לע"נ אסתר בת שמואל
The
gemara [Nazir 12b] says that if one is not able to carry out an act himself, he
may not appoint a shaliach to perform the act on his behalf. According to this
principle, one may not appoint a shaliach to write a sefer torah unless he can
write one himself.
The Chinuch writes that women are not obligated in the mitzvah to write a sefer torah. It is implicit that the reason is that they are not obligated in the mitzvah of learning Torah [which is the reason to write a sefer torah. So if they are not obligated to learn, they are not obligated to write]. The Minchas Chinuch writes that they are not obligated for another reason. Since women are disqualified from writing a sefer torah they are completely absolved from any obligation. This follows our rule is that if they cannot do it themselves they may not appoint a shaliach.
According
to this, a mechalel shabbos may not appoint a shaliach to write a sefer torah.
Since he may not write himself, he may also not appoint a shaliach. It could be
however that since he could do teshuva and be a kosher sofer, maybe he may
appoint a shaliach. His disqualification is not inherent but external [based on his actions] and thus he may
appoint a shaliach.
What
is the halacha about a man who is in New York and he wants a shaliach to write
a sefer torah for him in Israel on Motzei Shabbos in Israel? The problem is
that at that time it is still Shabbos in New York, so he is not able to do the
mitzvah himself. How can he have a shaliach do what he may not?
Similarily,
the Pri Megadim asked how one can appoint a shaliach to light chanuka candles
for him after he already accepted Shabbos upon himself. How can he have a
shaliach do what he can't do?!
One
could argue [against the Pr"m] that in this instance there is no problem
because the person essentially is allowed to light the candles [or write the
Torah] just there is an EXTERNAL FACTOR that is preventing him from fulfilling
this mitzvah. A proof of this would be that according to the gemara, if not for
a special pasuk, we would say that יש שליח לדבר עבירה and shlichus is valid
even to perform a sin. And even after we have a pasuk that teaches that אין שליח לדבר עבירה,
Tosfos [Kiddushin 42b] holds that if the shaliach is shogeg then we say that יש שליח לדבר עבירה.
So we see that in principle, there is a concept of shlichus, even if the person
is prevented from acting by the external factor of aveirah.
According to this, the Israeli based sofer would be able
to write the Torah for the New Yorker while it is still Shabbos in New York.
מאוצרותיו של הגר"א גנחובסקי זצ"ל
