Rambam Laws of Torah Reading – The Enactment of Moshe Rabbeinu

Introduction: The Merit of Learning Rambam

Yes, we are learning Rambam, we’re now going to learn Laws of Torah Reading, Sefer Ahava. We held in Laws of Prayer, a section of Laws of Prayer is… First the Rambam speaks generally about prayer, then he speaks about the order of the synagogue, davening, then comes Torah reading. Before Torah reading comes a section.

So it is, Baruch Hashem our shiur has already completed the entire Sefer Madda and a section of Ahava. Thousands of Jews listen to our shiur. I hear back tremendously many greetings, and people tell me, “Wow, I never learned Rambam, I struggled to learn Gemara.” And Gemara is not easy, and the Gemara itself says, “From Moshe Rabbeinu until now is Talmud Bavli.” It’s a very difficult study, one can get lost in the path for many years. The Rambam did for us a very difficult work of extracting all the important halachos from the Gemara and making from it a much more organized sefer, which is simply easier to learn for Jews.

So I want to say to more Jews who struggle, who try, make a bit of effort to listen to the Daf Yomi, that perhaps for a period of time, try to learn every day one chapter of Rambam. Start from the beginning of Madda or from the beginning of Ahava, and learn it. We try here to help out a bit, so that it should have a taste also like a study of Gemara, from a bit of the taste of Torah and a bit of logical things. Perhaps this is an approach. But just like that, learning Rambam is definitely a tremendous way to become a talmid chacham and know all of Torah in its entirety.

About the Shiur and Support

And our shiur is part of a larger project. There is an important supporter of Torah in Boro Park, Rabbi R’ Yoel Weisberger, who supports various shiurim, Gemara and fundamentals of faith, shiurim in hashkafa. And he was very impressed that how many Jews can have benefit from a chapter of Rambam a day. It can be just as many people as those who learn Daf Yomi will start learning every day a chapter of Rambam. And this is why he supports, and he believes very strongly in our shiur. And Baruch Hashem, it actually works. More and more people who once listen to the shiur start and become truly connected to it. It’s a very enjoyable shiur, but more than that, simply connected to the order of learning in Rambam. Which is organized and how one can find quick satisfaction, not quick, but anyway, it’s another way of learning, but definitely a bit easier and more organized way of learning. Yasher koach.

And yes, and he pays for our shiur and for a few other things, and therefore that everyone should learn, learn from this to support the shiurim. I put a link on the WhatsApp, which I send out every day, one can immediately give a click, and it will come, the money comes directly on the internet, and the same way that it comes everywhere. Just as the shiur comes, the money can come back the same way, one just needs to smear it today. And already, yes, share the shiur with friends, it’s a great merit of the many.

The Merit of Rambam – He Tells a Story

Now, says the holy Rambam. I actually want to say, there’s another important thing, we’re going to learn about Torah reading, I think another great merit of the Rambam which also interests me, this is, when one learns Gemara, even when one learns Daf Yomi it goes very hard for me, but one becomes very mixed up. When one has learned Rambam, the Rambam tells a story. What is the story that the sefer Mishneh Torah tells? He tells a story which is, what does a Jew look like? What does a Jewish life look like? What does a Jewish mind look like? The Sefer HaMadda. What does a Jewish daily life look like? The Sefer Ahava. Until Sefer Korbanos, Avoda. The entire story of what the Torah is, one gets such a broad view of it when one learns Rambam. Many times when one learns such halachos, even one small thing, another point, another point, the Rambam lays it out very organized, he gives you a full story, a full structure of the entire thing, and this changes a person’s view. Many people are, I know, stuck, one gets stuck on all kinds of details, this doesn’t fit, that doesn’t fit, but when one has the entire story, one has a very different view of the Torah, of Judaism, it gives such a certain clarity, and this is that kind of clarity.

Halacha 1: The Enactment of Moshe Rabbeinu – Torah Reading Three Times a Week

Now, we’re actually going to learn. The Rambam here is going to tell us about the mitzvah or the enactment of Torah reading, that one should read the Torah a few times a week, Shabbos, Monday and Thursday. Says the Rambam:

Moshe Rabbeinu enacted, Moshe Rabbeinu was the one who enacted, yes, that they should read in the Torah publicly on Shabbos, read the Torah publicly on Shabbos, and besides Shabbos one should read on Monday and Thursday, Monday and Thursday at Shacharis. Why? So that they should not go three days without hearing Torah, Jews should not go three days without hearing Torah.

The Gemara interprets with this the verse “and they went three days in the desert and found no water,” and water is only Torah, that Jews must have at least once in three days Torah. This is besides the mitzvah of Krias Shema which is every day, and the mitzvah of Talmud Torah which is every day. I understood the matter that every day one must learn Torah, but it cannot pass three days without Torah in public.

Torah Reading is a Third Category – “Hearing Torah” in Public

One must think about this for a second, there is very much to think about this, and the Rambam only said just one line, he makes it very brief. Here we learned that there is a mitzvah of prayer, yes? A mitzvah from the Torah, rabbinically there is an order. There is a mitzvah from the Torah of Krias Shema, as we spoke, which is essentially also a kind of Talmud Torah, it’s very interesting.

We also saw that in prayer there are sections, the order of the day, which the Rambam doesn’t say the reason, but it’s brought from Rashi and others the reason, so that one should learn a bit every day. One says “Eizehu mekoman,” it has a few verses, halachos. Yes, that which one says for example by us also, at the end of prayer one says “Amar Rabbi Elazar amar Rabbi Chanina,” whoever says two halachos, “Tana d’vei Eliyahu kol hashoneh halachos bechol yom,” this goes up for this, this is also the halacha, and with this one fulfills saying a halacha, yes? It’s all halachos, and on this one says Kaddish D’Rabbanan afterwards, before this one learned a bit. Before this one learned the Pitum HaKetoret twice, before learning the korbanos.

And now one sees, but here there is another thing. Here one saw that there is a topic of prayer in public. We learned in the previous chapter a mitzvah to make a synagogue, and in the synagogue what does one do? One davens, and one also learns, one reads Torah reading. There is indeed a bima especially for Torah reading.

Innovation: Torah Reading is Older than Prayer in Public

And it appears, it’s very interesting, because prayer in public, I don’t know if it’s from the Torah, the entire prayer is rabbinical. Perhaps prayer in public was also from the Anshei Knesses HaGedola, they made the repetition of the Shatz, I don’t know when prayer in public became. But even before this there is a topic of Torah in public, this is Torah reading. It’s not the same Torah reading individually, a person reads for himself, he reads Krias Shema, or even that which he says during davening, is apparently more a topic of the individual. But now there is a topic of Torah reading in public, one reads before the entire congregation Torah reading.

And one can see the Mishna in Megilla, the entire sugya of the synagogue that stands in Megilla in the fourth chapter, yes, speaks around about Torah reading, not prayer. Maseches Berachos is the tractate of prayer, and Maseches Megilla is the tractate of reading the Megilla, of Torah reading. So it indeed appears that the main synagogue is perhaps even for Torah reading. And one sees here that it’s older, Moshe Rabbeinu already enacted Torah reading in public. Torah reading he means here, the Rambam doesn’t say that the enactment is in public, but it’s obvious that one speaks of in public. Yes, so this is an interesting, very basic enactment, that one makes Torah reading.

Status of the Enactment – A Rabbinic Mitzvah Even from Moshe Rabbeinu

So first of all one must say that the category of this is still a rabbinic mitzvah, a mitzvah from the words of the Scribes, because it doesn’t say that Moshe Rabbeinu wrote it in the Torah. Just as other things that even Moshe Rabbeinu didn’t write it in the Torah, rather it’s hinted in the Torah and Chazal discovered it and had it so in tradition, it doesn’t become from the Torah. In the Mishna it says for example also the mitzvah of learning before the festival thirty days, it also says Moshe Rabbeinu enacted for them for Israel. I think there are other places. Usually it still remains a definition of a rabbinic mitzvah. What I mean to say, a rabbinic mitzvah is not a historical thing, it’s not which generation it was made. Just as you’ll see it says the court of Shem and Ever, this is even before Moshe Rabbeinu, but it still doesn’t make it from the Torah. In other words, not only because it’s written, because the Almighty didn’t command it. If it’s not one of the mitzvos that the Almighty commanded at Mount Sinai, this is what the Rambam said.

How Did Torah Reading Function in the Desert?

But a second thing that I thought here immediately is this: The Rambam began the introduction to Mishneh Torah that Moshe Rabbeinu learned with all of Israel, and the Rambam learns there how it was. And how they went over all of the Oral Torah, there are many years there, not a long shiur. So what was missing? Perhaps why should one think that they should go three days without hearing Torah?

Possibility A: Moshe Rabbeinu’s Reading Was the Torah Reading

So first of all I thought it could be that Moshe Rabbeinu himself, Moshe Rabbeinu’s reading was Torah in public. It says so, because the Rambam himself writes that Jews wrote down scrolls upon scrolls. Moshe Rabbeinu read his learning Torah with Jews, perhaps this was the Torah reading, perhaps this is actually the essence that Moshe Rabbeinu taught his Torah, that is the Written Torah, and he added to this his notes of the Oral Torah, perhaps this was actually the three times a week.

Discussion: The Torah Was Given Scroll by Scroll

You ask a very good question, because in general there is indeed a dispute whether the Torah was given scroll by scroll. You bring that the Rambam goes there with the opinion scroll by scroll was given. According to the opinion that the Torah was given sealed, it indeed wasn’t possible to do Torah reading in the desert, there wasn’t yet any Torah. That which it says that Moshe learned, I would have thought, also as you said from the Rambam in the introduction, that this was more Oral Torah. It could be he also said the essence, I don’t know how this worked, because the language of the Gemara is “like the order of Mishna,” that is he learned the halachos. It could be as the Rambam, that he taught the halachos, perhaps there was also Talmud, Gemaras, but I don’t know when he learned the Chumash.

This is the drasha. It could be another broad thought, that it could be that actually not the entire nation was at Moshe Rabbeinu’s shiur. Even the Rambam says differently, that only the sages, because Moshe Rabbeinu taught an in-depth shiur, like a Rosh Yeshiva, you can’t imagine otherwise, he taught like Rav Chaim Brisker.

Possibility B: A New Enactment for the Journey

And it was an enactment that Jews should gather everywhere in the desert and read at least a bit from inside a scroll. Torah in public means apparently that it was already written, and one speaks of the scrolls that people wrote down.

One can think another thing, which I thought on the matter, that there are like two concepts of Torah study. There are many concepts, everyone knows the Shulchan Aruch HaRav said that there is a concept of Torah study and a concept of knowledge of Torah, but here one sees that there is a third concept, it’s like an infusion of Torah, “that they should not go three days without Torah.”

So apparently the simple meaning is this, in the desert, when they were at Mount Sinai, I know, when they sat in tranquility, they learned every day, when Moshe Rabbeinu said a shiur. There wasn’t what to do there, it was a kollel, one had to learn there, there was no work. But sometimes one went on the way, yes, “and they went a journey of three days,” they went on the way, on the way one is exempt, it was indeed being occupied with the journey, there was no time for saying a shiur. And then, during the journey when they traveled in the desert, Moshe Rabbeinu grasped, very good, you don’t have time to learn in depth with each one, in depth everyone learns in his study hall. One may not go three days without hearing Torah, that is without hearing the Torah. So they made a new enactment, that even in the middle of the way when one stopped, I don’t know what they did, one took out a Torah,

Torah Reading – The Enactments of Moshe and Ezra, Days of Reading, and Laws of Reading

The Enactment of Torah Reading: Three Interpretations of the Source

But here one sees there is a third, and this is the law of Torah, that one should not go three days without Torah. The simple meaning is apparently this: in the desert, when they were at Mount Sinai, I know, when they sat in tranquility, they learned every day, when Moshe Rabbeinu said a shiur. There wasn’t what to do, there wasn’t any kollel, one had to learn in the middle, there was no work.

