Laws+of+Sofrut

Keset Hasofer

[|See it in Hebrew here:]

Chapter 1

Who is permitted to write and deal in sefarim, tefillin & mezuzot
**1.** It is taught in a baraita (Eruvin 13a): Rabbi Meir said, when I came to Rabbi Ishmael, he said to me "My son, what is your trade?" I said to him "I am a scribe." He said to me "My son, be meticulous in your work, for it is the work of heaven, and if you should omit a single letter or add a single letter, you destroy the entire world." From this we may see that a scribe must be in extreme awe of God, for if he makes one error or fails to make one necessary correction, his soul will perish, because he steals from the masses and causes them to sin - they remain in a state of not performing commandments, and every day make blessings in vain. Of him it is written "One sinner destroys much good" (Kohelet 9:18), and "Cursed is he who does God's work deceitfully" (Jeremiah 48:10). Therefore, those who have the power to appoint scribes should appoint, in each city, men of truth who hate bribes and know Torah, fear God and tremble at his words, just as we appoint kosher butchers. All who write tefillin as good and fit as they possibly can will have their reward doubled and doubled again, and will be saved from the judgement of Gehinnom.

**2.** Sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzot which were written by a heretic are burned. If they were written by a non-Jew, one who rejects the commandments (see the H.M. sec. 488), a woman, a deaf-mute, one mentally impaired, or a minor - they are invalid, and are buried, as it says "Bind them...write them..."; the explanation is that all who are enjoined in binding are enjoined in writing, and all who are not enjoined in binding (not commanded or not believed to be performing it reliably) are not enjoined in writing. Since we learn this from the Torah itself, we require that only one who has definitely reached adulthood, that is, has produced two hairs and is past thirteen years of age (Magen Avraham, and see Noda be-Yehudah tanina sec. 1 and the responsa Keter Cahunah sec. 1), but one who is only presumed to be an adult is invalid to write until he has come of age, or has attained twenty years of age without becoming pubescent.

**3.** Anyone who is invalid to write is invalid for all aspects of their manufacture (see 21:2), and scribes and artesans must take great care that no part of the work is done by women or children.

**4.** There are those who say that a sefer Torah written by a mamzer is invalid.

**5.** If one found a sefer Torah in the possession of a heresiarch, and it was not known who wrote it, it is buried. If it was in the possession of an idol-worshipper, some say it is valid and some say it should also be buried. However, if idol-worshippers are presumed to pillage the books of the Jews, we assume it originated with a Jew and is valid. So too in places where idol-worshippers don't know how to write: we assume that they were plundered. Tefillin in the possession of an idol-worshipper are valid.

**6.** One should not buy sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzot from idol-worshippers for more than their value, so as not to encourage their theft. One is, however, obliged to purchase them for their fair value (even if they require burial), and if the idol-worshipper wants a large price, one must bargain with him and offer him a fair price. If he won't bring his price down, they remain with him (Taz). One must not give him the impression that they are worth significantly less than their true value, lest he tire of them and throw them away.

Extra Text: The Talmud, in Gittin 45b, says: > דתני רב המנונא בריה דרבא מפשרוניא: ס"ת, תפלין ומזוזות שכתבן (מין) ומסור, עובד כוכבים ועבד, אשה וקטן, וכותי וישראל מומר - פסולין, שנאמר: [דברים י"א] וקשרתם... וכתבתם, כל שישנו בקשירה ישנו בכתיבה, וכל שאינו בקשירה אינו בכתיבה; > Rav Hamnuna the son of Rava from Pashronia taught: sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzot written by (some editions: a heretic,) an informer, a non-Jew or a slave, a woman or a child, a Cuthean [a particular group who were converted under duress and were therefore suspected of not being entirely punctilious in their Jewish observance] or an apostate Jew, are invalid, as it is said, [Deut 6:8-9] 'Bind them...write them' - anyone who is commanded to bind is commanded to write, and anyone who is not commanded to bind is not commanded to write.

