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The Rambam · Sefer Ahavah

הלכות תפילין ומזוזה וספר תורה ב׳Tefillin, Mezuzah and the Torah Scroll 2

Chapter 2 of 10 in Tefillin, Mezuzah and the Torah Scroll — 11 halachot

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Halacha 1א׳

כיצד כותבין את התפילין של ראש כותבין ארבע פרשיות על ארבע קלפין וגוללין כל אחד ואחד לבדו ומניחין אותן בארבע בתים שהן מחוברין בעור אחד ושל יד כותבין אותן הארבע פרשיות בארבע דפין על קלף אחד וגוללו כמין ספר תורה מסופו לתחלתו ומניחו בבית אחד.

How are the sections in the phylactery that is placed on the head to be written? The four sections are respectively written on four separate slips of parchment; each slip is rolled up separately and they are then placed in four compartments composed of one skin. As to the phylactery placed on the arm, these four sections are written in four columns on one slip of parchment. This slip is rolled up like a scroll of the Law from the last column to the first and is placed in one [leather] compartment.

Halacha 2ב׳

וצריך להזהר בפרשיות שאם עשה הסתומה פתוחה או הפתוחה סתומה פסלן ושלשת הפרשיות הראשונות כולן פתוחות ופרשה אחרונה שהיא והיה אם שמוע סתומה.

The scribe must exercise care in writing these sections, for if he wrote a closed section as an open one,*that is, began the section on a new line where only a space of nine letters should have been left blank. or wrote an open section as if it were closed, the slip is unfit for use. The first three sections are, all of them, open. The last section, that beginning, "And it shall come to pass, if ye will hearken diligently" (Deuteronomy 11:13) is closed.

Halacha 3ג׳

וצריך להזהר במלא וחסר עד שיהיו ארבעתן כתובות כמו שהן כתובות בספר תורה הבדוק שאם כתב החסר מלא פסול עד שימחק היתר ואם כתב המלא חסר פסול ואין לו תקנה ואלו הן החסרות והמלאות שיש בארבע פרשיות אלו.

He must exercise care in regard to the words that are plene or defective,*with or without a Yod or Vav, respectively. that all the four sections should be written as they are in an examined scroll of the Law. For if he wrote a word plene that should have been written defective, the slip is unfit for use till the superfluous letter has been obliterated. If a word that is plene has been written defective, the slip is unfit for use and cannot be made good. The following is the list of the words in these four sections that are plene and defective respectively.

…and 6 more halachot in this chapter.

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Mishneh Torah, Hebrew Wikisource edition, via Sefaria — CC BY-SA

English: The Mishneh Torah by Maimonides, tr. Moses Hyamson, 1937-1949 — public domain

English: rendered from the Hebrew for this app — our own, not a borrowed translation