LQ"Y

Requirement For Every Man To Write His Own Sefer Torah

Positive commandment #17 (Book of miswoth: Mishneh Torah: RMb"M) mentions the requirement for EVERY Israelite man to WRITE (not "own" - as the well-intentioned Moznaim mistranslates) a sefer Torah for HIMSELF. Many times, ownership is the outcome of "hiring someone" to write it for him. However, this is only permitted when he doesn't know how to write one. Then it is permissible (indeed required) for him to find someone else to write it for him.

“If he does not know to write, others write it for him.”

"Joint ownership" (group purchase) or "buying the letters" is not mentioned anywhere in the MT, and is thus not a permitted substitute.

Here is one of the two key verses in the Mishneh Torah: Please study this carefully in Hebrew:

http://www.mechon-mamre.org/i/0001.htm

Here is my translation into English - relying upon the actual words:

Mitzvah 17: "For every man to write a sefer Torah for himself, as it is said, 'write this song for yourselves' " דברים לא,יט

He says the same thing (he wrote in the book of Positive Miswoth) over here - in Hilkoth ST 7-1: http://www.mechon-mamre.org/i/2307.htm

Here the RMb"M says: "write the Torah that contains this song in it - accordingly there is no writing the Torah piece by piece".

Thus, you couldn't just write the song alone. You had to write the entire Torah.

The source for this commandment is listed by RMb"M as  דברים לא,יט

The rest is left to the legal requirement not to  "write (a Torah) piece by piece". The piece about inheritance was not brought by RMb"M as the direct SOURCE of this commandment - but does make it into the MT.

Many English translations load up commentaries (in the main body of the text) that simply do not appear in the actual text. Some times, the writer doesn't even note them as commentaries. When this happens, the unfortunate neophyte is totally and incorrectly mislead. The reader is left thinking that this is what RMb"M actually wrote. In reality, he wrote two small sentences in the book of positive commandments. The definition of a sefer Torah, in terms of what it is (and how it is made), can be found elsewhere in the Mishnah Torah. It is halakha l'Moshe m'Sinai (the law of Moses) that it be written on Gevil hide.

According to RMb"M, buying a "finished" Torah scroll (when someone does not know how to write) must surely be permitted. Otherwise, it would have been expressly prohibited in the MT. Again, only "using others to write" is specified (whether pre or post-written). On the contrary, writing a sefer Torah for himself is explicitly stated in the text.

One last comment. The Rambam wrote that someone who checks a sefer Torah is LIKE someone who wrote his own. The word here is כאילו. By studying the usage of this word in other places in the same paragraph, one concludes that (mere) checking was not intended as a literal substitute for actually writing one's own sefer Torah. It is "like" writing it. On the other hand, it does underline the importance of checking your sefer Torah (as best as you can), irregardless of who actually writes it.