But sometimes one went on the way, yes? And they went a journey of three days in the desert, they went on the way, on the way one is exempt, it was indeed being occupied with the journey, there was no time for saying a shiur. And then, during the journey when one traveled in the desert, Moshe Rabbeinu grasped, very good, now there’s no time to learn in depth, everyone learns in depth in his study hall. But one may not go three days without hearing Torah, that is without hearing the Torah. So they made a new enactment, that even in the middle of the way, when one stopped, I don’t know what they did, one took out a Torah, or I need to know what it was then, and one read. And this reading is more so, that a Jew should… It’s not even a minimum, a minimum you could one chapter in the morning, one chapter in the evening. It’s more like a law, one should not go three days without hearing Torah.

Second Interpretation: At the End of Moshe Rabbeinu’s Days

Okay, this is the second interpretation. The third interpretation which I think, I mean, is that this was actually at the end of Moshe Rabbeinu’s days. But what then? When Moshe Rabbeinu wrote thirteen Torah scrolls, he said thus: As long as I was with you, I always learned with you Oral Torah. And then he also said “Remember the Torah of Moshe My servant,” and Moshe Rabbeinu himself concludes, you should always learn the Torah. So then, it could be, one must see if it fits in the verses in the book of Mishneh Torah, the Rambam actually holds so, that one should learn my book, my book Mishneh Torah. But then it’s not the enactment, then it’s more the mitzvah of the Torah.

But the Rambam doesn’t give the reason when the enactment could be when there wasn’t a Torah scroll. As long as there were scrolls, scrolls is actually perhaps there wasn’t yet any obligation to learn Torah. So as long as Moshe Rabbeinu was healthy and strong, he learned Torah with Jews, as the Rambam says there in the beginning, “And a great nation of elders gathered to him,” and when he became old and he was already occupied with writing a Torah, he said, from now on will be the mitzvah.

Question: The Source at Marah

Yes, the only problem with this is, apparently this is true, but this is not the time. And what is called not become with the what what is the light begins even at the splitting of the Sea of Reeds, yes? I mean, at Marah. At Marah, one actually learned Torah, this is still mentioned. It’s very interesting, because what it says that at Marah they were given certain mitzvos is not about, is need to need, because the Almighty wanted that one should start doing those mitzvos then. But what did we give scrolls and scrolls, it fits very something Shmuel which already learned. Okay, on Pesach they learned it. Yes, true. The Torah reading from then is more.

The Enactment of Ezra the Scribe: Addition to Moshe’s Enactment

Yes, okay, how so, is afterwards… Ezra the Scribe enacted, Ezra the Scribe enacted, Ezra the Scribe enacted that they should also read at Mincha on every Shabbos, also on Shabbos at Mincha one should also read in the Torah. Why? For those who sit in the corners, because this is a time when those who sit in the corners sit.

Reason for “Those Who Sit in the Corners”

Laws of Torah Reading: Law 4 — Not Leaving Less Than Three Verses in a Parsha

So, I had thought. We also learned in the Rambam in the Laws of Yom Tov or in the Laws of Shabbos, that on Yom Tov afternoon one must appoint guards, because it’s a time when people have a lot of free time and they waste time. I had thought that the Sages instituted that people should gather together in shul. Yes, in the early afternoon one sits in shul. Part of the day one learns, yes? This is after the Torah reading. And Shabbos afternoon is a long afternoon. The children start going crazy. You know what the mothers say? It’s a long afternoon. One takes the young man to learn. So they bring a board game.

I had thought differently, and I always thought that “yoshev kranos” means that in the early afternoon they’re still sitting in the corners. In the afternoon, how long can one lounge around? They’re already coming to shul. One makes a shul. They only come for Mincha. But I see that the Rambam brought the law that one should appoint guards. “Yoshev kranos” – okay, let’s go further.

The Source in Gemara Megillah

This comes from the Gemara. The Gemara says at first that Ezra instituted the Torah reading. Ezra – we actually see in the Book of Ezra in Chapter 8 that Ezra read the Torah. But Rabbis, we see that he certainly already did it. He already saw that he was the first, but we see that he did it. And therefore the Gemara asks about this, isn’t there a tradition that Moshe already did it? The Gemara answers, there’s a difference, that Moshe instituted Shabbos and Monday and Thursday. Ezra added several more laws.

One of the enactments is, he added to the Torah reading, the Gemara says, he added to Moshe’s Torah reading, he added more details. What are they? First of all, Mincha on Shabbos. Second, and he also enacted that the mitzvah that Moshe Rabbeinu had already instituted to read the Torah publicly, should be in an orderly manner, should be on Monday and Thursday, meaning that twice a week there should be “so that they don’t go three days without Torah”. Interestingly, the part that Shabbos has seven [aliyos] he didn’t enact.

And something else that he enacted is “that they should not read less than ten verses”. That the thing that Moshe Rabbeinu introduced should be a serious reading of at least ten verses. That means, before, by Moshe Rabbeinu, sometimes they would read only one verse, it was enough. But Ezra said that it must be ten verses at minimum. From three readers it comes out that each one reads three or four. This is the enactment that Ezra added. Okay. This is the minimum, yes? But our parshiyos are almost all much longer, but at Mincha we do make shorter, such types of readings, or Monday and Thursday.

Law 2: And These Are the Days When They Read the Torah Publicly

The Rambam says, “And these are the days when they read the Torah publicly”. He calculated in general, now he goes more in detail. Shabbosos, and festivals – the three Yamim Tovim, and on Rosh Chodesh. These “these days” are apparently not enactments, not from Moshe and not from Ezra. There is indeed a Gemara that says that Moshe enacted it, it’s not clear. The Rambam doesn’t bring it. The Rambam only says three days without Torah, and now he brings it as being a law. He makes a list, a list of all the days when we read the Torah publicly.

Yes, what are the days? Shabbosos, and festivals, and on Rosh Chodesh, and on fast days – that means Tisha B’Av, Yom Kippur, and so on, and on Chanukah and Purim, and on Monday and Thursday every single week – every Monday and Thursday every week. It’s approximately six or seven different times, depending on how one divides it here. Yes.

The Impact of “Three Days Without Torah”

Yes, and we don’t read a Haftarah from the Prophets. The enactment also had a major major impact on the Jews, as we learn in Tractate Megillah, these were the days when automatically the village Jews would come to the Beis HaMidrash to hear the Torah reading. This shaped strongly the… the three days without Torah was a major big deal, that in all the towns one comes once every three days to hear Torah learning in the big city. It was a whole project.

Haftarah from the Prophets

And we don’t read a Haftarah from the Prophets. The Rambam hasn’t yet said that there’s also something called a Haftarah. Haftarah means to conclude. No, Haftarah means the word… it could be, but the meaning is that one learns a piece from the Prophets. One learns a piece of Torah and one concludes with the Prophets.

In general, they have a very interesting language, he doesn’t say “there’s no enactment to read a Haftarah from the Prophets.” He’s going to say that all these days we read Torah, but Prophets we don’t read all these days, only three of them. When? On Shabbosos and on Yamim Tovim and on Tisha B’Av.

The Common Factor: Days When We Don’t Work

What is the common factor of these things different from the things when we don’t read from the Prophets? The answer is that these are days when we don’t work. The enactment has a lot to do with work, as it was in the towns. On a work day there’s no time to read, one can’t hold up the people. Rosh Chodesh… yes, Rosh Chodesh we do read, but we don’t work. Very good, we don’t read longer. So, they go to work. Chanukah, Purim, Shabbos, Yom Tov, and Tisha B’Av we don’t work, so we can do a Haftarah.

Okay, further. More details in the laws of Torah reading. At Mincha we do read on a fast day. We need to see if the Rambam will bring why. At Mincha apparently the answer is because the people are already back from work, there’s already more time. But we need to see if… yes, very good. Okay, we’ll see, I mean later he mentions more.

Law 3: Minimum of Ten Men and Ten Verses

The Rambam says as follows. Now he’s going to learn various laws of Torah reading, the order of how it looks around the bimah, what goes on. We don’t read the Torah publicly with less than ten adult free men. Torah reading is a matter of the community, like Kaddish and Kedusha, things that can only be said with a community. Also Torah reading is only an option with a community. Only a community can have this thing.

Very good. But it’s interesting that earlier when we learned the laws of communal prayer, did the Rambam speak about Torah reading? There was one… he mentioned “kol davar shebekedusha,” no? Yes. “Kol davar shebekedusha” he said communal prayer, and one who reads the Torah. It was one of the things he mentioned there that one needs ten for a davar shebekedusha, and one must have ten.

And one must have ten adults it says there as well. Yes. Another law. Okay. Also it’s interesting, it must be important like the people, there must be enough people, ten people is an important community, and there must also be an important amount of verses. Very good. “We don’t read less than ten verses”. One makes a minyan of people with a minyan of verses.

“Vayedaber” Counts in the Minyan

Yes, this we already learned. “And Hashem spoke to Moshe saying”, one might have thought it’s just an introduction, but it’s not, it’s part of the count. Ah, it’s a chiddush. It’s a verse that says nothing. I mean, it says “And Hashem spoke to Moshe,” but the whole Torah is like that. But still he says that in a count it must also, the tenth can be some young man with a Chumash. Ah, no, we didn’t learn that. But still the verses should have a topic. Okay.

Minimum of Three Readers and Three Verses

The Rambam continues, “And the readers should not be less than three men”. At least three men should read. This is what we call today those who go up to the Torah, which the Rambam here calls the “readers of the Torah.” It means, today it’s only the custom that one comes up and reads along with the baal korei and says… in a minute we’ll see. But now the Rambam says when one reads.

The Rambam says that every time one does a Torah reading there should not be less than three readers, meaning three people with whom one reads three verses. What do you say, Reb Yitzchak? No, no, we’ll see this in a minute.

I only said that there are two laws of ten, and now there will be laws of three. Aha, a set of three. “And the readers should not be less than three men”. Three olim. Another law. “And we don’t leave in a parsha less than three verses”. It means, one makes sure that from each parsha one reads three verses. It means that one finished a parsha and starts the next parsha for the next oleh, one cannot say from the next parsha only one or two verses. From a parsha one must say at least three verses. Yes, that’s what it means.

Although let’s say, I understand, less than three verses. But besides that, the three verses may not be less than three verses from the beginning of a parsha. Even if he said or he reads more verses, or even let’s say

Laws of Torah Reading: Law 4 — Not Leaving Less Than Three Verses in a Parsha

Law 4: The Three Rules of Three Verses

Speaker 1:

Although let’s say to understand in other words, each oleh… ah, isn’t that the law? Yes, we’ll see later. There’s a law… there’s an aliyah or a reading of less than three verses. But besides that, the three verses must not be less than three verses from the beginning of a parsha. Even if he said or he read more verses, or even let’s say he finished two verses from a previous parsha…

Speaker 2:

Very good. If the previous parsha was too short, didn’t have its own three verses, you can’t do two from there and add another verse from the new parsha and be an oleh.

Speaker 1:

Very good. One must enter the three verses into the parsha. The same thing at the end. One must enter the parsha, one can’t stop and leave… and read the parsha until almost the end. Once one is already at the parsha at under three verses, one must already include this in the Torah reading and read the parsha. And we don’t leave in the parsha less than three verses. Very good.

The last law, the fourth law that we’re taking, is “and the reader should not read less than three verses”, and each one should read at least three verses. Very good.

Nafka Minah: The Laws Are Relevant for Adding Aliyos

These laws are relevant for whoever adds aliyos in the beis midrash, to know how one can stop. I have many chiddushim on this law, but I’ll skip it for now. One must go back a bit.

Chiddush: In Our Time the Concern Is Almost Not Relevant

The Reason for the Law — Concern for Error

You know what a parsha means? I hold that in today’s times when there is, the whole reason for the law is that one shouldn’t say that people… no, that people will come into the beis midrash and leave and they’ll think that we skipped the first two verses or such a thing. So it says in the Gemara, that they’ll think that we skipped.

So, it seems that this is only relevant for people who know at all what the parshiyos are. Today, when the only one who knows at all that there’s a parsha is the baal korei, it seems to me very very far that there should be such a concern at all. Therefore it seems to me that in our time, either one can do what one wants, or… I have good shalom bayis about this difficult law. I have reasons why to seek a leniency, it’s another topic.

