The Beraisa says:
1) When you borrow a sefer Torah, you can open it and read it from it, as long as you don't learn from it for the first time or have anyone else reading inside with you.
2) "V'chen" AND SIMILARLY, when someone drops off a sefer Torah by you to watch, roll it every once every 12 months, and you can open it and read from it during that time, but opening it for your own personal benefit is not allowed.
(this is how the Gemara explains the second statement of the Beraisa)
The only parallel (the "V'chen") between the two statements I can draw is the words "you can open it and read it from it", but they're really not that the similar, since in the first situation (borrowing), when you open it and read from it, you're doing it for yourself, and in the second case (watching) you're only allowed to open it and read from it to help the sefer Torah.
It's almost misleading to connect the case of watching a sefer Torah to the case of borrowing it by saying 'similarly' - because what's being stated is not really not similar at all.
Daniel Steinberg, Columbus, OH 43209
1) I think that the parallel is that one is obligated, in both cases, to do things for the good of the Sefer Torah, not only for one's own benefit. When one borrows a Sefer Torah, he has limitations on what one may do with it. Two people cannot learn from it together, because they might pull it away from each other. This is a special Halachah for a Sefer Torah and does not apply to other items which one borrows. One may not learn something new from the Sefer Torah because one may become absorbed in what one is learning and forget about one's duties to the Sefer. Again, this is a unique Halachah for a Sefer Torah.
2) We then jump from the Halachos about borrowing the Sefer Torah to the Halachos about dropping off a Sefer Torah to watch over. These are really two very different Halachos; one is "She'eilah" (borrowing) and the other is "Pikadon" (a deposit). Generally speaking, these are two different issues, because the "Sho'el" asked to borrow the item from the owner, while the "Mafkid" is the owner who is asking someone else to watch over his belongings. The Gemara is stressing that even though these activities appear to be the opposite of each other, there is a common factor: the Mitzvah to look after the Sefer Torah properly. Therefore, with the "drop off," the watchman cannot say that "it is sufficient for me to make sure that the Sefer is not stolen." He has an additional duty -- namely, to open up the Sefer every twelve months, because there is a Mitzvah to maintain the good upkeep of the holy Sefer Torah.
Kol Tuv,
Dovid Bloom