Triennial Torah Reading for November 1 2019

The Triennial cycle of Torah reading may refer either

• The historical practice in ancient Israel by which the unabridged Torah was read in series style over a iii-year menses, or
• The practice adopted by many Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Renewal congregations starting in the 19th and 20th Century, in which the traditional weekly Torah portions are divided into thirds, and in which 1 third of each weekly "parashah" of the annual system is read during the appropriate week of the calendar.

Background: Torah reading [edit]

The introduction of public reading of the Torah by Ezra the Scribe after the render of the Jewish people from the Babylonian Captivity is described in Nehemiah Chapter 8. Prior to Ezra, the mitzvah of Torah reading was based on the Biblical commandment of Hakhel, past which one time every vii years the entire people was to exist gathered to hear Deuteronomy read to them.^[1] Traditionally, the Hakhel reading was performed by the King. Under Ezra, Torah reading became more frequent and the congregation themselves substituted for the King'southward part. According to one source, Ezra initiated the modern custom of reading thrice weekly in the synagogue.^[two] This reading is an obligation incumbent on the congregation, not an individual, and did not supersede the Hakhel reading by the king. The reading of the Police in the synagogue tin be traced to at least about the second century B.C., when the grandson of Sirach refers to it in his preface as an Egyptian practise; it must, therefore, have existed fifty-fifty earlier in Judea.

The annual reading cycle every bit practiced by the Jewish exile community in Babylonia was known past them to be different from the custom of the remaining Jews of the Country of Israel. The Babylonian Talmud refers only once to the triennial cycle: "...The people of the due west (i.e. the Country of Israel) who consummate the Torah in iii years."^[3]

Ancient triennial cycle [edit]

The Torah is divided into 54 parashot in the annual cycle. In the triennial cycle, information technology is divided into either 141, 154, or 167 parashot, equally evidenced by scriptural references and fragments of recovered text. The practice was to read each parashah in serial order regardless of the calendar week of the yr, completing the unabridged Torah in iii years in a linear manner.

By the Centre Ages, the annual reading cycle was predominant, although the triennial cycle was still extant at the time, as noted by Jewish figures of the period, such as Benjamin of Tudela and Maimonides. Dating from Maimonides' codification of the parashot in his piece of work Mishneh Torah in the twelfth Century CE through the 19th Century, the bulk of Jewish communities adhered to the almanac cycle.

In a systematic review of the history and religious basis of the ancient and modernistic triennial cycles undertaken on behalf of the Conservative movement, Lionel Eastward. Moses cites Maimonides, who in Mishneh Torah observes "The widespread practice in all of Israel is to complete the Torah in one year. In that location are some who consummate the Torah in three years, but this is not a widespread practice."^[iv]

The triennial bicycle "was the do in Israel, whereas in Babylonia the entire Pentateuch was read in the synagogue in the course of a single twelvemonth."^[five] Every bit late as 1170 Benjamin of Tudela mentioned Egyptian congregations that took three years to read the Torah.^[6]

In 1517, Daniel Bomberg (a Christian^[7]) published the outset Bible with rabbinic commentary, divided into 154 sedarim.^[eight]

Joseph Jacobs notes the transition from the triennial to the almanac reading of the Law and the transference of the get-go of the bike to the month of Tishri are attributed past Adolph Büchler to the influence of Rav (175–247 CE), a Babylonian Talmudist who established at Sura the systematic study of the rabbinic traditions, which, using the Mishnah every bit text, led to the compilation of the Talmud: "This may take been due to the smallness of the sedarim under the quondam arrangement, and to the fact that people were thus reminded of the chief festivals merely once in three years. It was then arranged that Deut. 28 should autumn before the New-Year, and that the starting time of the cycle should come immediately after the Feast of Tabernacles. This organization has been retained by the Karaites and past modern congregations."

Modern developments [edit]

By the early on modernistic period, the almanac cycle was universal amidst Jews, and there only remained "slight traces of the triennial cycle in the 4 special Sabbaths and in some of the passages read upon the festivals, which are frequently sections of the triennial bicycle, and not of the almanac 1".^[9] This remains the practice in Orthodox synagogues and in many Conservative synagogues.

However, since the 19th century, many congregations in the Conservative, Reform, and (more than recently) Reconstructionist and Renewal movements adopted a triennial bicycle distinct from the aboriginal practice, by reading roughly a third of the annual cycle's sedra during the appropriate calendar week of the year, in a manner that covers the unabridged Torah over the course of three years. (In a 1987 responsum,^[10] the Conservative Move's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards published a triennal agenda for congregations choosing to read Torah in that mode. That calendar is not divided strictly into thirds, in order to preserve the narrative flow of the sections being read, to go along intact passages that are to be read uninterrupted, and to ensure that the subdivision into aliyot conforms with the requirements of Jewish police.) This was done in order to shorten the weekly services and permit additional time for sermons, written report, or discussion.^[11]

The Reconstructionist movement's prayer book, Siddur Kol Haneshamah, similarly contains a triennal Torah reading agenda.^[12]

See also [edit]

• Hebrew calendar
• Torah report

References [edit]

1. ^ Deuteronomy 31:10–13
2. ^ Jerusalem Talmud Megillah four:i; still, run across Bava Kamma 82a which concludes that these readings were instituted by Moses, while Ezra expanded them from three to ten verses in length.
3. ^ Megillah 29b
4. ^ Moses, p. 335.
5. ^ Triennial bike, citing Megillah 29b.
6. ^ "Itinerary," ed. Asher, p. 98
7. ^ United Synagogue Review Autumn 2006
8. ^ United Synagogue Review Fall 2006
9. ^ "Triennial Bike," op. cit.
10. ^ Eisenberg, Rabbi Richard (1988). "A Complete Triennial System for Reading the Torah" (PDF). Rabbinical Assembly. Retrieved 2016-11-22 .
11. ^ United Synagogue Review Fall 2006
12. ^ Teutsch, Rabbi David, ed. (2000). Kol Haneshamah: Shabbat Vehagim (in English language and Hebrew) (3rd ed.). Reconstructionist Printing. p. 710. ISBN0935457461.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:Vocaliser, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Triennial cycle". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

Further reading [edit]

• Buchler, Adolph. "The Reading of the Constabulary & Prophets in a Triennial Cycle." JQR o.s. Vol. 5 (1893), 420-468; Vol. vi (1894), one-73.
• Moses, Lionel E. "Is in that location an Authentic Triennial Cycle of Torah Readings?" Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Constabulary and Standards., 1986-1990.[1]
• Jacobs, Joseph. "Triennial Cycle" Jewish Encyclopedia.

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triennial_cycle

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