The Mishnah Berurah’s Stringency — And a Question on It

But the Mishnah Berurah for example says, an interesting thing, the Mishnah Berurah says a stringency based on this. I want to say eight leniencies based on the same books. The Mishnah Berurah claims that today when it’s printed in all Chumashim “sheni” and “shlishi,” one should also not interrupt three verses for that one, because people will have the same claim… although sheni and shlishi was just made by some gabbai for which there’s no halachic source whatsoever. So he claims.

I claim exactly the opposite. If so, no one knows… anyway, is there also someone who looks in a Chumash today? The whole Torah reading doesn’t say that one looks in a Chumash. Therefore, I don’t see how it’s relevant.

Where the Concern Is Indeed Relevant — When the Baal Korei Is Meticulous

I said as follows, that the places where the baal korei is very meticulous, usually there are indeed a few people who follow along and they know the reading, and it’s perhaps relevant that one noticed that we left over, we didn’t honor the parsha, or… it’s not that we didn’t honor it, it’s learning with them. That one will think that the Torah… yes, he’ll think that the Torah is nothing.

The Deeper Reason — Honor of the Torah

And we said earlier that Moshe Rabbeinu simply, this was, Moshe Rabbeinu goes through the Torah, and he goes through with it as if… not that he goes through, but we think about this that this is a part of being in awe of the Torah for Jews. We don’t want mistakes to happen. He’ll think that a mistake was made. He’ll think that a mistake was made, not that he made a mistake.

That one will see that you left over two verses, he’ll say, “What, he skipped the first two verses,” because that one knows the parshiyos. You’re assuming that the listener knows how a piece begins and how it ends. I don’t know a single Jew who knows how a piece begins and how it ends.

Question: What Does “Parsha” Mean Here?

Speaker 2:

You mean in the matter of parshiyos?

Speaker 1:

Yes, people assume that the parshiyos mean the parshiyos pesucha and sesuma in the Sefer Torah. I’m not sure about that either. It could be that it means a topic. In the Gemara it does say that with a topic one can switch. Later we’ll talk about skipping, we’ll talk about that.

In any case, for our purposes, I don’t see who knows this, I don’t see how it’s relevant. And if the Mishnah Berurah can make a stringency based on what people think differently, I can also make a leniency based on the same thing.

Digression: Torah Reading Was More a Matter of Torah Study

I think that in general, the laws of Torah reading, how it was originally, was much more a matter of Torah study than ours. One must understand it with this in mind. There was a meturgeman, and there was… but old customs, we won’t… I just want to make a break that I said I’ll go back to my chiddush.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so Reb Yoel doesn’t agree with my chiddush, but okay.

Speaker 1:

I say that one doesn’t need to be concerned about this. I say, I didn’t say well, I say the concern is that people will think that we read less than three verses. The law is a strong law, one may not read less than three verses. If you start a new parsha only two verses in, or vice versa, people are afraid that we’re only reading two verses. And this assumes that everyone knows which parsha, which verses they are.

I think that one must… now I think it’s hard to understand the concern. Someone is suddenly afraid of the Torah, what’s the law? It could be that it’s a simple thing that people should be able to follow along. It’s hard, people don’t want… according to this Reb Yoel is perhaps right that it’s worthwhile to go with the sheni and shlishi that’s written in the siddur, because… so that people can follow along.

I’ve heard many times that the Munkatcher Rav said that one shouldn’t follow the sheni that’s written in the siddur, because often it’s not maintained and there’s no connection to the topic. So there’s a back and forth for both ways.

Practical Advice

But the truth is apparently, if he wants to conduct himself like us and make different aliyos, one must write down for Shabbos what we’re going to do, and people should be able to know, so one can fulfill all opinions. Okay, that’s enough Torah for now.

Law Regarding Division of Ten Verses Among Three Readers

Let’s learn one more… there’s a very nice law, this is the law you said earlier. Now we learned that one must have ten verses and three people, yes? One also needs to know the minimum of Torah reading.

Digression: The Value of Ten Verses — “Don’t Go Three Days Without Torah”

I think that the minimum law that one must have three verses, is like there’s a mitzvah of “don’t bring an abomination into your house,” one mustn’t do that way. There’s a mitzvah that one shouldn’t go through three days without Torah. And it could have happened that one would only establish that, and that each person should figure out exactly how to do it so that three days don’t pass without Torah.

But Chazal in practice made the law differently, and they gave a law, they set up the order of how one does it, how one uses this. They made an order of how the Torah reading is, and in this order they made everything that they could think of at the time that could go wrong, that there shouldn’t be three verses, that there shouldn’t be this, that there shouldn’t be that.

There is a fear without, and there is perhaps a reason that one must be brief, this can perhaps be a great halacha. Very good, very good.

Proof: “Vayechal Moshe” — When One Knows, One Knows

One sees explicitly, I said that it’s not a novelty what I’m saying, there are readings, a certain Tosafot asks in Tractate Megillah “Vayechal Moshe” begins “Vayechal”, and it’s two verses into a parsha. No, first one must skip. Also, this is not according to the halacha, there is a Jew who knows that here begins chazarat hashatz (the repetition of the Amidah), no problem. He should do it after kriat haTorah (Torah reading), Rosh Chodesh, do kriat haTorah which is troublesome, and one of the answers is that when one knows, one knows, it’s not a question.

Also this is very good, because this is the same Ezra the Scribe from the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah (Men of the Great Assembly) who made the order. It’s exactly the same thing: Moshe made a general enactment, and Ezra made specific laws.

Digression: Prayer in the Beit Midrash — Perhaps a Shorter Torah Reading?

I mean I want to throw in my comment that I heard to say. I mean that in the laws of prayer there are three types of ways how people pray. There are those who pray individually, and they don’t have at all, they don’t have kedusha, not kaddish, and also not kriat haTorah, they don’t have these things. Then there is the matter of prayer in the synagogue, where they have all these orders that the Rambam enumerates about this. This means that the main purpose of the place is to pray, and the prayer begins there, and the prayer begins, and all the laws of kriat haTorah are relevant for this thing.

But there is a third thing of going to pray heikha dehavu garsei (where they were studying), the law that one went to pray in the beit midrash where one learns. In the beit midrash where one learns it does say that one should make a minyan, pray with a minyan, but it’s also very possible that there wasn’t the place where the Rambam said his orders. It could be that one was brief because one was holding in the middle of learning. One sees the matter of being brief when one is holding in the middle of learning. And it could be that kriat haTorah was also less.

Today there isn’t such a thing, every Jew hears kriat haTorah, but it could be that when one prays in that beit midrash, in the yeshiva, heikha dehavu garsei, it could be that there wasn’t at all the matter of reading kriat haTorah, because one learns Torah the whole day. Okay, maybe, one must ask those who pray in that beit midrash what they do.

Speaker 2:

Also, you’re saying that the eye doesn’t catch. The Rambam said that there are places where they make a shorter Shemoneh Esrei, yes? We learned. The Rambam made his own enactment in his own place. But did we have somewhere, not exactly in the Rambam, but did we have somewhere a source that when one prays in the beit midrash the prayer is shorter, or that one doesn’t do the entire orders?

Speaker 1:

No, it’s not said. The Rambam said that when he prayed individually… that in the beit midrash one should pray with a minyan.

Speaker 2:

Yes, the Rambam didn’t say so.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

The Value of Ten Verses — The Sages’ Appreciation for a Torah Verse

I’m very impressed by this that one may not go three days without Torah. And what does Torah mean? Ten verses! We don’t take it seriously enough. One reads Monday and Thursday, no one catches it, but this must be fulfilled, the holy matter of learning the holy Torah and being connected to the Torah.

People think that to be connected to the Torah one must learn at least an entire page of Gemara. But an entire page of Gemara takes approximately three hours to learn. It’s not realistic. In short, one goes to yeshiva and catches it, neither this world nor the World to Come.

But the holy sages said, learn Torah, no problem, ten verses! And not even that every person should learn ten verses. Yes, each reader three verses. That’s called learning Torah well! You know, even the verse “vedaber shalom al Yisrael” (and speak peace upon Israel) also counts. This is very… they had much greater appreciation for a Torah verse than we have, in my opinion.

The Words of the Rambam: Three Who Read Ten Verses

Very good. So this is very broad. Now, who… ah, now there is an interesting investigation in the Rambam and in the Gemara, very…

Speaker 2:

This is a merit of being called up to the Torah.

Speaker 1:

No, who has the merit of being called up to the Torah. How should the ten verses be divided? There are ten verses with three people. So three doesn’t divide… ten doesn’t divide into three equally. It must be that one must read four. It comes out three, three, and four is ten. So how should one do it? Who should do the four verses?

Proof: Ten Verses is a Fixed Law, Not Just a Guideline

And here one sees clearly that there’s no difference what the matter is. He doesn’t say, you should divide according to what’s easier for you. Ten verses! There is a matter that one should say ten verses. We, by the way, we don’t do so. We even at Shabbat Mincha or Monday and Thursday, one looks in the siddur…

Speaker 2:

It’s not a matter.

Speaker 1:

And the second, also to make some nice ending, one doesn’t make ten verses. The Vilna Gaon said that one shouldn’t do so, one should simply do the first ten verses of each parsha and not be… except if it’s exactly according to the rules that are stated there. But here one sees yes that it goes so.

“Harei Zeh Meshubach” — Each Way Has a Merit

So now there’s a question, who reads the… yes? This is a matter. Three who read ten verses, two read three each, two read three verses each, ve’echad arba’ah (and one four). Because one must have the law that one must read ten verses.

Now he says, who does the three and who does the four? Who is the one who gets the four verses? So the answer is thus: Whether the one who reads four is first, or last, or middle, harei zeh meshubach (this is praiseworthy). Either way you do it is good. Not only is it good, it’s praiseworthy. That is, the best way is to do, however one should do this there is a merit in it.

The Gemara explains explanations. The last is because “acharon acharon chaviv” (the last is beloved). The first is because the first is the first. The middle because it’s the middle. In short, this is a very beautiful thing.

Speaker 2:

Each of my ten children is an only child.

Speaker 1:

No, this is a topic in itself. What is nicer? What fits? Everything fits. Each one is indeed a huge case.

Well, now we’re going to learn about the blessings.

Blessings of Torah Reading – Order of Blessings and Laws of Reading

The Main Innovation of the Blessings of Torah Reading

The Gemara speaks about seven. There is length in it. Not only does he speak well, he is praiseworthy. That is, the best way is to do, how one should do it, there is a merit in it. The Gemara explains, clarifies, the last is because acharon acharon chaviv, the first is because the first is the first, and the middle is because it’s the middle. In short, there are very many beautiful things. Each of my ten children is an only child. No, this is a matter of abundance, what is nicer, what fits. Everything fits. Each one is a huge field.

Now we’re going to learn about the blessings that one makes on the kriat haTorah. We learned that the main innovation is, as we were precise in chapter 8, that which one may not read kriat haTorah except in public. Kriat haTorah you can read as much as you want, it’s not any sin to take a Torah and read. The innovation is the blessings. The extra blessings of the Torah. The blessings. Because you already said birchot haTorah (blessings of the Torah) in the morning. Yes. The blessing that one wants to say extra birchot haTorah on the public reading, on the mitzvah, is indeed a problem. Right. So there is a halachic order how to say the blessings.

Order of the Blessings – Law 5

What is the order? The order is thus: Each and every one of the readers opens the Torah scroll and looks at the place where he is reading. He looks in. Why must he look? Because if not he won’t know what he’s reading. I mean, it’s a simple thing, right? One can find the place, who will begin to read. Yes. And then he makes a blessing. When one does a blessing, just as one looks at the food, one must connect the blessing with the matter that comes.

