Maintaining A Library
‘He [The King] Shall Write a Sefer Torah…
(Sanhedrin 21b)
The Mishna on our daf, based on the verse (Devarim 17:18), “… he shall write for himself two copies of this Torah in a book,” states the mitzvah for the king of Israel to write a Sefer Torah.
Every Jew
The Gemara cites Rava, who rules that every Jew is obligated to write a Sefer Torah – even if he inherited one from his father. The king of Israel, on the other hand, is required to write two Sifrei Torah.
Study It Day And Night
The purpose of these two Sifrei Torah, according to Rambam (Hilchos Melachim 3:5), is that the king occupies himself at all times with the study of the Torah and the needs of (the people of) Israel.
Rambam (Hilchos Sefer Torah 7:11) explains further that the mitzvah for every Jew to write a Sefer Torah, in the event he is unable to write one himself, may be accomplished if he commissions another to write for him.
To Donate Or Not
There is a dispute as to whether one who wrote a Sefer Torah and donated it is considered as having fulfilled his obligation.
Toras Chaim (ad loc.) maintains that the essence of the mitzvah is that every person owns a Sefer Torah. In his view, if one wrote (or commissioned another to write for him) a Sefer Torah and subsequently donated it to a synagogue (or yeshiva), he has not fulfilled the mitzvah.
Pardes Dovid (Parshas Ki Tetze p. 198, cited by Pischei Teshuva, Yoreh Deah 74: sk 4), on the other hand, notes that it is a common practice to write a Sefer Torah and donate it to a synagogue for public use. Evidently, one fulfills this mitzvah when he writes a Sefer Torah (or where he is unable to do so himself, commissions another to write for him).
We note that Rambam (Hilchos Sefer Torah, ibid.) allows that even if he wrote one letter (as is customary today), he has accomplished the mitzvah. Therefore, Pardes Dovid argues that if one decides to donate his Sefer Torah to the synagogue or even if he wrote one and it was destroyed, he has already fulfilled the mitzvah and is no longer required to write another.
Toras Chaim would allow for the synagogue use of one’s Sefer Torah but only with the stipulation that it is a loan to the synagogue.
The Real Purpose
Rosh (Menachos, Halachos Ketinos, Siman 1) maintains that the essence of the mitzvah of owning a Sefer Torah is that one study from it (similar to the king’s requirement).
Today, however, since most Torah study is from our printed seforim (books), we are obligated to buy seforim and thus fulfill the mitzvah.
