Did you know?

Για να το διβάσετε στα Ελληνικά, κάντε κλικ εδώ

Every Shabbat, after the reading of the Torah, we read the Haftarah. What is the Haftarah? It is (usually) an excerpt from the Prophets which is related to the portion of the Pentateuch that was read before. It is customary that the person reading the Haftarah also reads a few verses of the Torah. From the portion that was just completed. The reading of the Haftarah is not considered part of the 7 Aliyot of Shabbat, it is the 8th (to read more about the 7 Aliyot of the Torah, click here). This is what it is possible for a Kohen or a Levi to read the Haftarah.

There is no Haftarah during the readings of the Torah on Mondays and Thursdays. Besides for Shabbat, we read a Haftarah on special days such as Rosh Chodesh, fast days etc. In these cases, when we have only 3 Aliyot, the third person coming up to the Torah is the one who will read the Haftarah. It will be an Israelite, not a Kohen or Levi.

Why do we read the Haftarah?

Many years ago (2nd century BCE), one king decreed that the Jews could not read the Torah. The Sages of this time instituted to read (instead of the Torah which was forbidden) an excerpt from the Prophets corresponding to the Portion of the week. In this way, they kept the reading even during the period when it was banned. This continued even after the decree was canceled and this is how we read the Haftarah after the reading of the Torah.

Shabbat Shalom,

Arie from the Yeshiva

Για να το διαβάσετε στα Ελληνικά, κάντε κλικ εδώ

As we explained here, every Shabbat we read in the Sefer Torah the weekly Parasha, the Weekly Portion. The Parasha is divided in 7 parts (Aliyot) and 7 people ascend to read from the Torah.

Who ascends to the Torah, in other words, who receives an Aliyah?

Every Jewish male who has become Bar-Mitzvah, i.e who has turned 13 and is considered an adult for religious matters, can receive an Aliyah. There are various customs regarding who has priority, but the basics are the following:

The first Aliyah belongs to a Kohen, i.e one of the descendants of the first High Priest Aharon. The Kohanim (Priests) “worked” in the Temple as representatives of the entire Jewish people. G-d granted them a special holiness, which carries on until today, even though we do not have the Temple.

For the second Aliyah, a Levi is called up, since the Levites also worked and helped in the Temple.

All Jews are important but since the Kohanim and the Levites had as their sole occupation the service of G-d and the work in the Temple, we honor them by calling them first for the Reading of the Torah.

If there is no Levi, the Kohen gets the first as well as the second Aliyah.

If there is no Kohen, then either a Levi or an Israelite comes up first.

If there is no Kohen or Levi, an Israelite comes up for the first Aliyah, another one for the second etc.

The 5 next Aliyot are for the Israelites, and it is customary for give an Aliyah to someone who just became Bar Mitzvah, or is getting married that week, or has the anniversary of the passing of a close relative.

While on Shabbat, 7 people ascend to the Torah, on the Holidays (Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashana and Sukkot) there are five people being called to the Torah (i.e., there are 5 Aliyot) and six on Yom Kippur (i.e. 6 Aliyot). The first 2 Aliyot are for a Kohen and a Levi and the rest are for Israelites.

On Mondays and Thursdays, the order of the Aliyot is the same as Shabbat, first a Kohen, then a Levi and then an Israelite.

(In some communities, on Shabbat and Holidays, if there is a need to honor more than seven men, more Israelites are called to the Torah.)

Next week, we will read about the 8^th Aliyah of Shabbat, the Maftir and the Haftarah. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Arie from the Yeshiva 

Για να το διαβάσετε στα Ελληνικά, κάντε κλικ εδώ

Besides for the reading of the Torah portion on Shabbat morning, we also read from the Sefer Torah during the afternoon prayer (Mincha) of Shabbat, as well as Monday and Thursday mornings.

What do we read?

The portion of the upcoming Shabbat. We take the beginning of the Torah portion (usually the first Aliyah, the part that will be read first during the reading of Shabbat) and we divide it into three parts, each one of them constituting one Aliyah. 

Why do we read the Torah on Mondays, Thursdays, and Shabbat at Mincha?

The Gemara (Baba Kamma 82a) says that Moshe established the custom that the Jews should read the Torah three days a week, so that they would never go three days without hearing it read publicly.

The Talmudic sages find this alluded to in Exodus (15:22-27), where we read that our ancestors traveled for three days and thirsted for water—which allegorically also refers to the Torah. They had become spiritually ill after not studying Torah. In response, Moses and the prophets of his generation decided that three days should never pass without a public Torah reading. Thus, we read the Torah on Shabbat, then skip a day and read it on Monday, then skip two days and read it again on Thursday—then two days later we are back at Shabbat.

Another tradition in the Talmud says that it is Ezra the Scribe, who was the spiritual leader of the Jews during the construction of the 2nd Temple, who instituted the reading of the Torah on Mondays and Thursdays so that three days shall not pass without the Jewish people learning (hearing) the Torah, including the simple people who work all day and not have time (or can’t) learn Torah on their own. The market days when the villagers would go to the big city were set on Monday and Thursday because of the Torah reading, and other public functions were set already on those days.

During those years, there were people going around to the villages to sell their merchandise and did not have during the whole week the opportunity to pray with a Minyan and thus, did not hear the Torah on Monday or Thursday. Thus, Ezra instituted the reading of the Torah a second time during Shabbat, so that they should learn something more.

The Talmud reconciles these two traditions by explaining that they refer to different stages in the evolution of this tradition. In Moses' times only three verses were read (corresponding to the three general groups within the Jewish community: Kohen, Levi, and Yisrael) on the weekdays. Ezra and associates lengthened this quota to a minimum of 10 verses (divided into three Aliyot).

We will further explain who gets an Aliyah and why the Kohen always gets the first one next week.

Shabbat Shalom,

Arie from the Yeshiva