Editing Sefer Torah (section)

== Writing a Sefer Torah ==
Extended article – Writing a Sefer Torah

There is a special mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah, "And now, write for yourselves this song and teach it to the Children of Israel." Although there is a disagreement among poskim regarding the laws of this mitzvah in our times, and there are those who believe that one fulfills the mitzvah by purchasing holy books through which one can fulfill the purpose of the mitzvah – "teach it to the Children of Israel" – which is learning Torah, the Rebbe instructed that all Jewish children should participate in the special mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah, with each child paying for the cost of one letter and attributing it to their merit.

==== Petzua Daka ====
According to the Alter Rebbe's approach, the word "daka" in Parshat Tetze is written with an alef and not with a hei (according to the Vilna Gaon's approach, it is written with a hei). The Frierdiker Rebbe testified that he was in Worms in 5667 (1907) and saw a Sefer Torah that, according to tradition, was written hundreds of years earlier by the Maharam of Rothenburg, and in it "daka" was written with an alef. Similarly, when he was in Prague in 5668 (1908), he saw a Sefer Torah that was traditionally believed to have been proofread by Ezra HaSofer, and in this one too "daka" was written with an alef. In 5775 (2015), an ancient Ashkenazi Sefer Torah was discovered in which "daka" was also written with an alef.

Even though we are careful to write "daka" with an alef, a Sefer Torah written with a hei is still kosher. There is a story about the Frierdiker Rebbe when he stayed in the city of Druskenik (a spa town) on the border of Poland and Lithuania. Reb Zalman Gurary arranged for a Sefer Torah, but in this city, only a Sefer Torah that had "petzua dakah" written with a hei was found, which was not according to the Chabad custom. Reb Zalman asked the Frierdiker Rebbe – through the Rashag – what to do, and he replied that we have a tradition that the Alter Rebbe once stayed in a city where there was only a Sefer Torah with "petzua dakah" written with a hei, and he read from this Sefer or had an aliyah when they read from it.