Reading of the Torah

The Reading of the Torah (in Hebrew: Qriat HaTorah ) follows a rite defined since more than two milliénaires, following the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem, and always scrupulously followed by the members of the orthodoxe Judaïsme. Recent movements, like the Judaism reformed or the Judaism traditionalist, carried out installations, but without bringing changes to the base.

The reading of a section of the Pentateuque in a parchment of Torah belongs to the office of certain days. The Torah is read according to weekly sections (Héb. פרשתהשבוע parashat hashavou' has ), divided into portions, themselves divided into Verset S, but not into chapters (the modern Juifs scholars use biblical capitation by convenience, but only for the study and not for the rite).
Le Shabbat, a whole parasha is read according to an annual cycle.
Le Shabbat afternoon, Mondays and Thursdays, the beginning of the following section is read.
Lors of certain celebrations and fasts, of the special sections, related to the celebration, are also read.

Origins and evolution of the practice

The public reading of the Torah was introduced by Ezra the Scribe after the return of the Juif people of its first exile, as he is written in chapter 8 of Néhémie:

Alors all the people was assembled as only one man on the place which is in front of the Door of Water. They said to Ezra the scribe to bring to the book of the law of Moïse, that the Eternal had prescribed in Israël.
Et Ezra the Cohen brought the Law before the assembly, composed men and women and of all those who were able to include/understand it, in order to make it hear the first day of the seventh month.
Il lute on the place which is in front of the Door of Water, since the morning until the middle of the day, in front of the men and the women and those which were able to include/understand it. All the people were attentive with the reading of the book of the loi.

The Wise ones allot the first reading to Moïse itself, although that does not appear explicitly in the Torah.

Before Ezra, there was also the Mitzvah of the hakhel (You will gather,), according to which whole people, " men, women and enfants" (Deut 31:12) was to be gathered in front of the king once every seven years, to hear the reading of Deutéronome, the last volume of the Pentateuque by the king himself. (see the final chapters of the treaty talmudic Sota ).

Under Ezra (which divided certainly the Torah into Verset S and section S), the reading of the Torah became more frequent, at a rate of three times per week, and the congregation replaced the king. The tradition also credits Ezra to have initiated the modern habit to carry out three readings per week with the synagog, which seems confirmed by external sources (see following paragraph). This reading is a Community obligation, nonindividual, and does not replace the reading of the hakhel under the aegis of the King.

The tradition of reading the Torah is attested in extra-biblical sources, namely the writings of Flavius Josèphe and Philon of Alexandria, having both lived in the neighborhoods of the destruction of the Second Temple, in Ier century EC., as well as Roman compilers of the same period.
Ils notes that Judéens gather in Synagog S, where they deal with reading the Torah and studying its rules, whereas none mentions prayer as a public; the reading of the Torah would thus have preceded it (the individual prayer is however already mentioned in the Tanakh).

At ic times Talmud, there existed two rites disctincts: in Ground of Israel, one read the Torah according to cycle a 3 years, whereas in Babylonia, it was only one year, finishing and starting again with Sim' hat Torah . The weekly sections read in Babylon were thus longer than those read as a Galileo.
Nowadays, one follows the Babylonian rite.
Le goal of the reading of the Torah was in the beginning to teach its remarks with the people. However, with the development of the oral Law, it lost of its importance, and became more ritual.
Il does not remain about it less than the study of the weekly section (Héb. לימודפרשתהשבוע Limoud parashat hashavou' a) forms integral part of the study of the Torah, and thus of the daily newspaper of the Jew observing.

The rites of the reading of the Torah are treated by the Mishna, then the Talmud, in the treaty Meguilla .

At which time does read one the Torah?

The Torah is read during the office morning of Mondays, Thursdays and Shabbat, like that of great and small festivals, as well as fasts. The Torah is also read at the time of the office of the afternoons of Shabbat and the fasts.

The mornings, the Torah is read after the Ta' hanoun or the Hallel . If those are omitted, one does it after the Amida . The Kaddish yehe shlema is recited before the blessing of Torah" , the 'hetzi kaddish. After the reading of the Torah, the office continues with the remainder of the prayers.

