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  • From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] annual and triennial reading of the Torah
  • Date: Fri, 09 Jun 2006 16:52:49 +0200

As I said, the triennial reading is known to be an ancient custom of the Jews in the Land of Israel, and was not preserved in later Judaism. It is mentioned in several sources, but not much is known about it. The custom followed by all Jewish communities in the last 1,500 years or so is that of completing the Torah annually, in 54 weekly parshiyot (also known as sedarim or sedrot) of between about 50 and 120 verses. The first portion, Bereshit, including Gen. 1:1-6:8, is read on the Sabbath that follows the end of the Sukkot holiday, and the last, Vezot Haberakhah (Deut. 23:1-24:12) is read on the final day of Sukkot (this is in fact the only parashah that is read on a festival and not on a Sabbath - most major holidays have readings that are "outside" of the regular cycle) - followed by the reading of the first chapter of Genesis, just to "get into" the next cycle. (This day is celebrated as Simhat Torah, the rejoicing of the Torah).
In Judaism today, the weekly parshiyot cycle is so universal, that they are often used as dates - "on the Monday of parashat so and so.." The weekly portions are also often used as the basis for sermons or study sessions in the synagogue.


By analogy, I would have imagined that the triennial cycle worked the same way, but I'm not sure. I don't think that anyone does, though I could be wrong.

Yigal


----- Original Message ----- From: "JAMES CHRISTIAN READ" <JCR128 AT student.apu.ac.uk>
To: <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 10:38 AM
Subject: Re: Re: [b-hebrew] Psalms and Sedarim


Thanks Yigal,

that was extremely informative and interesting. May I
ask you another question about the triennial reading
of the Torah. Is there a particular time of year that
people start the reading so that everyone reads the
same seder in sync? I would like to give it a try and
see what it's like.

-----Original Message-----
From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Fri, 09 Jun 2006 09:58:14 +0200
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Psalms and Sedarim

Dear James,

The sedarim are meand for daily reading, one seder a day. So the reader
would go through the entire book in two months!

The intrduction to the Koren Tanakh, while not dealing specifically with the
Psalms, does say the following: the division of the Torah into 154 sedarim
follows the ancient custom of reading the Torah over a triannual cycle, one
seder for each Sabbath (the present custom is to divide the whole Torah into
52 "parshiyot", one for each Sabbath of the year). Additionally, according
to the Koren, the entire Tanakh is divided into 293 sedarim, which is the
number of non-holydays in the solar year (that is, 365 minus 52 Sabbaths, 7
days of Passover, 1 of Shavuot, 2 of Rosh Hashanah, 1 Yom Kippur, 8 Sukkot
and the 9th of Av). So, the division enables one to read through the entire
Tanakh in a year of "weekdays", leaving the holidays and Sabbaths for their
own assigned readings.

Yigal
----- Original Message ----- From: "JAMES CHRISTIAN READ" <JCR128 AT student.apu.ac.uk>
To: <Brak AT neo.rr.com>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 8:23 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Psalms and Sedarim


Even more confusing to me is how it would take anyone
almost 60 years (19 * 3) to read the book of psalms.

I mean, we are talking one slow reader here!


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  • [b-hebrew] annual and triennial reading of the Torah, Yigal Levin, 06/09/2006

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