Torah Reading on Shabbat

READING THE PARSHA ON SHABBAT MORNING

 

Every congregation completes the entire Torah each year, reading one portion each Shabbat morning. (Sometimes specific portions may be combined.) In the previous chapter we explained the significance of our tradition that the Torah was given on Shabbat: when we are absorbed in our workday concerns, our thoughts are not prepared for absorbing Torah, whose message is spiritual and transcendental. For the same reason, it is only natural that the primary day for public Torah reading should be on Shabbat.

 

In addition, we pointed out that specifically Shabbat morning corresponds to the time of Mattan Torah (giving of the Torah). This gives an added significance to the time of the Torah reading, which is almost always in the morning.

 

Finally, many customs of Torah reading are meant to make it into a kind of re-enactment of Mattan Torah, as we learned in chapter 23.

 

NUMBER AND ORDER OF ALIYOT ON SHABBAT

 

The number of men called to the Torah (olim) is proportional to the importance and sanctity of the day. On an ordinary weekday, three men are called to the Torah. On Rosh Chodesh and Chol HaMoed, four olim are called. On Yom Tov there are five olim, and on Yom Kippur there are six olim (Tur OC 282).

 

On Shabbat there are seven aliyot. This corresponds to the number of days in the week, and shows that Shabbat is weighed against the whole week (Teshuvot HaGeonim cited in Tefillah KeHilkehta 21:(130)).

 

Furthermore, on Shabbat we are able to add additional olim if we want to honor more people, whereas we refrain from adding honorees on other days (SA and Rema OC 282:1). On the simplest level, this is because calling extra people on other days encroaches on the number called on holier days: calling four people on a weekday makes it like Rosh Chodesh, calling five on Rosh Chodesh makes it like Yom Tov, and so on. But on Shabbat there is no room for confusion.

 

AN UNLIMITED INHERITANCE

 

However, there is a deeper significance to this practice. The prophet Yishayahu says that anyone who delights in the Shabbat will enjoy the inheritance of our forefather Ya'akov (Yishayahu 58:14). The Talmud (Shabbat 118a,b) points out that unlike the promises made to Avraham and Yitzchak, which were specifically circumscribed, God blessed Ya'akov that he would "burst out west and east, north and south" (Bereshit 28:14). The promise of the inheritance of Ya'akov implies that one who delights in the Shabbat earns an unlimited inheritance - a "nachala beli metzarim."

 

When we are immersed in workday concerns as we are on weekdays, or even on Yom Tov when our abstention from work is not complete, then we are still to some extent constricted by material reality - symbolized by the number six, which is the number of directions in ordinary space. (Three dimensions, each of which has two directions. Maharal, Gevurot HaShem third hakdama.) But on Shabbat, we break out of this subjugation to mundane reality. We are able to ascend to a higher, spiritual plane. This ascent is expressed by the idea of the extra soul we receive on Shabbat  (discussed in chapter 72) and by the "canopy of peace" which is spread then (see chapter 76:2).

 

Once we rise above the constraints of this world, all boundaries and limits lose significance. We experience an unlimited inheritance, exceeding limitations of space and number. Once we reach the number seven - the number of Shabbat - we gain the ability to ascend onward to any number we like.

 

PRECEDENCE IN RECEIVING AN ALIYAH

 

Some honorees receive an aliyah because of a unique event: a wedding, a bar-mitzva, a birth, or a yahrzeit. Marking these events with an aliyah indicates that we connect all of our joys to the Torah, recognizing the Giver of the Torah as the Source of our happiness and blessing.

 

In addition, there are some community leaders who are always fit for honor. These are: Torah scholars appointed over the community, Torah scholars fit for leadership, the sons of such scholars, and then other community leaders (SA OC 136, based on Gittin 60a).

 

The concept of a "Torah scholar fit for leadership" implies that even positions of secular leadership (parnasim) should ideally be occupied by people of stature in Torah. Torah scholarship doesn't merely mean mastery of a particular body of legal knowledge; it provides a spiritual and moral elevation that gives a person special insight and reliability, which are essential for leadership.

 

ORDER OF ALIYOT

 

Two aliyot are usually singled out for special honors: the third aliyah and the sixth aliyah.

