Monday, January 28, 2019

Writing/buying Seforim rather than Sefer Torah


I've heard someone say that the mitzvah to write/buy a Sefer Torah in these days is actually to write/buy seforim that we use to learn Torah from. Do you know who the source of this opinion is?



Answer



This is the opinion of R. Asher b. Yehiel (Rosh) at the beginning of his Hilchot Sefer Torah:




וזהו בדורות הראשונים שהיו כותבים ס"ת ולומדים בו. אבל האידנא שכותבין ס"ת ומניחין אותו בבתי כנסיות לקרות בו ברבים מצות עשה היא על כל איש מישראל אשר ידו משגת לכתוב חומשי התורה ומשנה וגמרא ופירושי' להגות בהן הוא ובניו. כי מצות כתיבת התורה היא ללמוד בה כדכתיב ולמדה את בני ישראל שימה בפיהם. וע"י הגמרא והפי' ידע פי' המצות והדינים על בוריים לכן הם הם הספרים שאדם מצווה לכתבם וגם לא למכרם אם לא ללמוד תורה ולישא אשה:‏


This [commandment to write a Torah scroll] applied in earlier generations when they would write Torah scrolls and learn from them.


But today, when we write Torah scrolls and leave them in the synagogue in order to read from them publicly, the positive commandment incumbent upon all Jewish men who can afford to do so is to write humashim, mishnah and gemara and commentaries so that he and his children may meditate upon them.


For the commandment to write the Torah is [in order] to learn from it, as it writes, "And teach it to the Children of Israel, place it in their mouths."


And through the gemara and the commentaries one will thoroughly know the explanations of the commandments and the laws.


Therefore, they are the books that one is commanded to write, and also not to sell them (unless he needs the funds in order to learn Torah or to marry).



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