Ask the Rabbi - 322
September 15, 2001 / 27 Elul 5761; Issue #322
- Four Directions
- Torah Scroll
- Public Domain
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Contents:
Four Directions
Contents
From: Seru
Dear Rabbi,
When G-d showed Moses the land of Israel, G-d told him: "Look west, north, south and east." (Deuteronomy 3:27) If Moshe was standing outside Israel (to the east) looking in, then only three directions would apply, because if he looked in back of him it would be a position outside of Israel; so why is he told to look in 4 directions?
Dear Seru,
Moshe was told to look not only at the land of Israel, but at the lands of Sichon and Og as well (which Moshe had just conquered) and which were part of the greater Eretz Yisrael. These were behind Moshe, to the east. Another answer is that when Moshe was told to look "east," this meant that he should look to the east of the Land of Israel; he would be looking west when he did so.
Torah ScrollContents
From: Jake Stein
Dear Rabbi,
My name is Jake Stein and I am in fourth grade. My question is, please tell me about the Torah scroll. Thank you.
Dear Jake Stein,
Thank you for writing. To answer you, we are sending you an article written by Rabbi Aron Prys. He is a scribe, and he writes Torah scrolls. If you want more answers about the Torah scroll, you can write to us or to him. (His email is at the bottom.) Here is his message:
Writing a Torah Scroll
Writing a sefer Torah (Torah Scroll) is one of the 613 commandments. It is the last commandment mentioned in the Torah, and it occurs in Parshat Vayeilech where Hashem tells Moshe: “And now, write this song for yourselves and teach it to Bnei Yisrael, place it in their mouth….” Our sages take this to refer to writing the entire Torah.
The Talmud says that the Torah contains 600,000 letters; these correspond to the 600,000 Jews who received the Torah at Mount Sinai. When counting, you find only about 300,000 letters in the Torah, but if you count the gaps between the words and the crowns on top of the letters it comes to about 600,000. The crowns are very significant; the famous Rabbi Akiva was able to discover many halachic insights by searching their meanings.
Moshe wrote 13 Torah scrolls before he died (7 Adar 1272 BCE). He gave one to each of the 12 tribes and the 13th he placed in the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle. It was therefore always possible to check the “master copy” to prevent forgery. Later on, a copy of the sefer Torah was also placed in the Temple.
The text of the sefer Torah has been very carefully preserved. Yemenite Jews were separated from the vast majority of Jewish communities for centuries. In 1948-50, during “Operation Magic Carpet,” most came to Israel. When their Torah scrolls were checked against the local ones, they were found identical, word for word! A few minor spelling variations were found, not affecting the meaning of even a single word. (Think of English spelling variations such as “color” and “colour.”)
It was also Moshe himself who introduced the practice to read the Torah publicly every Shabbat, Monday and Thursday during the morning prayers.
In many landmark events in the history of our nation, public reading of the Torah played a key role. The Bible relates that Chilkiah, the high priest, discovered a sefer Torah in the Temple. Why was this discovery so exciting? This happened in the 10th year of the reign of the righteous king Josiah, who was 18 years old (627 BCE). Josiah’s father Menashe, who was king for a record 55 years, introduced idol worship; during his reign Judaism was widely forgotten and most Torah scrolls were destroyed. This is why finding this Torah scroll was so significant. After reading the Torah, King Josiah was overcome with sadness for unknowingly not keeping all its commandments. He and all the Jews of his kingdom resolved to keep all the commandments from then on. Josiah wiped out all visible traces of idolatry.
Surely Josiah read in the Torah that the king has a special commandment to write his own sefer Torah which was to be always at his side so that he could read it and remind himself of his duties, as it says: “And it shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life.” He took it with him when he went into battle, when he sat in judgement and when he sat down for a meal.
The second-to-last commandment in the Torah, “Hakhel”, or “gather,” mandates that every seven years everyone gather together and that the king read to them part of the book of Devarim.
Josiah died in 607 BCE. Not long after, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple. It was re-built 70 years later; the religious level, however, had dropped drastically, and intermarriage was rife. When Ezra the Scribe arrived in Israel in 458 BCE, he changed things. On Rosh Hashanah that year, Ezra publicly read the Torah from early morning until midday to a large populace. This reading made an enormous impact, leading to a great wave of return to Jewish observance and an end to intermarriage.
Ezra the Scribe instituted public Torah readings in addition to those introduced by Moshe.
Today we still use quill, ink and parchment to write a sefer Torah as did Moshe over 3300 years ago. Most scribes immerse themselves in the mikveh (ritual bath) before writing the ineffable name of Hashem. A scribe must concentrate very hard, since even the slightest mistake can render a Torah invalid. It is therefore almost impossible to write for longer than a few hours a day, and many scribes write in the morning and study in the afternoon.
It takes about a year and a half to write a sefer Torah and it is therefore very special and precious. Then the sefer Torah is brought to the synagogue under a canopy, accompanied by singing and dancing, followed by a festive meal. The first and the last letter of the Torah are especially important. They spell lev, or heart, which constitutes an essential ingredient in the Service of G-d.
Writing a sefer Torah is a pivotal commandment. It concludes the 613 commandments and, in a sense, it encompasses all the others, for it reminds us of all the commandments contained in it. At the same time, being placed towards the end of the Torah, we read it near the account of Creation (when we finish reading the Torah, we immediately begin again.) The Midrash tells us that the whole world was created for the sake of the Torah. By writing a sefer Torah we demonstrate that we understand that this is the purpose for which we have been created: To keep the Torah and its commandments.
Aron Prys <aron@aprys.freeserve.co.uk>
The Sefer Torah Centre - www.sefertorahcentre.com.
e-mail: enquiries@sefertorahcentre.comSources:
· Devarim, 31:19, 10-13 and Rashi, 17:19
· Sanhedrin 21b
· Menachot 29b. See also Eruvin 21b re: Shir Hashirim 5:11
· Midrash Rabbah, Devarim, 9:9
· Mishneh Torah, Tefillah, 12:1
· Mishnah Sanhedrin, 2:4 and Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Melachim, 3:1
· Vayikra Rabbah Parsha 23
The Public Domain
Comments, quibbles, and reactions concerning previous "Ask-the-Rabbi" features.
Re: Yiddle Riddle (Ohrnet Vaetchanan):
Regarding your Yiddle Riddle asking for grandfather-grandson pairs in the amida. If you consider including the "yehi ratzon" immediately following the amida, you have Yehuda, which is also the name of a grandson (Yehuda Macabee) of Yochanan mentioned in the Chanukah edition to the amida.
Philip Silverman, Atlanta GAYaakov (first blessing) and his grandson Ephraim, mentioned in the Mussaf of Yom Kippur.
Neil Parks, Beachwood, Ohio
Written by various Rabbis at Ohr Somayach Institutions / Tanenbaum College, Jerusalem, Israel.
General Editor: Rabbi Moshe Newman
Production Design: Binyamin Rosenstock
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