What Makes a Sefer Torah Pasul?
Question: How do we know when a Sefer Torah becomes invalid? Does any mistake in a Sefer Torah cause it to be invalid?
Discussion: As mentioned, an invalid Sefer Torah may not be used lechatchilah for Kerias HaTorah, and if a mistake is found in the middle of the reading, the Sefer Torah must be put away and another one taken out. It is important to emphasize, however, that there are many different types of mistakes and they vary in severity. Not every mistake renders a Sefer Torah as invalid. For the sake of our Discussion, we will list some139 of those mistakes and divide them into three levels.140
We will refer to them as pasul, pasul lechatchilah, and she’eilas tinok.
Level 1: Pasul – This Sefer Torah cannot be used to discharge one’s obligation of Kerias HaTorah, even when another Sefer Torah is not available. When a mistake is found during Kerias HaTorah, the reading is not continued in this Sefer Torah.141
If there is an extra word or letter, or if a word or a letter is missing or is completely erased.142
If two letters are written so closely together that they appear as one letter. Even if they appear as separate letters under a magnifying glass, it is still pasul.143
If the stitches connecting two yerios (sections of parchment) unravel and there are fewer than five [or six] stitches remaining intact.144
If the parchment tears and the tear extends into at least three lines of writing, even if no words or letters are affected.145
Level 2: Pasul lechatchilah – These mistakes must be fixed, and the Sefer Torah cannot be used until they are. But if the mistake was found during Kerias HaTorah, the reading continues from this Sefer Torah; another one is not taken out in its place, even when there is another one available.
If an extra or missing (malei or chaseir) vav or yud is found, and it does not alter the meaning or pronunciation of the word.146 For example, where the word אֲבוֹתֵינוּ (avoseinu) is supposed to have a vav and does not,147 or if it was not supposed to be written with a vav and it is. Similarly, the word בִּנְיָמִין can be written with only one yud, as בִּנְיָמִן.148 However, if the pronunciation is altered, even if the meaning is the same – such as the word keves (sheep) being written as kesev (sheep); or if the meaning is altered even though the pronunciation is not – such as the word venimtzah being written with a hei (pressed out) instead of an aleph (found),149 the Sefer Torah is pasul.
If a letter which should be written in large print (e.g., the ayin in the word Shema) is written small, or vice versa.150
If the dots which belong over certain words are omitted (e.g., the dots over the word vayishakeihu in Bereishis 33:4).151
If there is a complete break in a letter which is hardly recognizable.152 But if the break only appears under the glare of the sun, or under artificial lighting,153 or under a magnifying glass,154 it is kosher.
If two letters become slightly attached to each other in a manner which does not change their form.155 Some Poskim maintain that when the letters are attached on top or in the middle, the Torah is pasul even if the form of the letters did not change, and one should stop the keriah and bring a Sefer Torah from elsewhere.156
On Shabbos, if wax [or dirt] is stuck to a letter and it is found during an aliyah. However, if it is found bein gavra legavra a second Sefer Torah should be used.157
As a general rule: whenever a question arises, and the particular issue remains unresolved among the poskim – even where we tend to rule stringently and consider the Sefer Torah pasul – we do not stop the reading to take out another Sefer Torah because, bedieved, we rely on the Rishonim who say that it is permitted to read from an invalid Sefer Torah.
Level 3: She’eilas Tinok
Sometimes the writing in a Sefer Torah is unclear – it’s not obviously wrong, but not quite right. When such a problem is found, we call upon a child158 to decide if the Sefer Torah is valid. The child must be “neither too bright nor too stupid,” which means that he knows what the Hebrew letters look like, but he is not advanced enough to know what the letter in question is supposed to be.
