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How does a Sefer Torah (תורה) model marriage? Tosafos (תוספות) on Gittin 4a reveals that the blank spaces separating the five books of the Torah mirror the necessary separations within marriage. The blank lines are not absences but essential components of unity—just as the five books achieve their individual spiritual levels only through separation, marriage creates oneness precisely through maintaining distinct spaces for each person.
This shiur explores a profound Tosafos (תוספות) on Gittin 4a that presents the Sefer Torah (תורה) as a visual model for marriage. The central question is how to understand the requirement that a get (bill of divorce) must have blank lines equivalent to those in a Sefer Torah, and what this reveals about the nature of marriage itself. Rabbi Zweig begins with the principle that a Sefer Torah requires separation between its five books—four blank spaces of specific measurements. This is not merely a scribal requirement but reflects something essential about kedushah and unity. The sefarim (books) can only achieve their distinct spiritual levels (madregot) when they have their own defined space. If the text ran continuously without separation, the unique character of each book—Bereishis, Shemos, and so on—would be lost. The separation is not a break in unity but rather the very condition that makes unity possible.
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Gittin 4a
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