Chapter 3

Ink, lines, quill, writing with one's right hand
**1.** It is halakha from Moses at Sinai that one writes sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzot with ink alone. Ideally it is made thus: one combines ash from fat, pitch, wax and suchlike (that is, פלאמרוס or קיהנרוס) with tree resin (gum) and a little honey, and crushes it well until it cakes, whereupon he dries it. Before writing, he dissolves it in gallnut-juice or similar, and writes with it, so that if he comes to blot it off, it will go away. This is the ideal ink with which to write sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzot. If one wrote any of these three with gallnut-juice and kankantom (copperwasser) [ferrous sulphate solution], which doesn't blot off, it is valid, and this is how ink is generally made these days - gallnut-juice, gum [arabic], and kankantom - but one must take care that it is properly black from the start [gallotannic inks darken on exposure to air]. The Mosaic halakha specified "ink" to preclude use of other colours - red, green and so on; if one wrote even one letter in another colour, or in gold, it would be invalid. So too one may not write Tanakh in anything other than ink; some say that the requirement of ink is limited to sifrei Torah.

**2.** Ink is invalidated if it started black but faded to red over time; one must take great care that it be good.

**3.** Ink need not be made lishmah; if it is made from wine handled by non-Jews it is technically fit for use. However, for holy work and writing so many Names it is proper that we sanctify ourselves with that which is permitted to us, and distance ourselves from inappropriate matters.

**4.** If one sprinkled gold dust over the letters, he may remove the dust, and the writing which remains is valid, even in tefillin and mezuzot. But if the dust got onto a letter of the Name, there is nothing he can do about it; removing the dust constitutes erasure of the Name.

<span style="color: #333366; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">**5.** It is halakha from Moses at Sinai that sifrei Torah and mezuzot require ruled lines, and if they are written without lines, they are invalid. The lines must be made with a scoring tool, which makes grooves ("sirtut," ruled lines, is like "sarita," groove), and may not be made with lead or other colouring materials. It is proper to rule the lines lishmah. If one made a mistake and had to erase a word, and the line was also erased, he should rule the line afresh. Likewise if one had to suspend a word or words in a sefer Torah between the lines - he must score a line there. Tefillin don't require ruled lines, save the topmost line - some say they require lines at top, bottom and the two sides, even if he is able to keep his writing straight. If one isn't able to keep his writing straight, he must rule every line.

<span style="color: #333366; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">**6.** One should take care to have a nice-looking pen, even if it doesn't make the writing itself look any different. Some say that one should write with a reed pen and not a feather, but this is not the custom; we write with feathers, and even with metal. Some doubt whether one may write with the feather of a ritually impure bird.

<span style="color: #333366; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">**7.** One must write with his right hand, and if he wrote with the left, it is invalid. If one had tefillin which were written with the left hand, and could not find any which were written with the right hand, he should put them on, but should not make a blessing. One who is left-handed should here read "left" for "right;" if he wrote with his right hand it is invalid. If one is ambidextrous, he should write with the right hand, but if he wrote with his left it is valid. If one writes with his right hand but his left is dominant for everything else, or vice versa, he should not train to become a sofer, but if he writes, he falls into the category of an ambidexter. It once happened that someone with no hands wrote by holding the pen in his lips, and those tefillin were declared invalid even if no others were to be found, because writing is simply not done with the lips.

It is necessary to write lishmah, and other laws of writing; one does not invert a sheet
1. Sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzot must be written with great concentration and lishmah, and this must be verbalised before one begins to write. That is, before he starts to write he must say "I write this sefer for the holiness of a sefer Torah." This is sufficient for the entire sefer (gloss: except for the Divine Names, which must be sanctified separately, sv para 10), and so too for tefillin and mezuzah; he must say "for the holiness of tefillin" "mezuzah." And if it does not issue from his lips - if he only thinks it - some opinions rule that this is invalid even post facto, and some opinions rule that it is acceptable post facto, which seems to be the general idea.

2. If one starts to nod off, he should not write in that state, because it is not writing with concentration. So too if he had drunk intoxicating liquor: he should not write so, because he cannot concentrate appropriately (sv OH 32:19).

3. Each and every letter must be entirely written lishmah, since if even a only small part was written not lishmah, and most of it was written lishmah, it is still invalid (Mahari"ch, 1:1). All the more so if a small part of the letter was not made by writing at all, for instance if a drop of ink fell and he made it into a letter: it is invalid (see Excursus 1) (Knesset ha-Gedolah and Peri Megadim in Even ha-Ezer 125). Even if he subsequently wrote, lishmah, over the whole letter with a quill, it is of no effect; the upper layer of writing does not help.

