It is permitted to enter the restroom with a sefer Tehillim, provided that it is covered.
Sources and Explanations
The Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim (40:2) writes: “In a room in which there are tefillin, it is forbidden to have marital relations until he takes them out or places them in a vessel within a vessel, provided that the second one is not designated for them; for if it is designated for them, even a hundred are considered as one.” The Mishnah Berurah (there, 40:4) adds that this applies not only to tefillin; rather, the same law applies to Chumashim, siddurim, or other sefarim, whether handwritten or printed. All of them have sanctity, and a vessel within a vessel is required. This is so even if they are in Mashait script [that is, not STaM script, but merely like ordinary handwriting that is not square]. The binding of the sefer is not considered a covering, since it is part of the sefer itself, and two further coverings are required. See Yoreh De’ah (siman 271), in the Taz there (271:8), who writes that whoever is lenient regarding the sanctity of printed sefarim will be called to account, since print is like writing. However, the Responsa Chavot Yair (siman 187) inclines to be lenient in this in a pressing situation, when one has nothing with which to cover them. Regarding entering the restroom, the Mishnah Berurah (43:25) cites: “Other sefarim and writings that contain Names of Hashem, if they are in a pouch, it is permitted to bring them in; and some say that specifically a case within a case is required if one needs to enter the lavatory.”
Now, with a sefer Tehillim, several supporting considerations can be combined to be lenient and bring it into the restroom with only one covering.
1. The opinion of those who are lenient with one covering, cited by the Mishnah Berurah.
2. What the Mishnah Berurah cited in the name of the Chavot Yair, who is lenient with printed sefarim; and especially with our sefarim, which are not even made through actual printing but rather through photographic reproduction, as cited at length in Halachah Berurah (siman 40, Birur Halachah, se’if katan 12, s.v. “Venireh”).
3. The opinions of those who are lenient regarding sefarim that have a binding, to consider the binding as a covering. Halachah Berurah enumerates them (siman 40, Birur Halachah, se’if 5), and they are: the Meiri (Berachot 26a), who writes that sefarim covered with leathers sewn onto them, that covering counts as one; and the Tashbetz (there) likewise writes: “It seems to me that the covering of our sefarim is considered one vessel, and a cloak over it is like a vessel within a vessel.” Also the Chesed La’alafim (240:8), and the Kaf HaChaim (40:14) leaned toward leniency, especially with printed sefarim. 4. The view of many poskim that our restrooms, in which the excrement is flushed away immediately after relieving oneself, are considered like the “Persian lavatory” (beit hakisei departsai) which the Sages permitted, and are not at all similar to the lavatory of which our Rabbis spoke.
Therefore, on the basis of all the above supporting considerations, HaGaon Rabbi David Yosef writes in the sefer Halachah Berurah (siman 40, se’if katan 8) to be lenient and bring sefarim in with only one covering. He writes: “It is permitted to enter the lavatory, even in one’s home, when one has in one’s pocket letters in which words of Torah are written, or holy sefarim such as a small Tehillim or a small Chumash; since the holy words are covered in one’s pocket and were also made by printing or photographic reproduction, there is no disgrace to the holy writings in this.”
From the sefer “Shaf Veyativ – Laws of Saying Tehillim” by Rabbi Shay Tahan, Chapter 7: What Is Forbidden and Permitted When Saying Tehillim, Halacha 17 (p. 129 in the print edition). Translated from the Hebrew original.