Discussion: Opening and Closing the Torah Scroll

No, this is not just a matter of immediately. He’s going to read, he wants to know where he’s going to begin to read. And what happened? He wants to prevent the interruption? Yes, it’s not an interruption. It’s yes, yes, it’s indeed… when he says “Barchu et Hashem hamevorach” (Bless the Lord who is blessed), and the congregation answers “Baruch Hashem hamevorach le’olam va’ed” (Blessed is the Lord who is blessed forever and ever). So let’s say, first one opens the Torah, I want to be precise about the order of events. One opens the Torah, one looks in where one is going to read, and he says “Barchu”, and the congregation answers “Barchu”.

Here one sees that no, there is a dispute of Tannaim about this in the Mishna. There are those who Rabbi Meir said that one must close the Torah and open after the blessing, because if not people will think that the blessings are written in the Torah. Rabbi Yehuda said no, one can open the Torah and say the blessings while one is in the Torah. And I have in the Baal HaTurim, they noted, and it’s not brought in the poskim, so that which they conduct themselves, the Tosafot says that one should conduct oneself like the opinion of Rabbi Meir, it’s very interesting, although that’s not the halacha, why was it switched that one should indeed close the Torah before one says the blessing.

And then it comes out a very open thing, that the “mabit vero’eh” (looks and sees) has no sense at all, because one sees nothing at all, one closes it, and one must search again for the aliyah after one opens the Torah back.

Custom of Lithuanians and Chassidim

So halacha lema’aseh (practical law), in some batei midrash I’ve noticed, I don’t know from where it comes, that there is a dispute between chassidim and Lithuanians what is the custom. The Lithuanians do, as it says in Mishna Berura that one should do, that he makes… he leaves the Torah open, but he looks away, because this way one knows that he’s not reading the blessings from the Torah. He looks away, and he leaves the Torah open, so one can immediately find the place. The chassidim do conduct themselves much to close the Torah, and I’m against it, because it bothers me, it’s a tircha detzibbura al hakorei (burden on the congregation regarding the reader), every time one must search again. So if one of my questioners hears here, they should know that according to the Mishna Berura the Lithuanian custom is a fine custom. The Rambam also rules so, that one leaves the Torah open. But if one does otherwise, I’m not going to pursue them afterward, but I want to know.

Speaker 2: The Rambam doesn’t have the problem of saying the blessing inside? He doesn’t say the thing that one shouldn’t think that it’s written inside?

Speaker 1: No, the Rambam admits why he doesn’t have a problem. He admits, it’s presumably apparently that it’s not the essential law, but a beautification, a concern. One can say it’s a nice thing. But in actuality one loses something, because one loses the “mabit vero’eh”.

Speaker 2: No, the answer is thus, because the chassidim figured out that one can make a version. Because the korei baTorah (Torah reader) says “amen” and he looks in like this. The Lithuanians don’t have the “amen”, so they don’t know how to do it, so it will be awkward until one finds it.

Speaker 1: Chassidim do everything better, yes. The “amen” covers for the whole problem.

But besides closing the Torah there’s no matter at all. Whichever reader they call up.

Yes, good. And he finishes the blessing, he says “Barchu et Hashem”, the congregation answers “Baruch Hashem hamevorach”, he makes another blessing.

The Matter of “Barchu et Hashem Hamevorach”

Speaker 2: Why does one say the “Barchu et Hashem hamevorach le’olam va’ed” which is an introduction to… it’s some certain prayer which is an introduction to praying Shacharit, it’s an introduction to the blessings of Shema of the morning, it’s an introduction to the blessings of Shema of Mincha, and it’s an introduction to the blessing of the Torah of the baal korei (Torah reader). Why exactly these three? It’s an introduction for exactly these three things. An introduction to bentching (Grace After Meals) they made another “Barchu et Hashem hamevorach” well… “Baruch Hashem Elokeinu”. It’s similar, but this is something a matter there’s a connection between birchot haTorah and birchot kriat Shema.

Speaker 1: I think that perhaps the simple meaning is… the reading is an invitation for the congregation. It’s like chazarat hashatz. Many people didn’t used to come for Shemoneh Esrei, they only used to come for kriat haTorah. One makes an extra blessing, just as here one begins the prayer, the congregation should catch that one is coming. It’s like he invites like one the congregation, “Barchu et Hashem hamevorach” – let’s all thank, and then he says birchot haTorah. He doesn’t fulfill for them all with the birchot haTorah, because everyone already said birchot haTorah.

Speaker 2: Theirs, theirs. It’s like an introduction to his blessing, “let’s all thank the Almighty, listen, and you’ll say amen.”

Speaker 1: Yes, they say indeed, they say yes “Baruch Hashem hamevorach le’olam va’ed”. I mean this is the basic. They don’t say anything further. But “Barchu” is like a call to prayer, as we saw by… this is a call to Torah. We’re now going to say to the Almighty “HaKel HaKadosh Baruch Hu” (the Holy God, Blessed be He).

Speaker 2: Do you know that the Rebbe said that the Torah are prayers?

Speaker 1: Kriat haTorah is both. No, but there are indeed birchot kriat Shema and birchot haTorah. Birchot kriat Shema and Torah is closer than kriat Shema with prayer.

Speaker 2: Yes, but these are a part in Torah. Kriat Shema is a part of the Torah. The second blessing of birchot kriat Shema is actually a birchot haTorah. It’s a matter of Torah.

Speaker 1: It could also be that it’s like a call. Both are the same, because both one begins a thing. Here you begin the order of reading, the order of prayer.

The Final Blessing

Yes, and he will also the fourth, “and he returns and blesses ‘asher bachar banu me’amo venatan lanu et Torato’ (who chose us from all peoples and gave us His Torah), and afterward he should not say ‘asher natan lanu Torat emet’ (who gave us the Torah of truth), but rather he should say ‘asher natan lanu et haTorah’ (who gave us the Torah)”, and then he rolls the scroll. Here he indeed closes the scroll. Very good. And he blesses “Baruch Atah Hashem Elokeinu Melech ha’olam asher natan lanu Torat emet vechayyei olam nata betocheinu” (Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who gave us the Torah of truth and planted eternal life within us). “Nata” (planted), the Torah He planted should be our eternal life. “Baruch Atah Hashem notein haTorah” (Blessed are You, Lord, Giver of the Torah). Okay.

Yes, on the way back he indeed rolls, and the difference is this apparently, because he already finished. He doesn’t need now to know where he’s holding, because the next person one calls up. This is apparently the Rambam. Although on the other hand there’s no difference regarding the concern that “shelo yomru birkot ketuvah baTorah” (lest they say the blessings are written in the Torah), there shouldn’t be a concern. But it seems that it’s better so also. So it seems the Rambam ruled to do so. This does each one, the congregation knows from the law.

By the way, there are poskim who say that one doesn’t need this also not, so if someone doesn’t do it, one shouldn’t ask about him. It makes a lot of sense, because when the reader is the one who is oleh (called up), he already truly didn’t need his reading, he’s now doing everyone’s Torah scroll, and he said that therefore comes the next person. There is such a version, yes. He evidently has a Torah scroll for his reading. But when there’s indeed one baal tefillah (prayer leader), one baal korei, it’s indeed the greatness that he reads indeed truly for the world, for the entire congregation. It’s a matter like not the side that you’re saying now.

The Matter of “Amen”

And then he says the blessing, “machzirim makom machshava rishona” (they return the place of first thought).

Let’s see, the Rambam is going to bring the thing that today one reads for everyone as it is today. Says the Rambam, “one reads for all the congregation in the Torah”. Ah, you spoke about the amen, it’s very important. Yes, because the amen, there’s a standing, a ceremony of he calls out the olim, “Barchu”, let’s all say together, and then he says the blessing, and the congregation answers amen, because one stood up when one says “Barchu”. It’s a choir. And about this one says, because the congregation now says a good long beautiful amen, the reader shouldn’t begin to read before the congregation has finished the amen. One should be able to hear simply.

Speaker 2: Ah, yes, it’s a simple thing. It was a strong amen, yes.

Speaker 1: It was an introduction for this, the “Barchu” is an introduction for the amen, for the congregation to participate in the blessing.

He Read and Erred – Law 6

“Kara veta’ah” (he read and erred), says the Rambam, the reader began to read the Torah and he erred, even in the precision of one letter, even if he erred in the thing that he says one letter shelo bedikduk (not precisely). He said “taharu” and not “tahara”, “taharu” with a kamatz or taharu, tahara taharu.

Laws of Torah Reading – Part 5

Speaker 2: So, you mean that one should call out? Does the Rambam say that one should call out?

Speaker 1: He doesn’t say that one should call out, he says “machzirin oto”. I want to tell the truth, that “machzirin oto” is really not exact grammatically, I’m not sure. It could be that the Rambam means, the Lithuanians like to be the yefei nefesh types… I’m not joking around, hello, there’s a mistake, “machzirin oto”. One reminds him, one goes back. The gabbai stands and tells him. First of all, one must appoint in every shul a gabbai whose job it is that he does “machzirin oto”. The shouting is simply not nice.

What Does “Bidikduk Ot Achat” Mean?

Second, and I will clarify this further, it’s not a proof from me. Second, the Rambam says “bidikduk ot achat”, I already know what he means, “bidikduk shel ot achat”. It could be he means dikduk that he says a letter wrong. I see, he brings the language of the Yerushalmi which is like this, that someone said “tov bin tahor letahor” – not dikduk shel ot, no. When I looked at the example that the Yerushalmi says, Rabbi Chanina said in the name of Rabbi Zakai, I don’t know, that one must say “tov bin tahor letahor” machzirin oto. Rabbi Bibi asked Rabbi Zeira, “Yes, is that what one does?” Rabbi Bibi was a chassid shebachassidim, remember? He said, “If someone makes a mistake in a letter, what is the mistake? That he says certainly, even ‘tov bin in Leviyim’.” He doesn’t say “tov bin tahor letahor” according to all those who learned earlier, by tefillah there is the dikduk.

One doesn’t see that the Rambam by Kriat Shema said clearly that dikduk means saying rafeh and dagesh, all these things. But here it could be he means, he says specifically ot achat, meaning to say, he says a letter wrong. He says “vehar” instead of an alef with a vav, such things that maybe don’t make a big difference. But that’s what the Rambam says.

I would say that in general, once one has a baal korei, the halacha states, one almost has a permanent baal korei. One has called up other three people. One says, one calls up a person, and one sees that he is making mistakes and not good, one makes him start over. And if he really can’t, one will remove him and call up a second who can. This has to do with the fact that one calls up anyway, it wasn’t that that one can go. One didn’t place here a baal korei, and the baal korei made a mistake with a letter. That’s a different matter. One knew beforehand, one called up someone who doesn’t know any Torah, probably he doesn’t say so well with dikduk and so on, so machzirin oto. Because the kriat haTorah must be through someone who can learn Torah, or who can read Torah. Okay, but this doesn’t mean that machzirin oto doesn’t mean that one tells him he should repeat the word correctly.

The Sefer HaManhig and the Poskim

The Shulchan Aruch brings that the Sefer HaManhig said that one is not particular about this. There’s a whole investigation, the poskim make all kinds of distinctions whether it makes a difference, whether it doesn’t make a difference. In any case, we see if one goes according to the simple meaning, that it’s a very simple thing if someone says a letter wrong. I mean that even in most shuls one corrects if someone says an alef without a vav with a vav, if one catches it. But nekudot, dikduk, this doesn’t appear clearly to be a problem. So it seems to me, and that’s it.

“Two Should Not Read from the Torah, Only One Alone”

Now there’s another halacha, “velo yikre’u shnayim baTorah ela echad bilvad”, two people should not read together, only one alone should read. This is the halacha of “tartei kali lo mishtamai”, it’s not pleasant to hear two people.

And the Kesef Mishneh brings this from the Zohar HaKadosh, that today when there’s the baal korei and someone who is called up for the brachot, there are people where the one making the bracha says along. The Kesef Mishneh brings from the Zohar HaKadosh that one should not say along, one should follow along but not say out loud. Very good. This is a dispute among the poskim, and what goes, what it says in the Shulchan Aruch, we’ll see. There are people who conduct themselves this way, there are those who conduct themselves that way, there are those who say quietly. And again, the answer is certainly clear regarding the confusion of the congregation, or certainly of the baal korei sometimes, it’s certainly better for the congregation to be silent as the Zohar said. But anyway, one can do what one wants.