4. Before one starts to write he should test his pen, to see that there is not an excess of ink, which will spoil it.

5. When one writes a sefer Torah, there must be another sefer before him, thoroughly proofread, from which he will copy, because it is forbidden to write even one letter without reference to another copy. Therefore, every sofer should take care to have a humash which has been thoroughly proofread, by an expert well versed in proofreading, from which to copy. But in any case, it is not necessary to take each letter one by one from the copy, but in the manner of copyists he may take two or three words at a time, or more as they appear naturally in the Torah (Benei Yonah). If he did write without reference to a copy, some forbid reading from it unless in extremely straitened circumstances (the Ran in the name of the Yerushalmi), and there are those who say that post facto it is not invalidated (ha-rav Rabbi Menoah).

6. Even if one is transcribing from a copy, he must also speak each word out loud before he writes it, in order that he not err (Rashi and Tosafot, Menahot 30), and also in order that the holiness of the breath of reading of each and every word which comes from his mouth is drawn over the words (Ba"h). Only words of admonition need not be spoken aloud (Tosafot, Mordechai).

7. One must be exacting regarding the haser and yeter spellings, for if he wrote an extended word without some of its letters or a contracted word with extra letters, it is invalid. A word which has differing oral and lexical traditions, such as the written word yishgalenah [he will fornicate with her, Dev 28:30] which is spoken yishkavenah [he will lie with her], or the word written u-ve-`ofelim [and with swellings, Dev 28:27] which is spoken u-vatehorim [and with haemorrhoids], and the like, must be written with the lexical tradition, and if he changed it and wrote according to the oral tradition, it is invalid.

8. Tefillin and mezuzot: if one knows the texts very well he may write them without transcribing from a copy, provided he says each word aloud.

9. Even when transcribing from a copy, it is not appropriate that one should write unless he knows how to read, and if he does not know how to read, even if he knows the letters he is very likely to err, because he does not perceive it.

10. It is permitted to take up ink from the letter that was written when he needs ink for another part of the writing, or even to dispose of it if he needs to - in order to make it dry faster so that he can roll the sefer up - but he is forbidden to use it for a secular purpose (Sha"ch). It is forbidden to take up ink from the divine Name, even if he wants to use it to write another divine Name. Only if there is an inappropriate amount of ink in it may we be lenient - even to dispose of it - because when he started he only sanctified what he needed, and the excess would spoil it (Benei Yonah) (and see below, 10:10).

11. Those who write sefarim, tefillin and mezuzot: when they come to lay the sheet down so that it will dry, they may not turn the writing face down, even if the intent was to prevent dust settling on the writing; in all cases it is degrading. Rather, the writing should be face up, and he should spread a garment over it or double it over (Rambam), and where this is impossible he may turn it over since not turning it over would be a greater degredation.

<span style="color: #333366; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Chapter 6

<span style="color: #333366; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Determining form using a child
<span style="color: #333366; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">**1.** If one cannot tell whether a letter has the correct proportions, or is doubtful whether it has its form, and thinks it may be pasul, he shows it to a child who is neither particularly smart nor particularly backward, and if he reads it correctly, it is valid. Using a child to test a letter is applicable only when it is unclear whether the letter is valid; if we can see that the letter is not valid (and if the yuds of aleph, shin or ayin or the leg of tav had become detached, and so on), the child's interpretation doesn't help because we have seen for ourselves that the letter is not correctly made and is invalid. <span style="color: #333366; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">**2.** A child who is neither particularly smart nor particularly backward is one who does not comprehend the context but knows and recognises the letters reliably. One need not hide the letters which follow the letter in question, but it is the custom to hide the preceding letters.

Ketivah tamah, spacing between letters and words

 * 1.** It is written "And you shall write them" - //ktavtam// - from which we derive "flawless writing," //ktav tam//. That is to say, each letter should be clearly recognisable, and related to this, no letter should be stuck to another even by the tiniest bit; even the taggin must be separated (see ch. 5 par. 4) and each letter must be surrounded by blank klaf in all directions. The aleph-lamed ligature is not a valid substitute for aleph-lamed. One must leave a hair's-breadth between each letter, and they must not be too far from each other lest one word appear like two. One should leave the space of a small letter between each word (that is, a yud in the size of script one is using), and should not bring them too close together lest two words appear like one. If one causes one word to appear like two to a child, or two words as one, it is invalid. If one left a letter off the beginning or end of a word and superscribed it between the lines, it is valid even if he puts it between two words and it extends across the whole gap, since we can still see that they are intended as two words.


