05 Nov WHO MAY FINISH A TORAH SCROLL?

I. A Gentile Writing
a Letter in a Scroll?
On October 7, 2024,
Senator Lindsey
Graham visited the
Western Wall and filled
in a letter in a new Torah
scroll written in memory of the victims of the
terror attacks a year earlier. Senator Graham

is many things, including staunchly pro-
Israel, but he is not Jewish. How can someone

who is not Jewish participate in the religious
activity of writing a Torah scroll?
The Gemara (Gittin 45b) learns from the
two verses about tefillin “U-kshartam…
U-chsavtam…, And you shall bind… and
you shall write” (Deut. 6:8-9) that only
someone who is obligated to wear tefillin
may write tefillin or a mezuzah. Since a Torah
scroll has most of the same laws as tefillin
and mezuzah, a child, a woman and a gentile
may not write letters in a Torah scroll. If so,
how could the rabbis allow Senator Graham
to fill in a letter? This story reminded me of a
question that arose a year earlier, in advance of
the Sukkos holiday.

It is best to have at least two Torah scrolls for
Yom Tov so you do not have to roll the scroll
for the different readings. The synagogue near
the family I was visiting for Yom Tov has a
borrowed Torah scroll, belonging to one of the
members. That member went away for Yom
Tov with his family and took his Torah scroll
with them. He arranged for the synagogue
to use someone else’s recently written Torah
scroll. On the day before Yom Tov, the rabbi
was rolling the scrolls and noticed that this
new, borrowed scroll was not finished.
The words at the end were only outlined.
Presumably the scribe left those letters as
outlines so that during the Hachnasas Sefer
Torah celebration, the owner can honor
various people to fill in the letters.
The question arose: is this Torah scroll kosher
for use by the community? If the scroll is
not finished because the final letters are not
filled in, can it be used for ritual purposes?
The rabbi and I discussed it without reaching
a conclusion. In the end, we did not need
an answer because a synagogue member
arranged for a nearby school to lend the
synagogue a Torah scroll. However, the
question is interesting.

II. What is a Letter?
Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson (19th cen.,
Ukraine) was asked about a Torah scroll in
which a boy who recently celebrated his bar
mitzvah wrote a letter. On a biblical level, we
consider a boy to be an adult once he has two
lower hairs. On a rabbinic level, reaching the
age of thirteen and one day suffices. Is this

Torah scroll invalid on a biblical level be-
cause this boy is an adult only on a rabbinic

level? Rav Nathanson answers that writing a
part of a letter in a kosher way is sufficient.

Rav Moshe Isserles (Rema; 16th cen., Po-
land) says that if a witness begins signing

his name to a divorce without the proper in-
tent for the couple and then remembers and

completes his name properly, the signature

is valid. This is because even a partial writ-
ing in a proper way redeems the full writ-
ing (Shulchan Aruch, Even Ha-Ezer 131:9).

Rema rules similarly that you may not write a
divorce document with an iron quill because

the iron might dig into the parchment, engrav-
ing the letter into it. Since engraved writing

is not considered writing, that would invalids
the divorce. However, Rema says that a letter
is only considered engraved if the whole letter
is engraved (ibid., 125:4). Rav Nathanson
concludes that since the scribe wrote part
of the letter, a child can fill it out and the
letter is still considered valid (Responsa
Sho’el U-Meishiv, third rescension, vol. 1,
no. 390).
Rav Avraham Yitzchak Glick (19th cen.,

Hungary) was asked about someone non-
religious, who does not observe Shabbos,

filling in a letter in a Torah scroll. He
permits because until there is testimony in
court that this person violates Shabbos, we
do not consider him outside the fold. While
there is concern that he must have the
proper intentions when filling in the letter,
since a scribe stands next to him during that
time, his presence and instruction suffices.
Rav Glick explicitly rejects the suggestion
that an outline is a kosher letter. The
Gemara (Shabbos 103b) says that writing
in a Torah scroll has to be complete.
“U-chsavtam, And you shall write” (Deut.
6:9) — the writing has to be a kesivah
tamah, a complete writing. A letter outline
does not constitute complete writing. If so,
filling in the letter is the actual writing and
must be done by someone qualified to be
a scribe. That excludes children, women,
gentiles and Jews who do not observe
Shabbos (Responsa Yad Yitzchak, vol. 3,
no. 267).
III. An Outline is a Letter
However, Rav Malkiel Tannenbaum (20th
cen., Poland) disagrees. He says that since
there is no minimum width for a letter,
an outline is considered a complete letter.

His only concern is that when someone who
is invalid to write a Torah scroll fills in the
letter, he will almost certainly write over
the initial outline. What remains is a letter
written by this person, not the outline written
by the scribe
(Divrei Malkiel, vol. 4, no. 90).
Rav Betzalel Stern (20th cen., Hungary)
argues that when someone fills in a letter
outline, even if he writes on top of the outline,
it does not matter. Let us consider the ink that
the second person uses to cover the outline
like a white space, as if there is no ink at all.
Normally, if ink of a letter is removed and
we see a white space, then that white space
might be a problem if the remaining letter is

illegible. However, if we remove this “non-
kosher” ink the letter is legible. Therefore, the

additional ink on top of the outline poses no
problem (Responsa Be-Tzel Ha-Chochmah,
vol. 4, no. 50). Although Rav Stern adds that
it is preferable to be strict and follow Rav
Tannenbaum’s ruling.
We can now return to the questions with which
we began. According to Rav Glick, the Torah
in the synagogue with a few unfilled letters at
the end is invalid. However, according to Rav
Nathanson, Rav Tannenbaum and Rav Stern,
the Torah is kosher even though it still has
outlined letters because an outline is a kosher
letter. There was no need to obtain another
Torah scroll from the nearby school.
Additionally, according to Rav Nathanson
and Rav Stern, a child, woman, non-observant
Jew or gentile may fill in a letter in a Torah
scroll. Rav Stern might not be comfortable
with inviting one of those types of people to
fill in a letter but Rav Nathanson would allow
it. Additionally, I found that Rav Chaim David
Ha-Levi (20th cen., Israel) briefly justifies the
practice of inviting non-observant Jews to fill
in a letter of a Torah scroll because the outline
itself is kosher (Responsa Mayim Chaim, vol.
2, no. 57). He adds that normally anyone who
writes a letter in a Torah scroll immerses in
a mikvah before writing. People who fill in
a letter at a celebration of the completion
of a Torah scroll do not. Presumably, this is
because the outline suffices for the letter. If
you would invite a non-observant Jew to fill
in a letter, you may also invite a gentile to do
likewise.