Torah from Memory

b. Megillah 18b

220–600

About This Entry

The sages prohibit writing a Torah scroll from memory except in a time of “exigent circumstances.” While the ability to produce a scroll from memory is indeed impressive and highly regarded, it is nevertheless prohibited because the possibility of error is too serious a risk.

[It was related that] R. Ḥisda [once] found R. Ḥananel writing [Torah] scrolls, [but he was] not [copying them] from a written text, [as he knew it all by heart]. He said to him: It is fitting [for] the entire Torah to be written by your mouth, [i.e., relying on your memory,] but this is what the sages said: It is prohibited to write [even] a single letter [of the Bible when] not [copying] from a written text. [The Gemara asks:] Since [R. Ḥisda] said [to him]: The entire Torah is fitting to be written by your mouth, [it may be concluded] by inference that [the words of the Torah] were exact in his memory [i.e., that R. Ḥananel enjoyed total mastery of the text]. But didn’t [we say that] R. Meir wrote [a Megillah without copying from a text due to similar proficiency? The Gemara answers:] A time of exigent circumstances is different; [since there was no other option available, he was permitted to rely on his expertise, but otherwise this must not be done].

Translation adapted from the Noé Edition of the Koren Talmud Bavli.

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Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation.

Credits

From Koren Talmud Bavli, Noé Edition, trans. Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2019). Accessed via the William Davidson digital edition, sefaria.org. Adapted with permission of Koren Publishers Ltd.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.