I had the incredible opportunity to write a letter in a sefer Torah. I started the day learning and davening, then went to shiur by R' Fuerst, shilta, then to the mikveh, then to write the letter. What letter did I have the zchus to write in a sefer Torah that was dedicated to the memory of Mr. Rudy Tessler, ztz''l, a holocaust survivor whom I am very proud to have personally known (and behind whom I davened for years)? We'll get to that....
Writing a sefer Torah is one of the 613 mitzvos. The Rosh (brought in Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 270:2; see Shach and Taz there) says that we can fulfill that mitzvah by buying s'farim and learning them. I have done that and do that and hope to continue doing that for as long as HaShem grants me the ability to do so. Still, even if that is 100%, first class way to fulfill that mitzvah, you can't possibly compare that to the coolness factor of actually taking quill to parchment.
One thing, though. There are a few requirements to be a scribe to write sifrei Torah, t'fillin, and mezuzos. Obviously one needs to be a Torah observant Jew. In fact, Holy Scripture written by apostates and apikorsim must be destroyed. Here's something I also found out yesterday... lefties can't be scribes. As I said, lots of rules. There is also another group who can't be scribes... converts to Judaism. So I was very careful to ask R' Shur (the scribe on duty) if there was any problem with a convert writing a letter. He said there was not. Now don't get worried, I didn't actually write a letter from scratch, I just filled in the letter that was already outlined. In fact, a sefer Torah written with just letters in outline is actually kosher, so I was just making a beautification to an already kosher sefer Torah.
That brings us to the gemara in Menachos 29b. Moshe went upstairs to get the Torah and found HaShem writing a sefer Torah and tying crowns onto the letters. Moshe asked HaShem why he was מעכב על ידך/holding Himself up by tying those crowns. (Crowns, you see, are not essential to a kosher sefer Torah. (See more here: Thought for the Day: גרים are the Border Guard of Klal Yisrael) HaShem answered that in the future a man will be born, Akiva ben Yosef is his name, who will learn piles and piles of laws from these crowns. Who is Akiva? The great R' Akiva himself. Who is Yosef, his father? A convert.
A sefer Torah I may not be able to write, but beautify a sefer Torah I certainly can. What letter did I get? the ה in פרעה in the penultimate verse of the Torah. Please note that פארעה was the king of the nation that nurtured the tiny embryonic family of Yaakov Avinu as it grew and developed into Klal Yisrael. I have no idea of the significance of writing that letter -- though I am sure there are piles and piles of underlying kabbalistic meanings and messages. One thing I do know with certainty, though: That sefer Torah would be פסול/invalid without out it.
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