll and in the Books of the Torah,

the width of a line.

And between

each

word and word

one should leave a space

the width of a small letter [

yod]. 54 .

And between

each

letter and letter

one should leave a space

the width of a hairsbreadth.

And likewise,

a person should not reduce

when writing a Torah scroll

the writing.

That is, the writer should plan the form of the writing in advance, so that he will not reach a situation in which he must reduce the ordinary size of the letters used elsewhere in the scroll, thereby impairing the beauty of the writing. If some of the letters are large and some small, the writing will not be attractive. [Nimukei Yosef] 55 .

And he should plan his writing carefully so that he will not need to reduce the size of the letters,

not because of the lower margin,

at the bottom of the sheet, so that it will have the proper measure of margin.

And not because of the upper margin,

so that there will be a measure of three fingerbreadths of blank sheet.

And not because of the margin between one line and the next.

That is, he should plan so that it does not happen that two lines whose ruling is close together come together, and, in order to leave a margin the width of one line between one line and the next, he will be forced to reduce the size of the letters; consequently, the letters in those two lines will be smaller than the letters in the other lines.

And not because of the margin between one parasha and the next,

as required for the margin between an open parasha or a closed parasha [as will be explained below].

And if

it happens to him

as the scribe of a Torah scroll, while writing

a five-letter word

at the end of the line, and there is not enough room on the line to write the entire word, so that he must continue it outside the line, beyond the ruling of the sheet, then

he should not write two

letters

inside the sheet and three

letters

outside the sheet [

that is, in the margin between the sheets],