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GENERAL HALACHOT about the SEFER TORAH, and about leining.
The TORAH was given to the Jewish nation thousands of years ago, at mount Sinai. It was passed on, from father to son, from teacher to student, over many generations up to this very day. All around the world, wherever there are jews, there is a copy of the SEFER TORAH. Every copy is identical, whether it was written on one side of the world or the other, or if it was written today or many years ago. There are approximately 308000 letters in the TORAH, and if even one letter is missing, that TORAH is POSUL, or incomplete, and it is forbidden to read from that TORAH until it is fixed.
There are many rules about the shape of every letter, and almost every TIKUN KORIM has a diagram of all the letters. Very often, letters get smudged or even get erased, from the regular use of the TORAH. If that should occur, you should have the TORAH checked by a certified SOFER. If one isn’t available, or if the problem was found On SHABBAT, a different TORAH should be taken out, and the POSUL one put back, to be fixed later. When this happens, the belt is put on top of the coat instead of on the actual SEFER. This is done so that no one will mistakenly read from that SEFER. According to jewish law, it is forbidden to leave a SEFER that is POSUL without fixing it. If you are in doubt about a certain letter, whether or not it’s OK or not, you can ask a little child if he recognizes the letter. The child should be old enough to recognize the letters, but not old enough to know what the letter is according to the words around it. Regardless to the child’s age, it is a good idea to cover up the letters around it, and let the child concentrate on the particular letter. Return to the TorahLein opening screen Copyright © Yoni Grossman. World rights reserved.
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