Middle Six Lines of Amud 29 - Click to Enlarge!

Who knew safrus was such backbreaking labor?

Unfortunately, I suffered some terrible back problems over the past few months and had to curtail my writing.   After a good deal of physical therapy and medication, I’m easing back into writing and posting.

I am a little behind schedule now, but not badly so.   Sigh.

Now… where were we…. aha!  The tikkun…

Here is a  view of the Davidowitsch Tikkun (click to enlarge):

View of the Tikkun - Click for Full Size

I have inserted the red circles and numbers so that we can easily navigate the page together.

The left page is a facsimile of R’ Davidowitsch’s actual writing from his master scroll.   On the right side is a printed version of the same Torah text with all of the vowels and cantillation marks inserted.

Starting with Section #1 – These numbers indicate the particular line within the column.  For convenience, the 42-line columns are broken up across two pages with lines 1 to 21 on the first page and lines 22 to 42 on the second.    Since most new Torah scrolls are written using this tikkun, soferim now have a common way of referencing their work (i.e. "column x, line y").

Section # 2 – These Hebrew letters indicate the column number (keep in mind that Hebrew letters are also used to write numbers).  In this example, the letters are Lamed-Vov, or 36.   So, this page represents the first 21 lines of column 36.

Section # 3 – This is the name of the parsha.  Originally, the Torah was not divided into chapters and versus as it is now.   The chapter/verse division of the “Old Testament” was originally a Christian invention.  That the Jews adopted in the middle ages (the earliest Jewish manuscript using chapter/verse divisions dates from c. 1330).     The prevalent historical theory is that the Jews adopted these designations as a result of forced disputations. The Rabbis  unfortunate  enough to get roped into these debates had to be fluent in the Christian’s system of reference in order to argue effectively.

However, Jews traditionally divided the Torah into 54 sections, one or two of which is read per week.  Section # 3 is the name of the portion to which our segment of writing belongs.

Section # 4 – Rachav ha-Shura: The Width of the Line – these numbers are what make the Sofer’s tikkun so unique.   If a quill is sized properly, then one can fit 62 yuds side-by-side across one line of a column.  Therefore, we think of a line as being 62 yuds wide.   Now, with a few exceptions (such as between paragraphs), the entire length of the line must be filled from start to finish.    The Beis Yosef YD 275 explains that each letter of the Aleph Beis is a certain number of yuds wide as well.   For example, a vov is 1 yud width.  A ches is 2 yud-widths, while a shin is 3 yud-widths.   Ideally we try to fit exactly 62-yuds-worth of letters in each line.  That way, all the letters will fit perfectly without having to stretch or squish anything; each one will remain in its proper proportion and easily fill the line.   However, because you can’t cut words in half, add or drop letters at will, sometimes one will not have enough letters to fill the line and you will have to stretch or squish a little to make everything fit.  These numbers on the side guide the sofer as to how much he will need to adjust (stretch/squish) if he has to0 few or too many letters for the line.

For example, look at line 1 – the rachav ha-shura is Yud Aleph, which stands for yeser 1 – 1 extra – meaning that the total width of the letters in this line is 1 more than the 62-yud ideal, meaning that the sofer has to constrict his script slightly.

Now look at lines 7, 8, and 13 – the rachav ha-shura here is Shin-Tov – meaning Shalem ve-Tam – whole and complete.  In other words, the total yud-widths-worth of letters we are to write in that line tallies 62 exactly.    So, the sofer only needs in these lines to make the letters in their proper proportions and everything should go swimmingly.

Lines 5 and 11, though, are ches-dalet, an abbreviation for choser 4, lacking four.  This means that we only have 59 yud-widths of letters.  Therefore we will have to stretch the writing a little to fill the line.

Knowing by how much a line is lacking or overfilled is invaluable to planning your writing and producing a nice, even script.

Rabbi Davidowitsch’s legendary skill as a sofer is that he can proportionally stretch and squish all the letters in a line so subtly  that one can barely tell when he has had to manipulate anything.   Compare the letters of line 11 with those of line 21, and you will see that line 11’s letters are broader and "breathe" more than the letters in line 21, which are a little narrower and close.   The reason is that line 11 is lacking 4 yuds, thus requiring stretching, while line 11 has 5 extra yuds, requiring squishing.

Now, you may have seen some letters stretched very looooooooooooooong in some Torahs.  This is because the sofer has tried to make up for lacking yud-widths all in one letter rather than dividing up the elongation among all the letters of the line.

Section # 5 – the small superscript kufs here indicate the word below is a divine name and must be verbally sanctified prior to writing.  Throughout the tikkun, one will also find a superscript samekh (indicating that there is a dispute as to whether the word is a divine name) or a ches (indicating that the word looks like a divine name, but is not actually such).   These three designations are VERY important to know – a mistake in understanding which names are divine can render an entire Torah scroll worthless.  We will do divine names in a future post.

Section # 6 – Again, the name of the parsha.

Section # 7 – is the Chapter number (31, in this part)

Section # 8 is the book of the Torah, which is Bereishis, or Genesis in our example.

A large part of being a sofer is simply learning to interpret the tikkun and copy from it swiftly and with complete accuracy.

Before I embark on a new section in my tikkun I first read through the page and highlight anything tricky (i.e. very lacking or overfilled lines, divine names, dots over letters, etc.) with bright yellow just ot make sure that nothing catches me by surprise!