The afternoons, the Torah is read before the amida , separated from it by the 'hatzi- Kaddish . "

Of what does consist the reading of the Torah?

In the everyday usage, Qriat HaTorah does not indicate only the reading itself, but extends to all the ceremony, since the opening of the Aron hakodesh to take there to it (or, sometimes, them) Sefer Torah until its restitution.

Indispensable conditions for pouvoire to read the Torah

the reading can be done only on a Sefer Torah suitable for the employment, written with an ink special on a parchment in conformity by a scribe involved, according to a long and tiresome process.
the reading can be done only according to the Cantillation , a particular, different traditional melody according to the congregations, because dependant on an interpretation of signs of cantillation. Sefer Torah being deprived of these signs of cantillation (or versification), the reader must have memorized them. For this reason the great majority of the congregations (except for the Teimanim which all are practically broken with this exercise) is equipped with an expert in reading, the ba' Al q' riah' (or more often, but improperly, the Baal korè ).
Le ba' Al q' riah can be assisted by faithful indicating to him by gestural specific signs of cantillation, which it reads itself in a Houmash -- a not-ritual specimen, often printed, Pentateuque -- or a Tikkoun -- a book indicating in parallel the versified and cantillé text, and the text such as it appears in Sefer Torah (this more frequently sees in the congregations Sépharade S).

the reading can be done only in the presence of a Minyan , a quorum of ten people. At the orthodoxe Jews, they must be ten men; in the liberals, the minyan can be of mixed composition.

Sefer Torah is stored in a worked out cupboard, the Aron kodesh (holy Arch) or simply cupboard (Aron), specifically employed with this use.
Le withdrawal of Sefer Torah is regarded as an honor, and is withdrawn by one of the members of Minyan|congregation; specific prayers are recited as one withdraws Sefer.
La Torah is then carried by the officiant until Bima (at the Jews Ashkénaze S) or Teba (at the Jews Sépharade S), a platform of reading. Certain congregations have habit to embrace Sefer Torah (or more exactly, velvet it is covered) on its passage.
Des additional prayers is recited once Sefer on the platform.

A civil servant synagogal, the Gabbaï (equivalent of the " bedeau"), calls people with " monter" ( aliyah ), each one in its turn with the Torah, which is also a honneur.
Il has at least three there olim during a reading of the Torah: three exactly days of week and fast, the olim being able to be added according to the calendar; seven with Shabbat, others being able to be added according to the habits of the community (exemple: Shabbat where fall at the same time a Bar Mitzva and a ceremony of commemoration of dead the. How to honor all and sundry without adding additional aliyot ?)

According to the orthodoxe Judaïsme, as a sign of respect, the first olèh is a cohen , and the second a '' levi '' (if it is some in the assembly); the others olim are yisra' elim

The first olèh is called by reciting a Hebraic verse. Then, each one is called by " Hebraic Ya' amod name of the olèh Hebraic Ben name of his father haCohen/Levi/Israel, liqro baTorah" (That so-and-so wire of so-and-so Cohen/Levite/Israel rises to read the Torah).

Each olèh , when it has to go up to the Torah, approaches, recites a blessing, is supposed to read a portion of the weekly section of the Torah, and finishes of it by another blessing, after which one calls the olèh according to.
Generally however, the olim cannot read the Torah with the Cantillation, and this role falls to the ba' Al q' riah , which reads the passage of the Torah with the cantillation for the congregation, while the olèh follows the expert while murmuring, and recites only the blessings framing the reading of the Torah.

To Shabbat and at the time of the office of the morning of the celebrations, the final aliyah is followed by the hatzi- Kaddish , and an additional aliyah read by a person called the Maftir (Ya' amod… liqro baTorah, to maftir), because it is him which, after having repeated the last passage of seventh portion, will read the Haftara .
Les other days, the to maftir is omitted, as well as the afternoon of Shabbat, where the hatzi-kaddish is omitted égaleemnt.

