Letter in a Sefer Torah

[Jude]

All sorts of groups (shuls, yeshivos) sell letters etc. in their Sifrei Torah. Where did the idea come from - the Rebbe? Was it ever done in generations past?

[ChachChach]

There's a mitzvah in the Rambam that one is obligated to write a sefer Torah. I think the Rebbe was the one who said that you can fulfill this by buying a letter in a sefer Torah

[rebayzl]

Chach, with all due respect, I believe you have it all wrong.

It was always a minhag to sell the zechus of writing the last letters in the torah during a siyum.

There is no way to be Mekayem the Mitzvah Of Ketivat Sefer Torah by buying One Letter.

[Bittul]

There is an excellent booklet called the 613th Commandment which describes in detail what the Rebbe accomplished. You fulfill the obligation to write a Sefer Torah by buying your letter, aside from all the other ideas. And it originates with the Rebbe.

[Jude]

what's the motivation behind it when others sell letters etc. - simply a fundraiser, or do they think it's more than that?

and even if it's only as a fundraiser, would you say the idea to raise money this way came from the Rebbe saying everybody should buy a letter in a Sefer Torah? (not that the Rebbe said it to raise funds, but the Rebbe said a dollar should be given per letter)

[Jude]

In response to the current crisis with Iraq, the Children’s Sefer Torah Committee is working to increase the number of letters purchased in the fourth Children’s Sefer Torah to ensure that it will be completed this year. The director of the Committee, Rabbi Shmuel Greisman, a shliach of the Rebbe to Israel, has called upon shluchim everywhere to register as many children as possible.

According to the Rebbe’s instruction, every letter purchased by or for a boy up to thirteen years of age or a girl up to the age of twelve costs one dollar (or its equivalent in local currency.) Each child who purchases a letter receives a special certificate, which is mailed to his home. The Rebbe delivered a number of sichos on the importance of the Children’s Sefer Torah as a unique segula for safety and security.

http://www.kidstorah.org

[shoyn]

can anyone provide a source for what bittul posted that the Rebbe said you fulfill your obligation of writing a ST through purchasing a letter?

[Yankel Nosson]

Take a look at Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 24, p. 207ff

[shoyn]

LS V 24 P270 : "[Because as long as the jews are in exile, the Aibishter is also in exile], very soon the Aibishter will go together with every jew to greet our righteous moshiach, he should come and redeem us and take us speedily to our land speedily in our days mamash."

Now for the connection????

[Yankel Nosson]

You transposed the page: it's p.207, not 270
http://www.otzar770.com/cgi-bin/imgserv.exe/convert?ilFN=C:\HOME\ocr_files\main\sihot\24\B0000 207.tif&ilIF=G&ilSC=30

[shoyn]

thanks!

by many kehilos where they sell letters, someone has actually donated the entire ST and to raise money for a certain cause, for a yeshiva , they sell letters.

IOW the money used to purchase the letters aren't going to the ST, OR do you say that the purchasers $18 goes to the ST and the actual donor has donated the ST less 18 which he has donated to the yeshiva?

[hishtatchus]

The second scenario sounds probable.

[Yankel Nosson]

The commandment to write a Sefer Torah is for the purpose of "velamdah" - "to study [from] it." In olden days all learning was done from the Sefer Torah. In contemporary times, the "velamdah" - "to study it" - is primarily the reading of the Torah in public and each Jew, in particular when he receives an aliyah to the Torah, is fulfilling the mitzvah of "velamdah," at that time.

In communal matters there is a rule "leiv beit din matna" - the Beit Din makes a mental stipulation whenever necessary (see Ketubot 106b). When a community needs a sefer Torah, they engage a sofer - scribe - to write one for them, and the beit din stipulates that it is being acquired on the condition that ownership is granted to each person who utilizes it. Thus, when one has an aliyah, which is his time of "velamdah" - "to study it" - he acquires total ownership of the sefer Torah, and it is as though it was written expressly for him. There is no need for continued ownership of the sefer Torah, except at the moment of the observance of the mitzvah, i.e. when it is used for purposes of Torah-study.

A Bar-Mitzvah boy celebrates his new status by being called to the Torah. At that time he is fulfilling the mitzvah of "velamdah" - "to study it" - and through the rule of "leiv beit din matnah" he is simultaneously fulfilling the mitzvah of writing a sefer Torah.

Though the Bar-Mitzvah boy may not have been living when the Torah was written (and it is questionable if the rule "leiv beit din matna would apply to the unborn), it is not a problem, since according to halachah, when one corrects a sefer Torah and makes it usable, it is as though he wrote the entire Torah (Rambam, Sefer Torah 7:1), thus fulfilling the mitzvah of writing a Torah. Hence, when a correction is made in a Torah after it has been written, all those who were born since it was written, through the law of "leiv beit din matnah," are now considered among the writers of this particular Torah.

Moreover, when one is called to the Torah, the reader shows him the first word of the portion to be read. When he looks at it, he is actually checking at least one letter in the Torah, which is equivalent to writing the entire Torah, and the berachah he recites is a public testimony that the Sefer Torah is kosher.

Consequently, every Jew called to read the Torah at his Bar-Mitzvah fulfills the mitzvah of writing a Torah by personally checking and attesting to the kashrut of the Sefer Torah.

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The Midrash Rabbah (9:9) relates that prior to Moshe's passing he wrote thirteen sifrei Torah - one for each tribe and one which was placed in the Ark. Since it was impossible to expect every Jew to personally write a Torah at that time, Moshe arranged that each tribe have a Torah, and through the rule of "leiv beit din matna," when a Jew learned therein it would be deemed as his personal Torah which Moshe wrote specifically for him.

Moshe thus set a precedent for future generations that when it is difficult to personally write a sefer Torah, one may rely on a communal sefer Torah for the observance of the Biblical mitzvah.


http://www.sichosinenglish.org/books/vedibarta-bam/52.htm