Tuesday Elul 7 5703
Torah Lessons (5703)	Chumash: Teitsei, Shlishi with Rashi. Tehillim: 39-43. Also 19-21. Tanya: Now, the arousal (p. 451)...from its midst. (p. 453).

The Alter Rebbe instructed that in the phrase P'tzua Daka, [1] the word Daka be written (in the Torah scroll) with an Alef at the end, not with a hay.

In Prague there is a Torah scroll which - according to local tradition - had been examined and emended by Ezra the Scribe.

It is read only on Simchat Torah and is always rolled to the portion of Sh'ma. When I was in Prague in 5668 (1908) I saw that scroll, and in it Daka is spelled with an Alef.

So too when I was in Worms in 5667 (1907), I saw a Sefer-Torah written - according to their tradition - by Rabbi Meir of Rotenberg, and there too the word Daka was written with an Alef.

See also Sh'eirit Yehuda, (Yoreh De'a, 16) and Divrei Nechemya (Yoreh De'a, 22) Mishnat Avraham (Sect. 32) cites a number of works that deal with this subject.

   

Notes:

1. (Back to text) Devarim 23:2.