 * 2.** The klaf should be intact, with no holes, but if there is a hole so small that the ink fills it and closes it up, it is valid. If one holds the klaf up to the light after writing, and the hole is visible in the body of the letter and divides it into two, it is invalid, but if the hole is entirely within the body of the letter, with ink surrounding it on all sides, it is valid (thus it appears from a precise reading of the Magen Avraham) (and it seems to me that one should patch it from the back and fill the hole with ink). It seems to me that if the hole was not surrounded with ink but was not dividing the letter into two, like if it was at the edge of the letter, the letter is not surrounded by blank klaf, and one should be stringent even if the hole is only visible when held to the light.


 * 8.** One must be careful not to let the head of lamed enter into the empty space of a letter in the line above, even if they don't touch.

Carving out a letter invalidates - חק תוכות (//__h__ak tokhot//).

 * 1.** We may further learn from the word //u-khtavtam// the requirement that every letter be made by writing, particularly, and not by means of scraping - that is, by means of //__h__ak tokhot//. For example, if one scraped out the middle of a letter and its sides, and in so doing found that there remained a letter with the correct form, it is invalid because of //__h__ak tokhot.// Therefore, if one erred and wrote dalet instead of reish, or beit instead of khaph, or vice versa, he cannot fix it by scraping off the protrusion, because this is //__h__ak tokhot.//
 * 2.** Even if he only formed part of the letter by //__h__ak tokhot//, it is still invalid (see Excursus 2). Therefore, if one started and formed part of the letter correctly, and then it became spoiled by his error or from a blot falling on it and a small part of the letter was defective - even if it was only a tiny point defective, if it was a point without which the letter was invalid - and he scraped off the erroneous part and below, and after that finished the letter by writing, it is also invalid. For since at the start the entire letter was spoiled by the damage, and only by scraping did the form of part of the letter remain, this is also called //__h__ak tokhot//, and it is invalid - rather, he must remove it entirely, and write the whole letter properly. However, if the letter is composed of two pieces of writing, and it became invalid from the second piece, it is only necessary to scrape away the portion which made it invalid (see below in 8; there are some who are stringent about this). Scribes must be very conscientious about the laws of //__h__ak tokhot.// We will explain some of them here, and the remainder follow logically from them.
 * 3.** If the upper yud of the aleph became joined to the middle line which goes along its diagonal there are different procedures. If he wrote the yud first and then the middle line, the yud was made correctly and he has only to scrape the middle line away entirely, because it was invalid before it was finished. But if he wrote the middle line first and after that the yud and it became joined, he scrapes away the yud and not the line, because the line was made correctly and the yud made it invalid. If he did not correct it until after he had made the underneath yud, he must scrape away that also. If the underneath yud became joined, and not the upper, he needs to scrape only it away and write it afresh.
 * 4.** And if the whole aleph was written correctly and a drop of ink subsequently fell onto it, even onto the upper yud, it is sufficient to scrape that alone away and write it correctly.
 * 5.** If a drop of ink fell - even if it is still wet - into the interior of beit such that it appears like peh, or such that it could no longer be called beit, or if it fell into the middle of a different letter and it is no longer recognisable, the letter is invalid, and it is of no avail to scrape away the ink-blot such that the letter looks right, but he must scrape off the whole letter. And if he erred and wrote hey instead of dalet, likewise it is of no avail to scrape away the leg to leave dalet - but he need not scrape away the entire letter; after he has scraped away the blot, he need only scrape away the roof, so that the form of dalet is nullified, and then he can complete the letter by writing. If one wrote khaph peshuta instead of hey, he must first scrape away the leg until he has made dalet, and afterwards he writes the left leg (see para. 10). If he wrote the left leg first, he cannot fix it until he has scraped away the entire [right] leg. If he erred thus in a divine Name - further consideration is required (Peri Megadim, 32, Eshel Avraham paragraph 26).
 * 6.** If the opening of mem petuha joined up and closed, it does not help to scrape the joined part and open it. What should one do? He should scrape the whole snout [the vav part] until what remains resembles khaph or nun kefufa, and afterwards complete it correctly. This is the rule for all letters which are made from two writings - if it was made invalid by one of the writings, it is only necessary to scrape away that one. But if one made reish like dalet [squared at the corner], one should be stringent and say that it is not sufficient to scrape away only the leg before rewriting it as reish, because it was made invalid between the roof and the leg equally, and therefore it is necessary to erase both. And if he wrote reish and afterwards erred and added a point like dalet, it is sufficient to erase either the roof or the leg, with the point, and then rewrite it as reish - but blessings are upon one who is stringent in this.