Davar Chozer – When One Can Say Along

Anyway, if it’s a pleasant piece that everyone knows, one can say along, because there’s a davar chozer which is then stronger. If that one makes a nice pause, it’s very nice. Simply so good. This goes on the halacha of… simply so he should be quiet the whole day. No, I say, there is a halacha that by Megillah we learned that one can… yes, but there’s a davar chozer, yes, if the mind, it could be the choir everyone already knows, so one can say it together. And I mean simply so it’s good sometimes a baal korei when the congregation is a boring quiet time, he should throw in a few mistakes so the congregation should wake up. Apparently the name, Ami, like that one had the congregation apparently the name, he had something with an interesting learning.

Halacha: “Kara VeNit’ayef”

Alright. “Kara venit’ayef”. Okay, I’ll say in advance. “Kara venit’ayef”. Let’s say that he is… well, “kara venit’ayef” means somewhere, not that he made a mistake, he’s completely confused, he doesn’t know how it continues the nekudot of the next word. Then “ya’amod acher tachtav”, one should take a second. “Veya’asok mimakom shehitchil harishon”. That one doesn’t make a fresh birkat haTorah. Ah, we’ll see. Yes. “Veya’asok mimakom shehitchil harishon shenit’ayef, umvarech basof”. Very good. I mean also by davening it’s the same halacha, someone was a baal tefillah and he became confused. Finally. It could be it’s also one of the rules of the congregation, not everyone notices the mistake that happened, and the gabbai comes up and tells him he should daven further. But what it says here is also very good. “Veya’asok mimakom harishon shenit’ayef”, because if one now goes again to make birkat haTorah, that will be a bracha levatala. And one should still have a bracha.

Anyway, not relevant, today there’s a baal korei, so if the baal korei can’t, I don’t know. What is the baal korei? I mean… okay.

Halacha: “The Reader Is Not Permitted to Read Until the Leader of the Congregation Tells Him”

“Ein hakorei rashai likrot” – here there’s an interesting halacha, and apparently it seems that this is an old order, it’s not simple that it’s not real, right? “Ein hakorei rashai likrot ad sheyomar lo gadol shebatzibbur”. So one must tell him “read”. No, the gadol shebatzibbur must tell him, in order that one must receive permission, like a judge can’t rule until he receives permission from the rabbi, such a thing. The gadol must tell him “read”.

Discussion: Who Is the Gadol Shebatzibbur and Who Is the Gabbai?

But what’s going on here? One called him up for an aliyah. No, this means that the gabbai from the gadol shebatzibbur… So the gadol shebatzibbur is the gabbai? No, the gadol shebatzibbur gives him permission, and the gabbai is the one who calls him up.

Okay, first of all, the tefillat chazzan haknesset is even here chazzanim, it’s called, one has him appointed, rosh haknesset, “ein hakorei me’atzmo”. I don’t know what these things are, what these jobs are, not what we call a chazzan, I mean that chazzan means the gabbai, and rosh means the head, I don’t know what this means. The Gemara is presumably explaining, and he doesn’t read alone “ad sheyomar lo tzibbur o gadol shebatzibbur”. We see that today perhaps the gabbai does this with the days, but it’s an order, it’s an honor, it’s not simple that one doesn’t know who’s going to read, one knows beforehand, it’s his job, let’s say. But one gives him an honor, one tells him…

When the gadol shebatzibbur says, does he represent the congregation, or if the congregation itself says, then someone must say on behalf of the congregation. So the gabbai who sends, if it’s really already an established community with accounts, the gabbai has accounts, he sends the one who is his friend, then it could really be that it’s not good. This is a shaliach tzibbur, someone should send the one whom the congregation wants to hear.

Yes, very good. But the point is, he brings that one doesn’t grab it oneself, as it says in Tosafot, one doesn’t grab the Torah oneself, one waits for someone to give. It’s a matter of honor, it’s not about the accounts of who is a shaliach tzibbur, gabbai next to the one who reads. Very good, so one understands here also, that the order is also a matter of honor, not a matter of…

Halacha: “One Must Stand with Him at the Time of Reading”

And another important halacha is, “vetzarich echad la’amod imo bish’at hakriah, kedei shelo yikashel hachazzan omed im hakorei”. One must stand someone when he reads, that is, when the chazzan stands, apparently always the chazzan stands, the gabbai, next to him. If the gabbai stands alone, it says that one must call a second to stand next to him. Is reading, what is this matter? I mean like one doesn’t become static, or… no, like teacher at Sinai, there’s also a concept of honor. It’s not simple that two people stand there, yes. Could be another job, but it’s mainly. It says that it’s similar to, yes, through an intermediary, as it says in the Midrash. Just as the first giving of the Torah was through an agent, through someone in between, so too by kriat haTorah another one stands, it’s as if he gives the Torah as it were to the korei. I know.

Laws of Dilug – Skipping Sections When Reading

Yes. Now we’re going to learn a matter of laws of dilug. Whether one may not read in order, one must read verse after verse, or one can skip sections. “Omed al hakorei yesh lo ladaleg, one may skip sections mimakom lemakom be’inyan echad”. Such as, they say that inyan echad means that it speaks of the same topic.

Example of Dilug: Acharei Mot and Emor

So, now the parsha of Acharei Mot, tomorrow when reading, whether a person may… it’s a bit far from us, because think when people hear lashon hakodesh, they understand lashon hakodesh, and someone thinks, “Ah, I’ll read you a few very interesting verses”. So, he skips, he goes to a few nice verses in Acharei Mot. Not nice verses, a few verses that deal with the same topic. He reads here Acharei Mot, and he goes to Acharei Mot. Not that he skips, he reads the whole parsha of Acharei Mot.

The Kohen Gadol used to do this in the Beit HaMikdash. He also used to do this on fast days, the only time I think that we skip in kriat haTorah. By haftarah one does it many times. But the Gemara gives an example, the example is in Masechet Yoma. The Kohen Gadol used to read the order of the service that’s in Acharei Mot, our weekly portion, and afterwards he went to the law of Yom Kippur that’s in Parshat Emor, which is two parshiyot before.

The mussaf is there, yes. It doesn’t say exactly the korban mussaf, it says that one makes a mussaf. In any case, because in Parshat Pinchas the actual mussaf is stated, but that he reads by heart, it says in the Mishnah, because that is very far. Until Pinchas one must turn many pages. But here, which is literally two three pages to turn. He turns and he reads it. He can do this, why? Both speak of the laws, both speak of the laws of Yom Kippur. I mean that one may skip in a parsha if one didn’t find. This could be, I don’t know. But the halacha is that one may only jump if it’s one topic.

Prohibition to Read by Heart

Says the Rambam, but here there’s a problem, that when one jumps, someone is a good baal korei, because he turned he already read further. He says, “aval lo yikra al peh. One may not read by heart, “shelo yomru she’eino min haktav afilu teivah achat”. The mitzvah of kriat haTorah is that one should read from the writing, even one word one may not outside. I say that he connects it with being medalgeg, because when he’s medalgeg there’s more a reason that he should read by heart. Right, or he shouldn’t combine, because here he’s going already in order, he shouldn’t combine verses that he remembers about the topic.

Apparently the halacha that one may not read shelo min haktav, which we learn here, is certainly a halacha of kriat haTorah. Not that one may not say a verse in a drasha by heart. It’s now kriat haTorah, the congregation will think that it says differently, one can make a mistake. Presumably this is the reason, don’t read by heart.

Time Limitation of Dilug

“Velo yihiyeh hadilug ela kedei sheyashlim hameturgeman targum hapasuk”. We’re going to learn that a part of kriat haTorah was that the baal korei reads, and then the meturgeman reads over the translation in Targum Onkelos or another translation, he reads it over. Says the Rambam, that when one reads through a dilug, that one jumps from the parsha Acharei Mot to jump Acharei be’asor, one can’t very long. The two parshiyot are connected, are a bit later. It should take a minute the turning. But if one now must turn in the Torah a few minutes, longer than it takes for the meturgeman to translate the last verse of what was said, one should not make a dilug. Presumably the reason is not to delay the people. One doesn’t catch at all that one turned. One turns while the one says his translation.

Laws of Conduct – How the Congregation Should Conduct Themselves During Kriat HaTorah

Okay, now we’re going to learn laws of what one must do, how one must conduct oneself during reading. Until now we learned laws of the reader. Now we’re going to do what the congregation must do, how does one listen to the kriat haTorah.

Prohibition to Speak During Kriat HaTorah

The halacha is like this. The person about whom our esteemed Jew asked, we learned that right before davening, must one do? Learn davar halacha. So he still has an open Shulchan Aruch. So now the baal korei will go read the Torah, he says, “Ah, let me go learn the halacha with what I just learned right before davening.” Okay. Says the Rama, one may not do it. “Keivan shehitchil hakorei likrot baTorah, asur lesaper afilu bedavar halacha.” From then on there’s no time to speak, even not a davar halacha. It’s simply appropriate why shouldn’t a person say a davar halacha.

“Ela hakol shotkim”, the whole congregation must be quiet, “veshom’in umashimin libam lema shekorei”. Everyone must be quiet and listen, and pay attention. He says it even stronger than by explanation of the words: “mashimin libam lema shekorei, shene’emar ‘ve’oznei kol ha’am el sefer haTorah’“. As it says there in Nechemiah, he read from the Torah, and the congregation listened.

Prohibition to Leave During Kriat HaTorah

He says the Rama further, “ve’asur latzet min hatzibbur bish’ah shehakorei korei”. When the korei is in the middle of reading, one may not leave from the congregation. This is a disgrace. A disgrace to the Torah. He’s reading, so “ozev Hashem veyuchal”. He abandons the Almighty. He means, here it says “asur latzet”, where is he going to go? He means to leave from shul, yes. Bish’ah shehakorei korei. But in the middle, “latzet bein ish le’ish”, between two readers, one may leave, because then he’s not… he goes out.

Application to Shiurim

I mean that the halacha by kriat haTorah is certainly a halacha. But I think that one must also conduct oneself this way when someone gives a shiur, even if one learns Torah she’be’al peh. It’s not exactly a nice thing that someone learns, it’s not also for the congregation, also for the Torah. Simply, one is learning here Torah, you must stay until the end, or make a break between person to person. But to leave in the middle when someone says Torah is…

It could be that the one living together, all those who listen to our shiur, you listen on YouTube, check before you leave which minute you still have, and make yourself a schedule when you’ll come back. One can’t stop in the middle of a shiur. Okay, but this is different, because it’s not a gathering, it’s more like one reads, it’s like a reading. Okay, yes, one must at least be considerate to the maggidei shiurim. Okay, no problem. But I don’t mind the view, truth. But this is side matters.

The Distinction Regarding Mi She’osek BaTorah Tamid

The Rambam’s Third Gelaynte

Here comes the Rambam and says that this is the third gelaynte, the third davening. The Rambam says, the fact that one must read, and one may not leave during the reading, and one may not learn any divrei halacha during the reading, is if you haven’t gone. You are a Jew of the beit haknesset, you go to the beit haknesset.

Kriat HaTorah for Torato Umnato, Meturgeman, and Hilchot Kriah

Torato Umnato and Kriat HaTorah

But someone who sits and learns and catches a davening in the beit hamidrash, as we learned earlier, that he would come to the beit hamidrash, a trud b’Torato, torato umnato, he learns the whole day. For him, kriat haTorah is not so important, because the whole concept of kriat haTorah is that three days should not pass without learning, and for him not even three hours pass without learning, Torah is his craft.

We may not make him idle from his talmud Torah so that he should be korei baTorah. On the contrary, he should indeed learn, be osek in his talmud Torah.

Yes, so says the holy Rambam, who brings the Gemara where it says that Rav Sheshet turned away and learned his mishnayot, whatever halacha he was osek in. The implication is that one may, and you see that one may in the middle of kriat haTorah, whoever is trud b’Torato umnato, may.

