Editing Parashah (section)

== Purpose ==

A ''parashah'' break creates a textual pause, roughly analogous to a modern [[paragraph]] break.<ref>For a general description of the section divisions and their purpose, see Emanuel Tov, ''Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible'', 2nd revised edition (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001), pp. 50-51.</ref> Such a pause usually has one of the following purposes:
#In most cases, a new ''parashah'' begins where a new topic or a new thought is clearly indicated in the biblical text.
#In many places, however, the ''parashah'' divisions are used even in places where it is clear that no new topic begins, in order to highlight a special verse by creating a textual pause before it or after it (or both).
#A special example of #2 is for lists: The individual elements in many biblical lists are separated by ''parashah'' spacing of one type or another.<ref>This phenomenon often borders on "song" format. The various types and degrees of "song" format as a sophisticated expansion of the ''parashah'' spaces in the Tiberian masoretic manuscripts has been analyzed at length by [[Mordechai Breuer]] in ''The Aleppo Codex and the Accepted Text of the Bible'' (Jerusalem: Mosad Harav Kook, 1976), pp. 149-165 (Hebrew).</ref>

To decide exactly where a new topic or thought begins within a biblical text involves a degree of subjectivity on the part of the reader. This subjective element may help explain differences amongst the various masoretic codices in some details of the section divisions (though their degree of conformity is high). It may also explain why certain verses which might seem like introductions to a new topic lack a section division, or why such divisions sometimes appear in places where no new topic seems indicated. For this reason, the ''parashah'' divisions may at times contribute to biblical [[exegesis]].<ref>Tov, p. 51: "The subdivision into open and closed sections reflects exegesis on the extent of the content units... It is possible that the subjectivity of this exegesis created the extant differences between the various sources. What in one Masoretic manuscript is indicated as an open section may appear in another as a closed section, while the indication of a section may be altogether absent in yet a third source. Nevertheless, a certain uniformity is visible in the witnesses of M."</ref>