 * 7.** The case of yud whose left point extends as much as the right leg (or more), and hence resembles __h__et. The method of fixing seems to me thus: if the scribe first wrote the yud with the right leg and after that made the left point and extended it too far, in this case it is sufficient to scrape away this point and also the right leg, and then write it correctly. But if he made the left one first (as is the custom of many scribes when writing yud - they first make a thin line which forms the tag and the left point, and extend this to the body of the yud), he must erase the entire yud and write it afresh. In either case, if he is able to fix it with ink, that is good (for the yud in the Divine Name, see chapter 12 para. 12).
 * 8.** There are some great scholars who teach that also in the case of letters made from two parts, such as mem petuha which became closed up and suchlike, that it is not sufficient to scrape off only the second part - by which it became invalid - but he must scrape away the whole letter and write it afresh. One should ideally be stringent like this when it is possible (Ganzfried, 125:38; Responsa of the Zikaron Yosef, ch. 3).
 * 9.** If one extended the roof of khaph peshuta such that it resembled reish, he must scrape away the roof until only the form of a vav remains. If it was in the divine Name "//eloheikha//" - see below, 12:13.
 * 10.** If one erred and wrote hey instead of __h__et, it is better to scrape away the entire hey. Post facto, if one fixed it in this manner: he scraped away the leg and the roof until only a small part and the right leg remained, like vav or zayin, and afterwards wrote a zayin to its left and joined them with a hump, it is also valid. And since post facto __h__et is valid without a hump, if he wrote the dalet of the hey it was not made invalidly, because it could have been made into a flat __h__et, and since the dalet was not made invalidly, it is not necessary to scrape it all away, only as much as he needs to fix it.
 * 11.** If one made a __h__et in this manner: he wrote dalet and zayin and put a hump on top of them - if the right point of the hump was joined to the right side of the dalet, across from the right leg [image], it may be fixed: he may scrape at the dalet until it resembles zayin, and this is valid even for tefillin and mezuzot, even if he had continued on (and there is no issue with writing out of order since it did not need to be corrected by writing). But if the hump was joined on the left side of the dalet, he must scrape away it all, or to the opening of the hump and the roof of the dalet, until only the form of a zayin remains, and afterwards he writes the hump - and for tefillin and mezuzot, if he had continued writing, it cannot be fixed. It makes no difference to all this whether the dalet was made on the right side and the zayin on the left or vice versa.
 * 12.** If one wrote shin with four heads: even if a child recognised it, one still cannot fix it by scraping off one of the yuds so that three heads remain. Instead, he must nullify its form and complete it, since if he does not, it constitutes //__h__ak tokhot//. With tefillin and mezuzot, if he had continued writing, it cannot be fixed because it will be out of order.
 * 13.** In any case where a letter has become invalid by //__h__ak tokhot//, it does not help if he goes over it afterwards with a quill.
 * 14.** If wax or fat dropped onto the letters - even if the letters are obscured - in all cases, after the wax or fat has been removed, it is valid (see 11:4), and this does not constitute //__h__ak tokhot//, because even when the wax or fat is on them, they are not nullified, just obscured.
 * 15.** If a letter became stuck to another and its form was not spoiled, but each had its form - if the join was made before the word was finished, it is permitted to scrape away just the join only in pressing circumstances, like if it was a letter in a divine Name. It seems to me that this is also so for tefillin and mezuzot if one had continued writing, so they should not be made to require geniza. But if there are not pressing circumstances, he must erase the whole second letter which is stuck to its fellow. If, however, the join was made after the second letter was completed, like if one wrote vav after nun and the bottom of the nun ran into the vav, he may scrape away just the join, and this does not constitute //__h__ak tokhot//, because the form of the letter was completed before they became joined - and a blessing is upon one who is stringent and scrapes away the entire vav (see Excursus 6).
 * 16.** If the letter became stuck after he had already moved his hand and lifted the quill from the letter - whether the join was at the top or at the bottom, he can scrape and it is of no consequence whatsoever. This is if the forms of the letters were not spoiled, but if the forms were changed because of the join between the first and second letters, obviously scraping doesn't help, and he must rectify it as explained above.

<span style="color: #333366; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Text taken from: http://www.hasoferet.com/ritual/keset/chapter1.shtml