 

THIRD ALIYAH- THE TORAH SCHOLAR

 

In Ashkenazi communities, the most honored reading is the third. The first aliyah is reserved for a Kohen, the second for a Levi. The person who is called up next is being honored completely on his own merits, without regard for his lineage. This honor is ultimately greater.

 

The mishna (end of Horayot) orders Jews according to their hereditary status. This order is significant not only for honors but also, for instance, for granting community support when charity funds are limited (SA YD 251). A Kohen precedes a Levi, a Levi comes before a Yisrael; a born Jew precedes a convert, and so on. However, the mishna goes on to say that this order applies only if their level of Torah scholarship is the same. But if one is a Torah scholar, "Even a mamzer who is a Torah scholar precedes a High Priest who is an ignoramus."

 

SIXTH ALIYAH - THE TZADDIK

 

In Sefaradi communities the most honored aliyah is usually the sixth. This is based on a passage in the Zohar (Shelach, III:164b) which refers to the sixth as the tzaddik - saintly person.

 

The special significance of the sixth aliyah is that the oleh is the penultimate reader - the second to last. (Even though we may add readers on Shabbat, the sixth aliyah is still the most honored. All aliyot beyond seven are really just extensions of the seventh aliyah, as we explained above.)

 

The vision of the Zohar is of a vast devolving series of spiritual worlds that transmit God's will and plan for humanity until it finally finds its expression in our mundane world - the last in line. This is quite different from a materialistic vision in which God's message is essentially of this world; on the other hand, it doesn't view matter and spirit as dichotomies. Matter and spirit are distinct, but there is a connection between them, which enables God's will to reach this world and influence it.

 

This connection between spirit and matter is exemplified by the tzaddik. The saintly person is removed enough from this world to be at home in the higher worlds of spirituality and holiness. Yet he is sufficiently connected to this world to serve as a conduit to reveal God's will. He is the second to last chain in the link, the one that belongs in the upper worlds but is firmly attached to this one.

 

Without the tzaddikim, our world could not exist. God's elaborate spiritual design for human existence could not make its way into our everyday lives without these few righteous individuals who remind us by their conduct that the worlds of spirituality above are not something alien or removed, but something very much relevant for us and connected to us.

 

The Talmud (Berakhot 17b) relates that in the time of the sage Chanina ben Dosa, the entire world was worthy of subsistence because of Rebbe Chanina, who used to eat only a measure of carob from Shabbat to Shabbat. This is an example of the idea of the tzaddik being able to nourish and sustain the world precisely because he maintains a measure of detachment from it. (See also Sukkah 45b, which talks about the thirty-six tzaddikim who encounter God's presence each day.)

 

This custom should also remind us of the importance of the second to last person in every endeavor. The player who lands a winning basket in the last second of play is a hero only by virtue of the unsung players who played the opponents to a tie up until the point.

 

(4) Commemoration of the sin of the golden calf in reading portion "Ki Tisa":

Traditionally, the section of Ki Tisa dealing with the sin of the golden calf is not read in the second reading, that of the Levi, in order to recall that the tribe of Levi didn't take part in the sin. There are a number of other observances in halakha which also commemorate this tragic event in Jewish history. Here are two that are mentioned in the Shulchan Arukh:

 

1. The parchment of the tefillin must be bound with animal hair. Traditionally, this is done with the hair of a calf, to remind us of the sin of the golden calf (SA and Beit Yosef, OC 32:44).

 

2. Rosh Chodesh is especially celebrated by women. One reason is that women refrained from taking part in the sin of the calf (SA and Beit Yosef OC 417:1).

 

CHAPTER 79 - READING FROM THE PROPHETS - THE HAFTARA

 

After the Torah reading on Shabbat and festivals, we read a portion from the Prophetic writings that are not part of the Torah, which is specifically the prophecy of Moshe. The reading usually deals with the subject matter of the Torah portion and is called the haftara, or "parting" reading.

 

The structure of this mitzva is meant to highlight the particular status of the prophets who followed Moshe. On the one hand, by following the Torah reading with a reading from the Prophets, we emphasize that the later prophets are part of the same prophetic tradition that began with Moshe. The written Torah is an incomplete guide to behavior without the insights and refinements of the Prophets and the oral law.

 

On the other hand, we make sure that the reader of the haftara precedes his reading with a short reading from the Torah, so that the precedence of the written Torah is maintained: The Torah is read by itself, but the haftara is read only when preceded by a passage from the Five Books of Moshe.