And today’s poskim say that one cannot say such a thing, because the people would take from this a lack of humility. I don’t remember who brings it here, but I remember such a thing. But fundamentally, in any case, those who are trud b’Torato umnato, they don’t read. They will leave in the middle of the reading and there they learn. That’s how it goes. In any case, as it says that one learns only from the deficiency, not from the ordinance. But yes, the Rambam brings this as fundamental law, and it also says in the Shulchan Aruch that there is a heter that one may.

Rav Sheshet’s “Anan B’Didan V’Inhu B’Didhu”

On the same trud, seemingly, you say a nice explanation that this is the takana for this, but it also seemingly goes with the same halacha that one is exempt from tefillah even the person who is trud, certainly he is exempt from the piece of taknat tefillah which is called kriat haTorah.

The chiddush here is that he stands in the middle of the beit hamidrash. Rav Sheshet stood properly in the middle of the beit hamidrash, and he says “anan b’didan v’hem b’didhem”. This is very nice with your explanation. He said, let them learn their Torah, I will learn my Torah, each of us both.

Now I don’t understand, is he going against them? He says I’m doing the same thing as them. They do their order, I have a different method that three days should not pass without Torah, don’t worry.

Beit HaMidrash vs. Beit HaKnesset

But it appears that the Rambam tells us, it’s not very clear, that in a beit haknesset one reads, and in a beit hamidrash where one learns one doesn’t need to read. It could be that yes, I added this. Why shouldn’t one read in a beit hamidrash? Are there several people there who are not toratam umnutam, or what? Back then it was that usually in a beit hamidrash there is no minyan.

The Rambam said an interesting thing, he makes a minyan. But one must understand, because in the beit hamidrash sit plain people, toratam umnutam, so why do they make a minyan? Why do they daven at all? One must simply understand that halacha. Okay.

Then, it appears that he gives an indication, the answer is that he’s speaking when he can before learning, after learning, when he’s not in the middle of learning, then he davens. Yes? So we learned the halacha of toratam umnutam, is only that if he’s in the middle of learning he doesn’t need to interrupt. But once he has finished, he’s not in the time of learning, he must certainly daven. Okay. He must make kriat haTorah also.

In today’s times, even the toratam umnutam people don’t know a verse of Chumash, so they need very much to have a bit of kriat haTorah.

Moshe Rabbeinu’s Takana and the Meturgeman

I think that fundamentally what Moshe instituted the Torah, according to the Rambam the simple meaning is that as long as Moshe Rabbeinu lived he was like our beit hamidrash, he learned the sugya. He learned kriat haTorah. Once he passed away, he was forgotten, he said that they should at least establish a beit haknesset for Jews, and they should learn there a bit of what he taught them. Or the nesi’im, as we said. Okay.

The Rambam on Meturgeman

Now we’re going to learn that there used to be a meturgeman. Does the Rambam still speak about a meturgeman? I don’t know. The Rambam relates halacha l’ma’aseh, but he doesn’t say what he does in his time, halacha l’ma’aseh. Okay.

Says the Rambam, From Moshe Rabbeinu until Ezra we don’t find that there should be a meturgeman, rather Moshe Rabbeinu would translate for the people what he would read in the Torah, so that they would understand the meaning of the words.

Why Not a Meturgeman for Tefillah?

Interesting, why did they now add tefillah, but what’s the point that it’s difficult for the people? Why didn’t they add a meturgem when one teaches davening? Is davening an easier language than tefillah?

I think that davening one doesn’t need to understand, davening is turning. Hashem has pleasure from making the davening, and he should come learn a good language. But a person is not learning. Talmud Torah there, what’s the point of talmud Torah if he doesn’t understand?

But they did mean that the tefilot were written in a way that they expect that people should be able. Also one repeats it so many times, one can learn once or twice in life, one learns the translation of tefillat Shemoneh Esrei, one will know the translation. Torah is every week a different parsha. I think so, however the order is, it’s difficult, I can’t figure out a reason. That’s how the order was, that’s how the custom was.

Rav Hai Gaon and the Obligation of Meturgeman

He brings here a responsum of Rav Hai Gaon, he says that this is actually an obligation, that’s how one would do from the time of the prophets. The Rambam doesn’t bring here when they stopped it. And it’s very interesting, the Rambam doesn’t say, let’s see. It doesn’t say here at all that they stopped it.

Therefore, I must tell you that they stopped it in the time of the Rishonim they stopped it. There’s a great dispute about this, in the time of the Geonim, in the time of the Rishonim, about the fact that there were places where the meturgem stopped.

The Karaites and the Targum

It could be that it started from the Karaites, because the Karaites claimed that it’s Torah she’b’al peh. They held that the targum is Torah she’b’al peh, the targum adds, he explains, explains things, he goes with Chazal always, he goes with the Rambam of Onkelos. Yes, exactly, there were those who held from him, and the Geonim were very sharp against those who didn’t translate.

But in practice, in Ashkenaz after the year 600, I think outside of Israel, perhaps in Yemen, they would still translate, but generally, most places stopped translating.

I think the reason is because they stopped knowing Aramaic. So it says in the Shulchan Aruch, that if one doesn’t know Aramaic, what’s the point of translating? But this is certainly a proper prohibition, it makes no sense to translate something else that one doesn’t know.

Discussion: Targum in Other Languages

But why wasn’t there somewhere someone who made the meturgem actually teach a piece of Rashi, or something like that?

Not Rashi, one must translate into Yiddish.

I don’t know. Was there somewhere where they translated not in Aramaic language, where the meturgeman simply did the job of reading over in English or Yiddish?

Aramaic is l’chatchila, that was the meturgeman of Aramaic. Later it became a text in another language. I don’t know. I know that Rav Saadia Gaon made a translation into Arabic. But I don’t know if they taught it during kriat haTorah. One must look at the Yemenites. As far as I remember, there were indeed places that did both. That is, every place that did targum said it in Aramaic, because it was already very accepted, and they also translated into Arabic, if I remember, certain places, yes.

Discussion: Translating into English in Modern Times

So I’m sure in a shul you read the parsha in English?

I do it because I don’t have a shul. I have a shul that belongs to the people, and they do the custom of Israel. But if I had, yasher koach to me, one would certainly translate into English every verse or the verses that are relevant to the halacha. It makes no sense, one reads kriat haTorah and no one understands what’s going on.

I accept from my holy ancestors that one translates by placing a dagesh on certain verses and reading with an aish kodesh, that’s the targum. So the people understand with fire. So I heard from my tzaddikim, reading with such an aish kodesh the certain verses that the people need to hear, and that’s what it means to fulfill targum.

Will the people understand? One understands even less then.

My uncle, the Tohasher Rebbe, is a baal korei and reads very nicely, and it’s a whole study. But he cooks himself at the verses where one must cook, and whoever wants to keep up, he can keep up from cooking himself.

I’ve already been in shuls where they translated a bit. It was such a thing, but that would have been… I’m sure that Rabbi Yishmael didn’t have some form of meturgeman who is his meturgeman?

No, I haven’t seen.

Drashot and Kriat HaTorah

The truth is that most rabbis and shul rabbis, one thinks this is not the custom of targum, this is the custom of drashot, which is also the old custom. In most shuls, not today with the driving, one reads after the reading. But in every classic shul, an Ashkenazi shul, there was a drasha. Or there were places where it was before kriat haTorah, and there were places where it was after kriat haTorah. But it’s still part of the topic of kriat haTorah.

Hilchot Meturgeman — Seder HaKriah

The reader reads one verse alone, he reads one verse and is silent until the meturgeman translates it, and returns and reads the second verse. Not that he says all three and now the meturgeman should say, but verse by verse.

And the reader is not permitted to read to the meturgeman more than one verse. The reader also may not make it difficult for the meturgeman and give him two verses to say. But he had to mix it simply, he had to help the meturgeman.

Hilchot Kol — Korei and Meturgeman

More laws about the korei and meturgeman. The reader is not permitted to raise his voice more than the meturgeman. The reader may not read louder than the meturgeman. And also conversely, and the meturgeman should not raise his voice more than the reader, so that one should know that they are in sync. It’s probably good for the ear, or it’s good for the congregation, it’s not appropriate to give honor that the Torah is more or the targum is more, both are important.

And the meturgeman is not permitted to translate until the verse is finished from the mouth of the reader. The meturgeman may only begin, just as there is a halacha regarding amen, yes, one may not begin the next blessing before everyone has answered amen. It’s a matter of honor for the congregation.

And the reader is not permitted to read another verse until the translation is finished from the mouth of the meturgeman. Also the reader may not quickly begin reading the next verse, he must wait until… This is also honor, also simply so one can hear.

Conduct of the Meturgeman

Says the Rambam further, And the meturgeman should not lean, the meturgeman cannot stand there just randomly, he must be with respect. He cannot stand there leaning on a pillar or on a beam, rather standing with awe and fear. He should be with awe and fear.

Devarim SheBe’al Peh — Meturgeman Al Peh

Another important halacha, And he should not translate from the written text but by heart. He should not have a book and translate from there, but he should say it by heart.

Further, on this everyone remembers the halacha, Things that are written you are not permitted to say by heart, things that are oral you are not permitted to say in writing. This was said about the situation, kriat haTorah, when one reads, what one reads one may not read from outside. What one says, what is a tradition, the Torah, the targum, is Torah she’b’al peh, he should say it orally, he should not err that this is the simple meaning in the Torah.

This is seemingly the concept, that one should not think that perhaps one can change the targum a bit according to the matter. Since this is an accepted text of the targum that one says, and therefore this is written in the siddur and the Chumash. But the main thing is that there should be such a necessity to know. This is not… not… there is indeed a prohibition to write Torah she’b’al peh, that’s the truth. And seemingly in general the prohibition is only one of “et la’asot l’Hashem” that one may write it. Yes. Okay.

V’Ein HaKorei Rashai L’Saye’a L’Turgeman

And the reader is not permitted to help the translator. But the halacha, the halacha of “lo targum haketav”, the Rambam doesn’t bring for example that there’s a prohibition to write Torah she’b’al peh.

Hilchot Targum V’Haftarah

Issur Shreibn Torah SheBe’al Peh and the Halacha of Targum SheB’Chtav

Speaker 1:

But the main thing is, it’s a review like, this is not… not…

There is indeed a prohibition to write Torah she’b’al peh, that’s the truth. Seemingly in general the prohibition, it’s only Eretz Yisrael for that purpose, so one may write. Yes?

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

And the reader is not permitted to help his translator.

But the halacha, this is also the halacha of targum sheb’chtav, the Rambam doesn’t bring for example that there’s a prohibition to write Torah she’b’al peh, because we’ve long been after mathematics, but the halacha still goes on, because it was set up according to the order as Moshe Rabbeinu, Moshe Ezra, how they set it up with the laws of that time.

Speaker 2:

Seemingly.

Speaker 1:

One good thing.

Hilchot Targum B’Tzibbur

The Reader May Not Help the Meturgem

Speaker 1:

And the reader is not permitted to help his translator,

Ah, he may not help him.

Speaker 2:

Whisper the targum, yes.

Speaker 1:

So that they should not say the targum is written in the Torah.

One good thing.

Katan and Gadol by Targum

Speaker 1:

And the minor translates for the adult, that is the… a… a…

Speaker 2:

A minor. Ah, just, not a minor, a lesser one.

Speaker 1:

A lesser person may take a meturgem who is older than him, but and it is not honorable for an adult that he should translate for the minor.

Speaker 2:

Because the honor is for the rabbi that the shamash should translate his Torah.

Speaker 1:

Okay, the rabbi should not translate the shamash. The meturgem is indeed the shamash, is the gabbai of the korei, so he must be lower than the…

And there should not be a translator with two at once, there should not be two, one should not interrupt each other, rather one reads and one translates.

One good thing.

Pesukim That One Does Not Translate in Public

The Matter of Which Pesukim One Translates

Speaker 1:

Now there’s an interesting thing. Now we’ve learned…

One, what is there the matter of which verses one translates, and which not?

