437. Songs and Non-Songs

Tefillin, Mezuzah v’Sefer Torah 8:4

At this point, the Rambam lists the “open” and “closed” sections in the five books of the Torah. Listing them all would be beyond our scope, so we’ll just provide the “bottom lines”: Genesis – 43 “open” sections and 48 “closed” sections; Exodus – 69 “open” sections and 95 “closed” sections; Leviticus – 52 “open” sections and 46 “closed” sections; Numbers – 92 “open” sections and 66 “closed” sections; Deuteronomy – 34 “open” sections and 124 “closed” sections. In total, the Torah has 290 open sections and 379 closed sections, for a grand total of 669.

The Rambam then illustrates the form for the song in Haazinu and the Song at the Sea. Each line of the song Haazinu should have a space in the middle sufficient for a “closed” section, i.e., nine letters long. Each line is therefore split into two parts. The song is written on 70 lines. The Song at the Sea is written on 30 lines. The first line is written in the usual way. Following lines are written as follows: In one line, a space is left in the middle; on the next line, a space is left in two places, dividing the line into three parts. In this way, we find a space below text and text below a space.

When it comes to the entire Torah, both songs and non-songs, one should arrange for the letters to be very close to one another. Letters may not touch, nor may they be very far apart, making one word look like two. There should be the space of a hairbreadth between letters. If one leaves so much space that a child who is learning to read will see it as two words, the sefer Torah is invalid until corrected.

Tefillin, Mezuzah v’Sefer Torah 9:1

A sefer Torah may not be made so that its length exceeds its circumference, nor its circumference exceeds its length (see halacha 9:3 for details). Its length, when written on g'vil (a type of parchment), should be six handbreadths (in the vicinity of 18”). When written on k'laf (a different type of parchment), it could be more or less so long as the length is equal to the circumference. If one wrote a sefer Torah less than six handbreadths long on g'vil and minimized his writing, or more than six handbreadths long and he spaced out his writing, then if the length of the scroll is equal to the circumference, it was written correctly.