Last Adar II, a mehudar Sefer Torah was donated to the Sanz Beis Medrash in Netanya, and during Shavuos, the Sefer was learned to be pasul as some letters were written in the incorrect order.
Thousands of chassidim took part in the hachnasas Sefer Torah in on 21 Adar II marking 65 years from the placement of the cornerstone in the beis medrash in Netanya by the Shefa Chaim of Sanz ZT”L.
Thousands of chassidim participated in the writing of the mehudar Sefer Torah as they bought letters to mark the occasion in memory of the Rebbe ZT”L, and in honor of the Rebbe Shlita, who completed the Sefer and placed it is the Aron Kodesh in the beis medrash.
At the same time, two new Aronei Kodesh were dedicated – with one in the Rebbe’s Beis Medrash where the Sefer Torah was brought and the second, in the large Heichal, Heichal Rosenberg.
While they were reading on Shavuos, it was discovered the sefer was pasul as baal korei R’ Meir Letzner realized some of the letters were reversed. Instead of saying ‘שלשים ומאה משקלה’, it said ‘שלשים ואמה משקלה’.
The Sefer was placed back in the Aron Kodesh, another taken out and the laining was completed. The Sefer Torah will now be checked in its entirety before it is brought back to the beis medrash.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
will now be checked in its entirety By a computer? or do they hold that it is אסור to have a computer?
Who writes these things? Several times it says explicitly that it was on Shavuos, but we have to assume it was on Erev Shavuos, Shabbos, in EY, as there wouldn’t be much reason for them to be reading Naso on Yomtov. Even if there were enough people coming from Chu”l, and they were mattir a separate minyan, they would have caught up by Shabbos, and even if there were such a minhag to read through Tikkun Leil Shavuos from klaf, including the beginning and end of each sidra, the end of Naso would start after Day 12, following which those words do not appear.
Nobody holds it is assur to be checked by a computer.
And everyone holds a computer check cannot replace the halachically required checked by human magi’im.
From the writing of the article you could tell it happened on שבת and not שבועות. Because in ארץ ישראל thet lained פרשת נשא this week and the quote that the בעל קורא found incorrect was from פרשת נשא
Sad but not that uncommon. The fact is that the results of the computer checking (which is specifically for textual errors such as misspelled words, missing and extra letters/words), if carefully reviewed (and this is the crux of the issue as the computer catches just about 100% of errors so it comes down to the own reviewing the results) is much more reliable that manually checking for textual errors. Also, it’s critical that the computer exam be done at least twice, the final one after all corrections have been done. (Unfortunately most programs also look for many other things which make the review of the results more difficult and confusing.)
The manual exams for letter forms can only be done manually and also must be done at least 2 times, preferably by 2 examiners. Unfortunately, many sellers of sifrei Torah [whether dealer or sofer] only include one manual exam. Also, many of these manual exams are not of high quality and are mainly to look for and mark only that which is (questionably) pasul. The examiners are mostly paid a flat fee, many times, a low fee. Those buying sifrei Torah must be willing to pay for and demand at least 2 high quality manual exams (preferably pay by the hour) and these exams must not only be to find psulim but also to ensure the sefer is of the halachic standard expected of it. You’ll easily pay at least $1000 more but with at least 2 quality manual exams and 2 well executed computer exams there’s an excellent chance the sefer will be kosher and at the halachic level expected. With any cutting of corners the chances drop significantly.