“Women Writing STAM” is a short series of blog posts published over several months. Below are links to all the posts in the series, along with an outline of the main points covered in each post. For more detailed information, click on the links to read the complete posts. |
Index
Summary
Although historically sofrei STAM have always been men, a growing group of women have recently begun writing Sifrei Torah, tefilin, and mezuzos.
Some of these women maintain that there is halachic justification for doing so.
The Gemara (in two different places) quotes a beraisa taught by Rav Hamnuna (aka Rav Chinina), which clearly says that women are not eligible to write STAM.
There is another list of the people who are ineligible to write STAM in maseches Sofrim, and women do not appear on that list.
Advocates of women writing STAM claim that the list in maseches Sofrim supports their position.
In spite of this claim, there is substantial evidence that the list in maseches Sofrim is not authoritative.
All of the Rishonim and Achronim (with one possible exception) definitively decide the halacha according to Rav Hamnuna – that women may not write STAM.
The Tur references Rav Hamnuna’s beraisa when discussing the laws of tefilin, but not when discussing the laws of Sefer Torah.
The Drisha presents an argument that the Tur holds that women are allowed to write Sifrei Torah (but not tefilin or mezuzos).
This conclusion of the Drisha is not compelling, and is rejected by all later poskim.
Sifrei Torah have more stringent halachos than scrolls of the other books of Tanach (kisvei kodesh).
Megilas Ester has some of the stringencies of Sifrei Torah and some of the leniencies of kisvei kodesh.
Some authorities say that a megilas Ester written by a woman is invalid, but the majority of those who address the topic hold that it is kosher.
Many of the poskim who permit women to write megilas Ester in theory, also hold that lechatchila you should not read from such a megila in practice.
If there is no other megila available, bidi’eved a megila written by a woman can be used to fulfill the mitzva of megila reading.
There is a long list of Rishonim and Achronim who reference Rav Hamnuna’s beraisa as the definitive halacha.
There are minor variations among these poskim in the exact phrasing of the halacha, but they all clearly say that any STAM written by a woman is invalid and must be put into geniza.
-= 8 =-