When a letter is shown to a child to see if he can recognize it, the preceding words are covered up so that the child does not quote a familiar verse from memory. The actual word containing the questionable letter, as well as the following words, need not be covered.159
Bear in mind, however, that only certain cases can be resolved with a child’s help. If a part of the actual letter is missing or severely broken, then the Sefer Torah is pasul even if a child knows what the letter is. For example, if the top of the aleph (the part that looks like a yud) is completely detached from the body of the aleph, and even if the child knows that it is an aleph, it does not make the letter (and therefore the Sefer Torah) valid. This is true with many letters.
Some of the cases where a child’s opinion may be relied upon are as follows:160
If two words are written so closely together that it is difficult to tell if they are one word or two.
If one word is so spread out that it might be read as two separate words.
If a letter’s ink has faded or turned brown and is hard to read. If a child knows what the letter is, even if all of the black ink has faded,161 it is kosher even lechatchilah.162
If the leg of a letter is too short:
so that a vav [or a zayin] may look like a yud,
or a final nun may look like a zayin,
or a final chaf may look like a resh.
If the leg of a letter is too long. For example, the leg of a yud is so long so that it may look like a vav.
If there is a break in the leg of a vav, or a final nun, and we are unsure if the upper part, above the break, is still long enough to be considered the right letter.163
If the roof of a dalet is too short so that it may be seen instead as a vav or a zayin.164
139 This list covers many, but not all, of the possible mistakes that a Sefer Torah may contain.
140 Generally based on the rulings of the Mishnah Berurah 143:25. It should be noted that Sephardic communities follow the strict rulings of the Shulchan Aruch in this matter; see Kaf Hachaim 143:32-3.
141 If another Sefer Torah is not available, then the reading is continued but the blessings are not recited, as detailed above.
142 This is true concerning most letters of the Torah. See Level 2 for some exceptions.
143 Halichos Shlomo, Tefillah 12:40.
144 If the torn yerios are not in the chumash that is presently being read, it is only considered a Level 2 mistake.
145 Based on Taz and Shach, Yoreh Deah 280:2, who agree that the Sefer Torah is pasul in this case. If the tear only extends one line, the Sefer Torah does not have to be returned, based on Mishnah Berurah 143:25.
146 Rema 143:4 (as understood by Noda B’Yehudah, Orach Chaim Tinyana 12, and Yoreh Deah II:178), who explains that our Torah scrolls are not written with such precision. Therefore, if a second Torah is taken out as a replacement, it will very likely contain a similar error. See Minchas Chinuch 613, who seems to hold that these types of mistakes do not make the Torah pasul at all.
147 This appears only once in the Torah, in Bereishis 47:3; in other places it is written without a vav.
148 As in Bereishis 43:15.
149 That is, the word [דָמוֹ] וְנִמְצָה means “having pressed out its blood” (Vayikra 1:15), were written as [דָמוֹ] וְנִמְצָא, which means that “its blood was found.”
150 Mishnah Berurah 143:27.
151 Ibid.
152 Chazon Ish 8:8.
153 Beiur Halachah 32:25 (ד"ה אות); Yabia Omer 7:2.
154 Yabia Omer ibid. See Igros Moshe, Yoreh Deah II:146.
155 Mishnah Berurah 143:25. This should only be relied upon when no other Sefer Torah is readily available.
156 Chazon Ish 8:9; Halichos Shlomo, Tefillah 12:41.
157 Mishnah Berurah 340:10 and Beiur Halachah (ד"ה שעל). On Shabbos the wax may not be removed, even if it could be removed easily.
158 Shulchan Aruch 32:16. If a child is unavailable, then the Rav should decide to the best of his ability; Chazon Ish 8:7.
159 Mishnah Berurah 32:51.
160 The cases listed below are based on Shulchan Aruch 32:16 with Mishnah Berurah.
161 But if all of the ink is faded and only a “rust” impression remains, the letter is pasul.
162 Mishnah Berurah 143:25. See, however, Mishnah Berurah 132:128 for a dissenting opinion.
163 In this case, the broken part of the letter is covered up so that the child does not mentally connect the two broken parts.
164 Beiur Halachah 32:16 (ד"ה הפשוטות).