There’s a matter of translating, even for simple people, who don’t understand lashon hakodesh, and they don’t know what it says. And not everything, you know what, you think you don’t understand lashon hakodesh, you don’t need to know everything, okay?

Speaker 2:

Very good.

Speaker 1:

So there are certain verses that one doesn’t translate.

Speaker 2:

Mm.

Ma’aseh Reuven

Speaker 1:

He says like this, ma’aseh Reuven, not all that are mentioned are translated in public, not all verses does one say the meturgem over. There are certain ones which not. Ma’aseh Reuven, the story of how Reuven… “Vayechal Reuven”, we don’t say it, “Vayishkav et Bilhah pilegesh aviv”, so it says in the Torah, we don’t say it over loudly, because one must teach the people that not everything one knows must one say. No, they won’t know about it at all, because let, one must have sense not just to call out.

Birkat Kohanim

Speaker 1:

The second thing that one doesn’t say with targum in public is birkat kohanim, because the words say there “Yisa Hashem panav eilecha”. We know, when one says it in lashon hakodesh, that it’s deep concepts. But when one is going to say it, when everyone is going to say it, Hashem should give you protection, or even the language which can mean that the concept of favoritism, Hashem should not be a true judge.

Discussion: How Did the Angels Understand It?

Speaker 1:

Very interesting. Why is this specifically birkat kohanim which one says every day, which one has a mitzvah to say, but even once should one not say it with targum, that the simple Jews should not understand what it means, what’s going on here?

Speaker 2:

It’s very interesting, because the angels did ask the question. It appears that someone was indeed translating.

Speaker 1:

No, the Gemara, all these things, the talmidei chachamim, it says explicitly in the books on these laws, the teacher teaches in his way, even in cheder one learns all these verses. It’s not simple that one doesn’t want the people to know, but in public there’s no…

Speaker 2:

No, it’s very interesting. The things we don’t want the angels to hear, we’re told in the Targum, yes? So, Birkat Kohanim technically hasn’t been translated yet. How did the angels figure out that they asked “Do You show favoritism to Israel,” yes?

Speaker 1:

Well, well. On the contrary, they only know Lashon HaKodesh. Lashon HaKodesh they know yes, Targum they don’t know. The problem is only if someone goes to translate it.

Speaker 2:

No, they understand Lashon HaKodesh. They understand Lashon HaKodesh. They’ll tell us, they don’t know what it means. They know that “Yisa Hashem Panav” means the Almighty should help the Jews. That’s not a problem. But specifically the language “Nosei,” that’s a language that’s difficult to translate.

Speaker 1:

And the incident of the Golden Calf… Anyway, it’s a Midrash, it wasn’t said.

The Incident of the Golden Calf

Speaker 1:

So, a word. And the incident of the Golden Calf, “Vayomer Moshe el Aharon” until “Vayar Moshe et Ha’am.” A piece from the incident of the Golden Calf, the peak of the incident, there where it says… he yells at Aharon… the place where it says that Aharon made the calf… the place, the place that doesn’t have a simple explanation why. It says the incident of the Golden Calf the second time, this isn’t the incident when there was the calf, but the words where Aharon tells Moshe what he did. And there you see, you also see that Aharon acted. He says “Vayifash et Aharon et Begadav,” and you also see there that Elazar came out on his own, it says “Vayered Elazar,” so it’s understood that he separated the limbs, therefore one doesn’t separate.

And he also skips Eglah Arufah, which is also, that it says that the Eglah Arufah they broke the neck, we don’t want to tell the people that Aharon made the calf. This is the first section that he brings.

And there’s very much in the Torah reading that he brings every week customs of Torah reading, he brings very many things that there were places that one says quietly because it’s a curse, or it’s not clear why specifically this thing one may not speak. It’s interesting how the Rambam doesn’t bring all these laws.

The Incident of Amnon son of David

Speaker 1:

And in any case, the incident of Amnon, what do we leave out from the incident of Amnon? Here he’s already talking about the Maftir. In places where they have the custom of Amnon son of David. What does that mean? Amnon sinned with Tamar, well problem, he was an Amnon, but he was a son of David. We don’t want people to catch that it was a son of David who did this. Go understand, the people won’t catch on?

It is not read… Ah, not only, it is not read but rather translated, we don’t say it at all. Good! The people shouldn’t know, shouldn’t greet because of the disgrace of David. That it’s not a nice thing to speak about David that his son did this deed.

Discussion: Do We Read It At All?

Speaker 2:

And we do read, we do read anyway, we do read anyway, we don’t read the portion at all.

Speaker 1:

Ah, ah, not that we shouldn’t use the translator, but when we read the Written Torah, we read the Haftarah, the Haftarah we read the verses of Amnon son of David. That’s how it looks. That’s how it looks from the Rambam. I don’t remember that we ever had a Haftarah from that. It doesn’t look like it, but if we read, there are laws for it.

Laws of the Haftarah

The Rambam Doesn’t Bring the Source of the Haftarah

Speaker 1:

Okay, now we’re going to learn a bit more laws of the Haftarah. Or we’re going to learn more about the Haftarah, laws of the Haftarah. We haven’t learned anything yet about the Haftarah. We only said that one reads there and there, and one passes over the Kohen, but we haven’t yet learned a legal thing, that there’s an enactment of Haftarah at all. The Rambam doesn’t bring at all from where comes an enactment of Haftarah, why, there are different answers about this that people know. The Rambam doesn’t bring anything, but it’s simply obvious that he knows that one reads from the Prophets, and he only says the laws of it. I don’t understand, it’s interesting, it doesn’t fit for the Rambam. Regarding the essential thing he tells us clearly that it’s an enactment of Moshe Rabbeinu, but the Torah reading, but about the Haftarah he says nothing. The purpose of it, and what is it actually? Why doesn’t he say it? What is the matter? I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, that’s what the Gemara says. Let’s go further, we won’t go into this.

Okay, the Rambam wouldn’t have gone in, I’m also not going in.

The Maftir Must Read a Little in the Torah First

Speaker 1:

But now we’re going into the laws. The one who is Maftir is like this, he must read a little in the Torah first, he doesn’t have to read a lot, he reads three verses, and even he can repeat what was read earlier. This is what is called Maftir. Look, what does Maftir mean?

Discussion: What Does “Maftir” Mean?

Speaker 2:

So the Maftir in the Prophets, so the four that we have, we’re all the first or the second, the Rambam said earlier, any of them can do four verses. So here this means that the Maftir, the one who must say it…

Speaker 1:

No, there it doesn’t say Maftir in the Prophets. First of all, we’re talking about Shabbat, soon we’ll see that Shabbat there’s more. Shabbat and Yom Tov is never Maftir when, if I remember, when it’s still the three verses. Anyway, even three verses means it’s enough, he can also say the four verses, he can do what he wants. To read the Haftarah from the Prophets until the Torah scroll is rolled up. He should just start reading… It’s still, Maftir means to finish, the act of finishing with the Prophets, that’s what is called Maftir, yes? He can be, but now he’s speaking, this is what he’s speaking here. But the translation is but the one who reads. And the novelty is, that since he reads from the Prophets, they didn’t want it to be that one person reads the Torah, one person reads the Prophets, as if we would think that the Torah is equal to the Prophets. Therefore he must also read a piece of Torah, so that he should show that the Torah is still more important than the Prophets. It’s very important, all these things are to show all kinds of things.

But the essential word Maftir already says it, that the Maftir is to finish the reading. Because the word Maftir means we finish. We finish after the Pesach and standing. Because that means in general, we say that afterwards. But he must also read the Torah. The word Maftir says that the enactment of reading words of the Prophets is to finish the Torah with the Prophets. No, not just. That’s not the enactment. Such a thing is said. The enactment is, that after we read the Torah we read this. But this we could still think that it’s equal. He must read a piece of Torah so that we shouldn’t think that it’s an external thing by itself. It should be before closing the Torah scroll.

And what we call the last aliyah Maftir, Maftir means to say the one who says the Haftarah. It doesn’t mean to say that he must have the last aliyah. No, the last one says the Haftarah, as we do. It’s the opposite, the one who says the Haftarah must also have read a few verses. That’s the point. But they didn’t want to think that it’s just.

How Long Must the Haftarah Be

Speaker 1:

The Gemara says further, how long must the Haftarah be? Like by the Torah reading we learned that it must be ten verses. But in a Prophet it must be longer, I don’t know why. It must be twenty-one verses. There are various reasons why, but I don’t know why so much. But there’s a minimum to be minimum. And if the topic is completed in less than these, it’s not necessary. Sometimes there’s a topic that’s a whole subject and the Prophet, and it’s smaller, one can, one doesn’t have to make 21 verses in the Haftarah. There are also verses by us, in our Haftarot I mean there are smaller ones.

Speaker 2:

21 comes out that there are three for all seven who are called up.

Speaker 1:

Ah, very good that you’re standing here. It’s three corresponding to the seven who are called up, it’s corresponding to them. There’s such a matter.

With Targum — Ten Verses Are Enough

Speaker 1:

The Gemara says further, how many verses is the basic minimum? There’s a length. The Gemara says, that there’s a long Targum, at least a long Targum. And if he read ten verses and the translator translated them. If he read ten verses and he translated it, that means, not that there wasn’t always a Targum for the Prophets, but sometimes if one makes a Targum it’s enough. That means, because it’s already bigger, it’s already become longer. With a Targum is enough still with ten verses and a translation.

Two Translators by the Prophets

Speaker 1:

And in the Prophets, that means in the Torah reading one may not have two translators, why? We’ll become confused. But in the Prophets it’s not so important. So even one reads and two translate, one can have two translators, because we’re not concerned that the Prophets will be nothing, not so terrible.

Skipping in the Prophets

Speaker 1:

And in the Prophets also has but until the Torah reading, Rav says one may skip in one topic, like the Musaf of Yom Kippur in two portions. But in the Prophets one may skip from one topic to another topic, one can yes jump from one topic to the second, but what not, one may not skip from prophet to prophet, from one prophet to the second not. But how yes, within the prophet. Perhaps because it’s more like a whole, it’s more far, I know, it’s already weirder. But in that which it’s already the Twelve together, it’s called yes like one package, it’s called as if like one book. Of the Prophets, yes.

Laws of Torah Reading and Haftarah – Skipping in the Prophets, Blessings of the Haftarah, Number of Readers, and Order of Aliyot

Skipping in the Prophets (Continued)

And by the Prophets also has, ah, and the same law in the Torah reading, one may skip in one topic, like the Musaf of Yom Kippur in two portions. But in the Prophets, one may skip from one topic to another topic, one can yes jump from one topic to the second. But what not?! From one prophet to a second not.

But how yes?! Except in the Prophets… It’s already not respectful for the Prophets to… Perhaps because it’s more like a whole… I don’t know, it’s already more worth. But in since it’s the Twelve at once, it’s called yes like one package, it’s called like one book. Ah, perhaps it’s called like one book, all the Prophets, yes.

But what not, there, very good, backwards one shouldn’t do. Why? I don’t know, it’s not a way. One doesn’t do so. By the way, Shabbat Teshuvah we read a few pieces from the Twelve and so on.

And all who skip, but important is the thing, those who jump around, should not delay in his skipping so that the translator finishes under him, this is a blessing in vain, this is an interruption.

Reading Verses in the Prophets for the Translator

Another thing that’s different Torah reading from the Prophets. By the Torah reading we learned that one may only read one verse at a time and one lets the translator. But by the Prophets it’s less important, so one can read three verses.

The one who reads in the Prophets may read to the translator three verses. And the translator translates the three of them. And I see it like this, why? Because this is also perhaps not so important he should get confused. Yes, that’s apparently the word.

And if there were three verses that are three portions, then he reads to the translator one by one. Why? Because then he can yes become confused, because it’s three different topics, he becomes completely confused. If it’s one time three verses that’s a continuation, okay, the translator will remember and he’ll say the whole thing. But if it’s three portions, it makes indeed a few… The Gemara brings an example from a certain thing in the Prophets, yes, in the Prophet Isaiah, which is three verses but each one is a whole portion, one must read extra because he can become confused, because it’s different topics, different portions. Very good.

