Commentary for Gittin 108:19

ההוא דאתא לקמיה דר' אבהו א"ל ס"ת שכתבתי לפלוני גוילין שלו לא עיבדתים לשמן א"ל ספר תורה ביד מי א"ל ביד לוקח אמר לו מתוך שאתה נאמן להפסיד שכרך אתה נאמן להפסיד ספר תורה

A certain man appeared before R. Ammi and said to him: In a scroll of the Law which I have written for So-and-so I have not written the names [of God] with proper intention.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. infra. ');">¹⁸</span> He asked him: Who has the scroll? — He replied: The purchaser. Whereupon he said to him: Your word is good to deprive you of your fee, but it is not good to spoil a scroll of the Law. Said R. Jeremiah to him: Granted that he has lost his fee for the names, is he to lose it for the whole of the scroll? He replied: Yes, because a scroll in which the names of God have not been written with proper intention is not worth anything. But cannot he go over them with a pen and so sanctify them? What authority would allow this? Not, we would say, R. Judah; for we have learnt, 'Suppose the scribe had to write the tetragrammaton, and he intended [instead] to write Yehwdah [Judah]<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Thus leaving the letters of the divine name, YHWH, written however without proper intention. ');">¹⁹</span> and he made a mistake and left out the daleth,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Thus leaving the letters of the divine name, YHWH, written however without proper intention. ');">¹⁹</span> he can go over it with a pen and sanctify it. So R. Judah. The Sages, however, say that this name is not of the best'? — You may even say that he is in accord with R. Judah. For R. Judah would allow this only in the case of one mention of the Name, but not throughout a whole scroll, because it would make it look bizarre. A certain man came before R. Abbahu saying, I have written a scroll of the Law for So-and-so but did not prepare the parchments for the purpose.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Which would disqualify the scroll. V. supra 20a. ');">²⁰</span> He asked him, Who has the scroll? — He replied, The purchaser. He said to him: Since your word is good to deprive you of your fee, it is also good to spoil the scroll.

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