Inscribing God's Laws: Rules of Writing Torah Scrolls from a Historical Perspective

[There is] a positive commandment on every Jewish man to copy a Torah scroll for himself. Even if his ancestors bequeathed one to him, he is still commanded to write his own one. He is not permitted to sell it, even if he owns many Torah scrolls.

Nowadays the commandment is to copy the five books of the Torah, the Mishna, and the Talmud with its commentaries. [These books] can only be sold [to gather funds] to study Torah or to marry a woman.

... But now that we write Torah scrolls and put them in synagogues for public reading, there is a positive commandment on every Jewish person who can do so to write the five books of the Torah, the Mishna and the Talmud with its commentaries for him and his sons to study. Because the commandment to write the Torah is [in order] to study it, as it is written "and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths."

There is a positive commandment on every Jewish person who can do so to write the five books of the Torah etc. It seems that this means that the positive commandment refers specifically to those books and not to a Torah scroll because, in earlier days, Jews wouldn't study the oral Torah completely orally, not from a text, so textual study was solely from a Torah scroll ... But in our times, since our hearts have shrunk, and they said "It is a time to act for GOD, for they have violated Your teaching" (Psalms 119), the Talmud was written down. Also in their times, it was forbidden to write the Torah in any other way except on a scroll. Therefore, all their books were like Torah scrolls. This is not the case today: Writing sefarim, individually, in codex form has become permitted. Therefore, why should we dishonour a Torah scroll by learning from it when there is no need to do so...

Nowadays, the commandment is etc. This is how the Tur (Yaakov ben Asher) wrote in the name of his father, Asher ben Yechiel (Rosh). And the Beit Yosef explains that this does not exempt us from writing Torah scrolls since we also need to write those and learn from them. However, the Tur emphasises that there is also a mitzvah to write other books. ... And even though the wording of the Rosh seems to be more in line with the words of the Derisha (R. Joshua Falk, author of Perisha), in any case, it is correct to follow the words of the Beit Yosef since how could the positive mitzvah "And now, write for yourselves" be cancelled over the course of generations?!

If so, what are these specific laws that are called 'laws of Moshe from Sinai?' And you must understand the secret of this fundamental principle. And that is that the explanations transmitted from the mouth of Moshe have no disagreement about them in any way.

In four places, the mitzvah of tefillin is mentioned: "Sanctify unto Me," "And it shall be, when the L-rd brings you," "Shema," "And it will be if you hearken." If they were not written in this order, they must be put in a Geniza.

If it's found to be missing one letter, there is no way to fix it, because if so (that it's fixed) it will be considered written out of order and it is invalid since it's written [in the Torah] "And it should be" - in the way they are, that's how they should be.

Ri Askandrani wrote: After he finishes writing one paragraph, he should read it all out carefully and afterwards he should write the second paragraph, and then check the second one, word by word, and once he has finished checking, before he starts writing the third and fourth paragraph, he should go back and diligently check each paragraph because if he finds a mistake in any paragraph, not only this one will become invalid, but also everything that is written afterwards. This is because these texts were not written in order (shell kesidran) and are invalid because it says "and they shall be," the shall be where they shall be.

27) The Jews undertook and irrevocably obligated themselves and their descendants, and all who might join them, to observe these two days in the manner prescribed and at the proper time each year. 28) Consequently, these days are recalled and observed in every generation: by every family, every province, and every city. And these days of Purim shall never cease among the Jews, and the memory of them shall never perish among their descendants. 29) Then Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter of Purim.

... If he read from a Megilla that was written with sam or with sikra or with komos or with kankantom, or on neyar or on diftera, he has not fulfilled his obligation until he reads from a Megilla that is written in Ashurit, upon parchment and with ink.