Menachos Daf 30 מנחוס דַף 30

Rav said: שמונה פסוקים שבתורה יחיד קורא אותן בבית הכנסת – the last eight pesukim of the Torah, must be read by a single person in the synagogue, and they cannot be divided into two aliyos. This apparently does not follow Rebbe Shimon’s opinion in a Baraisa: Rebbe Yehudah (or Rebbe Nechemiah) says: אפשר משה חי וכתב וימת שם משה – is it possible that Moshe was alive, and wrote, “and Moshe died there”?! Rather, we must say that Yehoshua wrote these pesukim. Rebbe Shimon objected: אפשר ס"ת חסר אות אחת – is it possible that Moshe’s sefer Torah was missing even a single letter?! But the passuk implies it was complete!? Rather, until this point Hashem would dictate to Moshe, and Moshe would repeat it and write it, but for the final eight pesukim, הקדוש ברוך הוא אומר ומשה כותב בדמע – Hashem would dictate, and Moshe would write with tears. The Gemara assumes that Rav holds that Yehoshua wrote these eight pesukim, so their laws are different. However, it answers that even if Moshe wrote them, הואיל ואשתנו אשתנו – since they were written differently (i.e., with tears), they are different from the rest of the Torah.

Rav said: הלוקח ספר תורה מן השוק – one who purchases a sefer Torah from the market is כחוטף מצוה מן השוק – like one who grabs a mitzvah from the market (Rashi explains that he has performed a mitzvah, but writing it would be a greater mitzvah). כתבו מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו קיבלו מהר סיני – if he wrote it, the Torah considers him as if he received it on Har Sinai. Rav Sheishess says: אם הגיה אפי' אות אחת – if he corrected even a single letter of a sefer Torah he purchased in the market, מעלה עליו כאילו כתבו – [the Torah] considers him as if he wrote it entirely.

A Baraisa discusses הטועה בשם – one who makes a mistake by neglecting to write the Name of Hashem, and records five opinions as to what he should do: (1) Rebbe Yehudah says: גורר את מה שכתב – he scrapes off what he wrote, ותולה את מה שגרר – and suspends [the scraped-off letters] by writing them above the line, וכותב את השם על מקום הגרר – and then writes [Hashem’s] Name on the place of the scraping. (2) Rebbe Yose says: אף תולין את השם – one may even suspend [Hashem’s] Name in the space above the line, and nothing needs to be erased. (3) Rebbe Yitzchak says: אף מוחק וכותב – one may even erase (i.e., blot out the wet ink) and write Hashem’s Name on the erased space, although it is less beautiful than if the letters were scraped off after drying. (4) Rebbe Shimon Shezuri says: כל השם כולו תולין – one may suspend [Hashem’s] entire Name above the line, but מקצתו אין תולין – he may not suspend just part of it. (5) Rebbe Meir says we do not write Hashem’s Name on the place of scraped letters, nor erased letters, nor do we suspend Hashem’s Name above the line. Rather, מסלק את היריעה כולה וגונזה – he removes the entire sheet and hides it away.