Q&A: And Now, Write for Yourselves 🎺🎸
And Now, Write for Yourselves 🎺🎸
Question
Women participating in the writing of a Torah scroll:
Some exempt them (Sefer HaChinukh, Maimonides), while some obligate them (Sha’agat Aryeh).
Is it appropriate to fulfill one’s obligation by letting women write letters in a Torah scroll at a Torah scroll dedication ceremony?
Answer
I don’t understand. Fulfill one’s obligation of what?
Discussion on Answer
I don’t understand the question. Does someone who writes a letter in a Torah scroll thereby fulfill the obligation of the commandment to write a Torah scroll? It’s just a ceremony.
Beyond that, even if a woman is included in the commandment of writing, there is still another question: whether she is valid to do the writing. The straightforward sense of the Talmud in Gittin is that women are disqualified, and that is also the ruling of the halakhic decisors (see Yoreh De’ah, sec. 281; the Derishah there is a lone opinion).
One could discuss whether, according to the Sha’agat Aryeh, those who are obligated in the writing are also valid to write. Logically it would seem so, though that reasoning can be challenged.
In any case, there is no permission to let them write, and as stated above there is also no reason to do so.
The obligation of the commandment for every individual Jew to write a Torah scroll:
“And now, write for yourselves this song.”