Editing Torah reading (section)

==Origins and history of the practice==

{{Explain|reason=|date=February 2021}}The introduction of public reading of the [[Torah]] by [[Ezra]] the Scribe after the return of the Judean exiles is described in [[Book of Nehemiah|Nehemiah]] [http://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt35b08.htm Chapter 8].  However, the reading of the Torah three times a week (albeit not as many verses) is said to go back to the times of [[Moses]].<ref>Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Tefillah 12:1</ref>

The ''mitzvah'' of Torah reading was based on the Biblical commandment of ''Hakhel'' ([[Deuteronomy]] [http://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0531.htm#10 31:10–13]), by which once every 7 years the entire people was to be gathered, "men, women and children,"<ref>''[[Deuteronomy]]'' [http://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0531.htm#12 31:12]</ref> and hear much of Deuteronomy, the final volume of the Pentateuch, read to them (see the closing chapters of the [[Talmudic]] tractate [[Sotah]]) by the King.

Torah reading is discussed in the [[Mishna]] and [[Talmud]], primarily in [[tractate Megilla]].

It has been suggested that the reading of the Law was due to a desire to controvert the views of the [[Samaritans]] with regard to the various festivals, for which reason arrangements were made to have the passages of the Pentateuch relating to those festivals read and expounded on the feast-days themselves.{{Citation needed|date=October 2007}}

===Triennial cycle===
{{Main|Triennial cycle}}
An alternative triennial cycle of Torah readings also existed at that time, a system whereby each week the portion read was approximately a third of the current. According to the ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'', the triennial cycle "was the practice in Palestine, whereas in Babylonia the entire Pentateuch was read in the synagogue in the course of a single year."<ref>{{Citation | author=Joseph Jacobs | url = http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14508-triennial-cycle | contribution = Triennial cycle | title = Jewish Encyclopedia}}, citing [[Megillah (Talmud)|Megillah]] 29b.</ref> As late as 1170 [[Benjamin of Tudela]] mentioned [[Egyptian Jews|Egyptian congregations]] that took three years to read the Torah.<ref>{{Citation | title = Itinerary | editor-last = Asher | page = 98}},</ref> and this is corroborated by the [[Rambam]] who mentions in his [[Mishneh Torah]] that a few communities in his time still read the Torah in three years.<ref>[[Rambam]], Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot tefillah u-virkat kohanim [https://www.sefaria.org.il/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Prayer_and_the_Priestly_Blessing.13?lang=bi 13:1], viewed on Sefaria on January 16, 2025.</ref>

[[Joseph Jacobs]], in the Jewish Encyclopedia article mentioned, notes that the transition from the triennial to the annual reading of the Law and the transference of the beginning of the cycle to the month of Tishri are attributed by [[Sándor Büchler]] to the influence of [[Abba Arikha|Rav]] (175–247 CE):
{{blockquote |This may have been due to the smallness of the sedarim under the old system, and to the fact that people were thus reminded of the chief festivals only once in three years. It was then arranged that Deut. xxviii. should fall before the New Year, and that the beginning of the cycle should come immediately after the [[Feast of Tabernacles]]. This arrangement has been retained by the [[Karaite Judaism|Karaite]]s and by modern congregations.}}

The current practice in Orthodox synagogues follows the annual/Babylonian cycle. At the time of the Jewish Encyclopedia's publication (1901–06), the author noted that there were only "slight traces of the triennial cycle in the four special Sabbaths and in some of the passages read upon the festivals, which are frequently sections of the triennial cycle, and not of the annual one".<ref>{{Citation | title = Triennial Cycle | author-last = Jacobs | year = 1907 |page=257| publisher = Funk & Wagnalls Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VDwyAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22slight+traces+of+the+triennial+cycle+in+the+four+special+Sabbaths%22&pg=PA257}}.</ref>

In the 19th and 20th centuries, some Conservative (as evidenced in the [[Etz Hayim Humash|Etz Hayim]] [[Chumash (Judaism)|chumash]]) and most Reform,<ref>{{Citation | url = http://urj.org/worship/wisdom/parashah/ | publisher = URJ | series = Worship | title = Wisdom | contribution = Parashah | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20091210131609/http://urj.org/worship/wisdom/parashah/ | archivedate = 2009-12-10 }}.</ref> Reconstructionist<ref>{{Citation | title = Kol Haneshamah, Shabbat Vehagim | edition = 3rd | year = 2004 | publisher = The Reconstructionist Press | page = 710 | editor-first = Rabbi David A | editor-last = Teutsch}}.</ref> and Renewal{{Citation needed|date=October 2007}} congregations have switched to a triennial cycle, where the first third of each parashah is read one year, the second third the next year and the final third in a third year. This must be distinguished from the ancient practice, which was to read each seder in serial order regardless of the week of the year, completing the entire Torah in three (or three and a half) years in a linear fashion.