Question:
Am I allowed to dispose of divrei Torah sheets such as these?
Answer:
The Gemara (Makkos 22a) writes that one who destroys one of the sheimos, names
of Hashem, has transgressed the negative commandment of You shall not do
this to Hashem your God. (Devarim 12:4)
Rambam takes
this a step further and writes (Yesoidey Hatorah 6:8) that one must never burn
or destroy Torah writings (except for those written by a heretic, etc.) The
Netziv (Meshiv Davar 1:80) limits this
prohibition to materials that were written to last. Thus, one would be allowed
to dispose of one’s rough notes. Based on this, R’ Yitzchok Yaakov Weiss
(Minchas Yitzchak 1:17) permits disposing of newspapers that contain Divrei
Torah. R’ Shmuel Wosner (Shevet Halevi 5:162) however, writes that they require
burial.
R’ Moshe
Feinstein (Igros Moshe OC 4:39) writes that often too much is printed, especially in school
settings, which just compounds the problem. He writes that if the gedolim
in Eretz Yisrael would agree with him (they didn't..) he would have allowed one
to even dispose of a worn Gemara, providing it didn’t contain sheimos.
Once a sefer becomes unusable, it loses its kedusha somewhat.
There is much
debate about placing such papers in recycling. R’ Moshe Sternbuch (Teshuvos Vehanhagos 1:554) maintains that the ideal solution
is to put them in a plastic bag before disposing of them. This way, one is
treating them respectfully.
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