According to HaGaon Rav Yaakov Yosef Shlita (son of Chacham Ovadia Shlita), sifrei Torah in the IDF are posul and as such, soldiers should be released from their bases on Shabbos to permit them to fulfill the mitzvah of hearing Parshas Amalek. The Rav’s p’sak was publicized in the ‘Eretz Yisrael Shelanu’ circular.
The Rav was asked if a soldier can fulfill his halachic obligation on Parshas Zachor by hearing the Torah reading in a base. He stated that to his profound sorrow, most of the sifrei Torah in the IDF posul and therefore, there is a major doubt as to a soldier’s ability to fulfill the mitzvah on a military base.
The Rav explains that at the heart of the problem is the fact that most of the sifrei Torah have a watermark that says “property of the IDF” to prevent theft, rendering them posul. He stated such a sefer Torah is truly posul and one may not make a bracha on it. Rav Yaakov relies on a p’sak from his father, Chacham Ovadia Yosef Shlita, who writes in his sefer Yechavei Daas that such a sefer Torah is posul.
The Rav suggests that Shomer Shabbos soldiers request to be released for this Shabbos, Parshas Zachor, to permit hearing the Torah reading from a kosher sefer Torah.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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6 Responses
If these sifrei Torah are p’sullos,how can they use them at all? One may not lein from a posul sefer.There is a way to put security ID s on seforim that do not passel them.
#1 the artical says they are pussol the whole year also to my knowledge there is no halachacly permissable way to place ID on the klaff may be you can share youre method and the rav that endorses this method
i dont understand, what have they been using until now for parshas zachor that the chacham is saying this now
http://www.ypt.co.il/show.asp?id=31918 here is a link with an answer to Rav Yosef by Rav Sherlow of Petach Tikva
As usual there are many ways to understand a halachic problem and I am sure that Rav Yosef follows a strict line and is not open to any kulot, whereas other rabbanim are open to various kulot.
proud of KAJ WH TIDE please realize that what one rov holds is not kosher concerning a safer Torah a second rov will say is kosher.
this comment was concerning Parshas Zachor which is min hatorah for one to hear , and that is why shuels use there best safer Torah for that purpose.
It appears from a response from the IDF rabbinate that it does not watermark the sefarim but does emboss via pressure the klaf so the logo is in raised lettering on the bottom side and can be felt . this was approved in the past by Rabbi Goren and Navon in addition all the sfrarim are bein checked by computer scanning and sent to sofrim if need be
see link
http://www.inn.co.il/News/News.aspx/186354