When a boy becomes Bar Mitzva (i.e reaches its religious majority, and is from now on responsible for its acts from this point of view), one of the initiatory rites is to make of him the ba' Al q' riah of the weekly section corrspondant in Shabbat of (or right afterwards) its 13th birthday, although it is not an obligation. Much reads only Maftir and Haftara.

At the Jewish ashkénazes, it is of habit to carry out the Hagbaha, i.e. to raise Sefer Torah after having finished the reading of the seven portions of the weekly section, and to expose it in public, by singing Vezot HaTorah asher tziva lanou Moshe morasha qehilat Ya' akov (This is the Torah which precrite Moïse has us, heritage for the assembly of Jacob). After which one rolls up it - Guelila.
Chez the Juifs sépharades, one raises Sefer Torah before the reading, which is called Haqamat Sefer Torah (Raised Book of the Torah) and not Hagbaha (rise).

Sefer Torah then is closed, packed and arranged, before being given in the holy Arch, which is always done with specific prayers.

What does one read?

Shabbat mornings, the weekly parasha is read. It is divided into seven aliyot (see supra for the aliyot ). The cycle of the weekly readings is fixed. However, the Hebrew Calendar varying years by year, two sections weekly can be combined, so that the whole of Pantateuque is read in one year. For more information, to see Parasha .

Mondays and Thursdays mornings, and Shabbat afternoons (except for particular days), a small section of the parasha to come is read, divided into three aliyot . On other occasions, the reading thématiquement is thématiquement connected to the day: with Pessa' H, for example, the congregation reads various sections having milked with Pessa' h.

Women and reading of the Torah

According to the traditional Judaïsme orthodoxe, all the olim are men, and the women were always excluded from it, which is still the case in the most orthodoxe movements. The not-orthodoxe movements, like the Judaism reformed and even the Judaism traditionalist, were always shown more liberal in this respect. However, and this discreetly and recently, a tendency within the orthodoxe current tends to make in the same way.

Indeed, certain orthodoxe congregations allow the behavior of exclusively female offices of prayer, where the women can read.
De more, two modern orthodoxe rabbis, Rav Mendel Shapiro and Rav Daniel Sperber, professor of Talmud to the University Bar-Ilan, recently published their opinions, according to which the Halakha makes it possible orthodoxe women to take part in the reading of the Torah under certain conditions. They are according to them neither innovations, nor of installations but of borderline cases described in Talmud. This led to the constitution of " Partnership Minyan im" within a small number of modern orthodoxe congregations. However, this practice raises many objections, not only orthodoxe side, where Rav Saul Berman, director of the newspaper Edah, which published the article of Rav Shapiro does not share its conclusions, that liberal side (which however makes it possible to the women to go up to the Torah, cf supra). to
Voir for example the reaction of Rav Y.H. Henkin to the article of Rav Shapiro, in the newspaper Edah (pdf)

Innovations of the movements " traditionnaliste" and reformed

In certain synagogs traditionalists, the women who go down patrilinéairement from a Cohen ( Bat Cohenim ) or of Levi ( Bat Leviim ) can be called with the Torah for the two first aliyot . In some congregations traditionalists and the majority of the reformed congregations, the distinctions between cohen , levi , and yisrael (cf supra) are omitted.

Also in some congregations traditionalists and the majority of the reformed congregations, the annual cycle of reading became triennial. It however probably is not about the cycle followed by the Talmud of Jerusalem: they follow the order of the weekly sections according to the Talmud of Babylon, but read only one third per week of them: the first third the first year, the second the second year, the third the third year. They celebrate Sim' hat Torah each year.

Certain reformed congregations celebrate mainly the office of Shabbat Friday evening, and read the Torah at this time.

The not-orthodoxe movements also extended the rite of the Bar Mitzvah to the girls. Although the Bat Mitzvah is also celebrated in orthodoxe circles, the girls of the liberal movements read the weekly section corresponding to their 12th birthday, contrary to the first, where the ceremony resembles a " more; confirmation".

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