Gittin 60: Scroll or Chumash?

Are we allowed to read from a chumash when we read the weekly parasha? Or must we read from a Torah scroll?  What if the Torah scroll is incomplete, or is missing a letter, or is otherwise compromised?  Is it more important to revere the central position of the Torah in our prayer, or is it more important that we actually pray?

In answering these questions, the rabbis share examples of what had been done in other communities across time and location.  One example is Queene Helen's Golden Tablet that held the sacred words used in the practice of judging a sota.  The rabbis wonder whether its existence proves that documents other than complete Torah scrolls were valid in services.  Alternatively, they argue that the tablet might have contained just parts of the verses used with a sota.   Perhaps just the first initials or words of alternating lines. 

As children we learn about what is sacred, what is holy, and what is not.  We learn how to behave with books that contain G-d's name if they are accidentally dropped on the floor.  We learn that the Torah is so sacred that it cannot be touched; we do not turn our backs on a Torah that has just been read.  More to the point, we learn that a Torah is read from a scroll during services while others follow along with chumashim.  But in a pinch, a chumash will do. 

All of these rituals and rules come from somewhere.  The minutia was determined over hundreds and hundreds of years by brilliant rabbis who tried to imagine halachot that would ensure the future of Jewish practice.  Obvious, of course.  And yet reading about the specific conversations which determined today's practices is somehow both surprising and exciting.