Halakhah Study Group 047
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BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI
of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel
HALAKHAH STUDY GROUP
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147:5-6
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מוטב תגלל המטפחת סביב הספר תורה ולא יגלול הספר תורה כשכורכו במטפחת: הגולל ספר תורה בתוך התיק טועה:
It is preferable that the kerchief be wound around the Torah scroll rather than that the Torah scroll be rolled while being tied with the kerchief.
Anyone who rolls the Torah scroll inside its container is in error. EXPLANATIONS:
1:
Today's shiur contains two short paragraphs from section 147 – paragraphs 5 and 6. These paragraphs are a continuation of what has preceded and they too are concerned with how the Torah scroll is handled after the reading is completed. 2: 3:
He should not grasp the kerchief in his hand and roll the Torah scroll around it, since this is no honour for the Torah scroll.
As regards the Sefaradi custom this 'explanation' is almost incomprehensible since the kerchief – which is used by each honoree to touch the scroll – is not wound round the scroll at all but attached to the scroll's casing. It seems more likely that Kagan's explanation here is with reference to an Ashkenazi-type scroll and it describes the use of a belt or tie that is used to hold the two sides of the scroll together. (This tie is called in Yiddish a Wimpel.) He seems to be saying that the scroll should be firmly rolled closed, the two sides of the scroll tautened, and only then should the tie be clasped around the scroll to hold it together.
4:
When someone is holding a Torah scroll on his knees for private reading he should not first place the scroll back into its container and then roll it shut, but should first close the scroll and tighten it properly and only then return it to its casing.
In Sefaradi usage today the scroll is not removed from its case at all for public reading.
DISCUSSION:
In Torah 045 we discussed the ruling that one should not touch the Torah scroll with one's bare hands. Josh Greenfield suggested that the prohibition is intended to protect the scroll from unnecessary wear and tear. I pointed out that halakhically there is no requirement that an honoree touch the text of the scroll before reciting the berakhot. Dan Werlin has a very interesting suggestion:
Perhaps also the rule for not touching the Torah scroll during the reading has its roots in the Talmudic ruling (Shabbat 14a) that touching a Torah scroll imparts impurity to the hands. If I've read the sugya correctly, this rule was implemented because Torah scrolls and terumah were being stored together, both being holy. However, rodents who came for the grain I respond: We noted this when we studied Tractate Yadayyim, Chapter 3, Mishnah 3. There [explanation #4] I wrote:
This, too, is a rabbinic decree connected with the priests' Terumah – like everything else connected with 'netilat yadayyim'. It seems that in Tannaïtic times people were wont to store their copies of Holy Writ in the same place as they stored their Terumah produce. Their idea was that both were holy. Rodents, seeking out the Terumah produce, would also make a meal of the parchment scrolls that they found in close proximity. To prevent this desecration of sacred literature, and to cure the populace of this peculiar habit, the sages decreed that Terumah produce that came into physical contact
with copies of Holy Writ thereby become disqualified. In order to further reinforce this innovation they also decreed that hands that had touched copies of Holy Writ were thereby rendered secondary sources of contamination and, in turn, would disqualify any Terumah produce in contact with which they came without 'netilat yadayyim'. (As we noted when we first began studying this tractate, the sages then further reinforced their decree by saying that unwashed hands – whether they had touched Holy Writ or not – disqualified Terumah produce; and then, finally, they decreed that all bread – whether it is Terumah or secular – requires 'netilat yadayyim'.) |