Sad Lamed: Be-reyshit/Genesis 27:30 Parashat Tol'dot

בס''ד

וַיְהִי, כַּאֲשֶׁר כִּלָּה יִצְחָק לְבָרֵךְ אֶת-יַעֲקֹב, וַיְהִי אַךְ יָצֹא יָצָא יַעֲקֹב, מֵאֵת פְּנֵי יִצְחָק אָבִיו; וְעֵשָׂו אָחִיו, בָּא מִצֵּידוֹ.

And it happened that as soon as Yitz'chaq had finished blessing Ya'aqov, and Ya'aqov had barely left the presence of Yitz'chaq his father, that Esav his brother returned from his hunting.

Vayehi ka'asher kilah Yitzchaq l'vareykh et-Ya'aqov vayehi akh yatzo yatza Ya'aqov mey'eyt p'ney Yitzchaq aviv v'Eysav achiv ba mitzeydo

In most types of Torah Ketav or script, the letter Lamed has what is called a Tag or a Keter, a single crownlet. Normally - in fact in all cases - the Tagin point upwards. Very rarely some scribes will, in the word that says Yitzchaq "was finished" - כִּלָּה kilah - blessing Ya'aqov, the Tag of that Lamed is written by the Sofrim/scribes pointing downward and curled (Sefer HaTagin, Torah Sh'lemah).

This is the only instance in our tradition where this is done - and it's hardly ever done at all anymore, even though it's a standard agreed-upon feature.

From this we learn that this particular brakhah/blessing was transmitted through Yitz'chaq to Ya'aqov from The One Above and did not simply come from Yitz'chaq to Ya'aqov. Therefore, it was no mistake that the younger brother, Ya'aqov, was raised above the elder brother, Esav, and the deception which the Prophetess Our Mother Rivqah engaged her favourite son in was Divinely inspired.

Now we can all stop feeling guilty!


Copyright © A. Barclay.

MEGILAT ESTHER (2004) - מגילת אסתר

BS"D


Studying Mishneh Brurah Tav-Reysh-Tzadi-Alef with R' Ross Singer, my rabbi at Sha'arey Tefilah.

We've been studying the laws of writing and reading a Megilat Esther, partially for his own learning - he knows all about the reading part, just not the sofrut part - and partially for mine - as I know the sofrut part and not the laws pertaining to public kria.

We're going to have a public leyning of the brand new Megilat Esther I've written, by the men for the community the evening Purim comes in, then the next morning another public reading by the men for everybody, followed by the women reading for everybody! It's all very exciting for us to be practising our chanting for the first time! I've been honoured with reading Chapter 10, plus the after-blessing, B"H.

It's been both fun and fascinating. The speed and vocabulary of my Hebrew and Aramaic are both improving. One of the things we learned this week was that the Rama states, "It is our minhag (custom) to crown the letters (put tagin on them)". So there's a reliable Ashkenazi source supporting my crowning of letters, even though I'd already learned to do that from my Sofer and that if all the crowns in a Megilat Esther are omitted, it's still kosher. Also, the cheleq or piece of qlaf at the beginning & end of the Megilah, there's a maklokhet (difference of opinions) on that - "...but not to leave the cheleq basofah" - we're (Ashkenazim) careful to leave only the cheleq at the beginning, not at the end. Then in goes on to say that, "...the GRA (Vilna Ga'on) kvetches about this..." in other words, he disagrees and rules that a cheleq, or extra parchment not to be written on, must be left at both the beginning and the end of the Megilah. The Megilah qlaf I (ok - my Sofer) purchased has both, so that's good.

We also learned about the large Vav in "Va-yezata", the last of Haman's (BOO!) executed sons to be named in the amud (column). The Vav must be written "longer" says Mishneh Brurah, not "larger" as I have stated. Also, when the Megilah is leyned (chanted) on Purim, Mishneh Brurah states that one must lengthen the *sound* of that Vav as well - pronouncing it like "VVVVVVVVVVVayezata".
But it doesn't tell us why...

I *love* learning Torah!!!


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Based on article originally published January 2004 at Netivat Sofrut
Copyright A. Barclay