Blessings of the Haftarah

Just as we learned that in the Torah reading there are blessings, so also the Maftir also has blessings. And the Rambam doesn’t bring here the blessings. Perhaps somewhere else he brings the language of the blessings in the order of prayer. Interesting that here he doesn’t bring the text of the blessing. Yes, but… It’s not in the siddur, no? He’ll go bring it later in chapter twelve. We’ll soon learn, at the end he’ll have.

When one reads the Haftarah from the Prophets, one blesses before it one blessing. Just as the blessing of the Torah there’s a special blessing. That means, the blessing of the Torah we speak of Moshe Rabbeinu, who gave us His Torah. But when one says the blessing of the Prophets, one must say a special blessing, who chose good prophets.

It says here, who chose the prophets. Anyway, because it looks like this is the matter of, this is the blessing of the Torah of the Prophets. Indeed, when one doesn’t read in the study hall, but just someone learns, is engaged in Prophets and Writings instead of in Torah, perhaps this must be his blessing of the Torah. Okay, in practice this is not so.

One makes after this four blessings. Which four? The Gemara says like this: The first blessing is the end of “The faithful God in all His words”. The second is “Builder of Jerusalem”. The third is “Shield of David”. The fourth, the fourth is “And similar to the sanctity of the day, in the way that we say in prayer”.

The Logical Order of the Blessings

It’s very interesting. “Builder of Jerusalem” and “Shield of David” are blessings that we say in our Shemoneh Esreh. “The faithful God” is something unique. And after this here, “And similar to the sanctity of the day,” is about the sanctity of the day.

We’re speaking directly of this, it’s like a continuation. “Who chose good prophets,” that the words that He said to the prophets are faithful. After this we ask that He should indeed fulfill what He promised to the prophets, to build Jerusalem and to give to David the King. And after this we speak of the sanctity of the day, as in prayer.

There’s a thing on Rosh Chodesh and Shabbat, that in the Haftarah one mentions Rosh Chodesh in the blessings of it, so that he should mention it in prayer. Although Rosh Chodesh doesn’t have its own Haftarah, but when it’s Shabbat, we do yes make Rosh Chodesh in the Haftarah.

Here is my little idea, why do we make all these blessings?

The Ra’avad’s Version

Ah, the Ra’avad brings that we have a different blessing. We don’t say “Builder of Jerusalem,” we say “Who gladdens Zion in her building” indeed by the Haftarah, the second blessing. Not “Shield of David,” but “Who gladdens Zion in her building.”

There are different versions. Apparently this is all not essential the version, but here you see also that this is something a special set, it’s almost like a prayer. We’re making a blessing on a… Yes, the Gemara doesn’t say the whole version, here later he’ll say, but it looks like it’s exactly like a… The middle blessing of the prayer of Shabbat, of Shemoneh Esreh.

Okay, and this is the version. Until here laws of the Haftarah, laws of the Prophets.

Number of Readers – How Many Aliyot

Now we’re going to learn how many aliyot there must be. You know this we haven’t learned anything yet about the aliyot, except that there’s a minimum. Yes, it says that there should be three, and that each one should read three. A minimum three, very good. But now we’re going to learn that there are many more details in this.

“How many are the readers? How many people read in the Torah? On Shabbat in the morning seven read.” Shabbat morning is seven, seven blessings. We also pray here seven blessings. Seven aliyot. “And on Yom Kippur six, and on festivals five. One may not diminish from this number,” we never make less than at least the seven, six, or five, “but one may add to them.”

“On Rosh Chodesh and on Chol HaMoed four read.” You see that on Rosh Chodesh and Chol HaMoed one cannot add. No, no, the Rambam says explicitly. Look further, look further. “And on Purim and in the afternoon, and on Chanukah and Purim in the morning, and on a fast day in the morning and afternoon, three read. And to these one may not add at all.”

And to these, also not, “one may not diminish from this number.” To these, to these Rosh Chodesh and Shabbat and Yom Kippur, all these, “one may not diminish from this number and one may not add to them.” Very good. But Shabbat, Yom Kippur and Yom Tov one can add.

The Custom of Additions

Very good. And in Shulchan Aruch it says that we don’t conduct, as it says in Rema, that we don’t conduct to add. Shabbat yes, but not Yom Tov? Only one Yom Tov that we conduct, yes, which is called Simchat Torah. We don’t make just additions, we make a hundred thousand aliyot. Okay.

Interesting. What’s the logic? Do you see a logic in this? What does it have to do if we work, what does it have to do with Yom Tov one must go eat, and so on. So, there are reasons why we have these distinctions. Okay.

Who Are the Readers – Who Can Get an Aliyah

Now we’re going to learn, who can be a reader in public? Who are the aliyot? We said like this, “Who are those who go up? Who are the readers?” Right? Until now we learned how many readers there are. Now we’re going to learn who will be the reader. Yes?

A Woman Should Not Read in Public

So it’s like this, “A woman should not read in public because of the honor of the congregation.” A woman should not be the one who reads in public. It doesn’t fit for the people that she should read in public, because the people don’t like it. The people hold that they are better than women, and if a woman goes to read for you, as if you can’t read but the woman, the people can feel bad.

Reading from the Torah: Order of Aliyot, Maftir, and Laws of the Sefer Torah

By Shaliach Tzibur

By shaliach tzibur, did he calculate that only a male can be a shaliach tzibur? No. He did say that they need to be males for a minyan, for blessings… yes. “It is forbidden for adults to bless.” It didn’t say anything about males. No. Because keriat haTorah is stated explicitly in the Gemara. Apparently it’s simple that if by keriat haTorah it’s the same thing, it’s all the same set of halachot. Apparently it’s the same thing. The Gemara states explicitly that me’ikar hadin a woman can count toward the seven, she can indeed read, but the Chachamim said that it’s not appropriate because the congregation doesn’t like it.

It’s a disgrace for the congregation. True. Out of the whole ten people, only the woman can read. In general, the fact that you have a ba’al koreh is a disgrace for the congregation. In today’s times. Perhaps the congregation is already so embarrassed. One must really count their honor as much as possible.

Katan HaYodea Likrot

He says further, “katan hayodea likrot v’yodea l’mi mevarkin”, he knows how to say the blessing, ah, “v’yodea l’mi mevarkin”, but he also knows, he can already have kavanah, he knows to whom he’s making the blessing, “oleh l’minyan hakorim”. Can he be one of the readers. So the Rambam’s position is that a katan is valid, a katan she’yodea is valid, one can call him up for any aliyah, and he counts toward the number. There are other positions that learn differently, but this is the ruling of the Rambam.

The custom is not to do so. The custom is only to do… on this there’s indeed kavod hatzibur. A woman yes, but a katan is not a matter of kavod hatzibur. It’s not honor for the congregation that a katan reads. On the contrary, it’s cute, ah, a katan is reading today.

HaMaftir Oleh Min HaMinyan

“Lfikach hamaftir oleh min haminyan shivah kruim baTorah.” Ah, good. That means if only six were called, the maftir can be the seventh. We usually feel that the maftir is the eighth, but if one wants to make only six aliyot and the eighth, and maftir be the seventh, that’s also fine.

And usually it concludes with Kaddish, by the mashlim, what we call acharon, the aliyah of acharon, is the mashlim, the one who completes the… Then there’s one maftir and one oleh. Because then it’s understood that the oleh reads only the prophet. He doesn’t only read the prophet, he also reads maftir, and so on. And they make a Kaddish to show that now we’ve finished keriat haTorah and now maftir begins. And then one can’t count, because he’s clearly separate, he’s clearly separate from the maftir, but he reads the completion of the Torah so as not to be mevalzel the Torah.

Very good.

If Only One Person Can Read

“V’im lo hayah yodea likrot ela echad”, only one person can read. Very good, now we come to the situation that we live in today. “Im ein sham ela echad she’yodea likrot, hu oleh v’yored l’chol kriah v’kriah.” If there’s only one person who reads, he reads the whole time. So says the Rambam. “Oleh v’koreh”, he stands up and reads, “v’yored v’yoshev”, he sits back down, “v’chen koreh sheni u’shlishi”.

The Rambam doesn’t tell us that he makes a blessing each time. Apparently not, apparently he only makes a blessing for the first and after the last.

Why not? He makes all the blessings. The Rambam doesn’t say “oleh u’mevarech v’koreh”. He already made the blessing for the first, and he will say the last blessing acharonah after the last. But he must go up and down, and that already takes extra time. “V’koreh sheni u’shlishi ad sheyigmor minyan hakorim shel oto hayom.”

Very good. That’s what one must do if there’s only one person who can read. How it became that one person can make the blessing and another can read, we still don’t know.

Okay. Yes, it doesn’t say.

Seder HaKorim – Kohen, Levi, Yisrael

Ready. The Rambam says, “b’chol kriah me’elu”, by all these readings that we’ve learned, it’s like this, what is the order? Ah, who is the oleh? We continue, who is the koreh? There are three or different olim, two, three, or four, or five, or six, or seven. So obviously, who goes first? Can you put me in the order of the readers? Okay.

“B’chol kriah me’elu, kohen koreh rishon, v’acharav levi, v’acharav yisrael.” The Rambam says that this is a minhag pashut that we know, many times a talmid chacham is more important than a kohen. As it states, the Rambam brings it in Hilchot Talmud Torah, that a mamzer talmid chacham takes precedence over a kohen gadol am ha’aretz. A mamzer, so is the halacha here too, yes? So apparently one would have had to do the same here too. But the Rambam says, no, the minhag pashut has indeed spread that even a kohen am ha’aretz indeed takes precedence to go up before a talmid chacham.

Keriat HaTorah: Order of Aliyot, Mashlim, Maftir, and Laws of Sefer Torah

Order of Reading: Kohen, Levi, Yisrael

Speaker 1:

Can you make in your head the order of reading? Okay, let’s say who reads. So it’s like this, kohen koreh rishon, v’acharav levi, v’acharav yisrael. The Rambam says so, the minhag hapashut. We know that many times a talmid chacham is more important than a kohen. As it states, the Rambam brings it in Hilchot Talmud Torah, that a mamzer talmid chacham takes precedence over a kohen gadol am ha’aretz. True, so the halacha says here too, yes. So apparently one would have had to do the same here too. But the Rambam says, no, the minhag pashut has indeed spread that even a kohen am ha’aretz indeed takes precedence to go up to the Torah before a great sage from Yisrael. So the custom became.

The Rambam doesn’t tell us, but the Rambam brings it such that this is what one does. The Rambam is against this custom, and he states, he says, “aval ha’emet shekol mi shegadol mechavero b’chochmah kodem la’alot laTorah”. The Rambam says so, the custom is that we give precedence to kohen, levi, yisrael, but he says outright, wait, among Yisrael, it’s clearly explained among the seven aliyot… He doesn’t say against the custom.

So, he tells me about a kohen, if the Chachamim want to have it… But kol hagadol mechavero truly applies even to the kohanim, and certainly, the minhag pashut is not so. The Rambam also knows that the minhag pashut is not so. And the Rambam says that this minhag pashut has become established, and the Rambam holds that the Rambam should be important, the one who can learn the best should receive the most honor. We don’t do this, everyone is equal and we give everyone honor, anyway, this is a big problem. One must be very strongly elitist. And so too nowadays, we need a special place for the talmidei chachamim. The current minhag pashut, must be minhag pashut, must be minhag pashut, what should one do?

Mashlim, Golel, Maftir — The Importance of the Last Aliyah

Speaker 1:

So, we learned earlier that the acharon, when saying the last one who says the blessing, he closes the Sefer Torah, he is notel sachar keneged hakol. What does this mean, what, will he receive reward for everyone? What is this? I don’t know. But Chazal, he is very important.

What the importance is, is an interesting thing, I don’t know why. So therefore, according to this, oleh mashlim even the gadol she’ba’edah. It means that mashlim, it’s not necessary that we only go by the order of importance. But mashlim can be even the gadol she’ba’edah, not maftir. Maftir is the weakest aliyah according to halacha.

Speaker 2:

But the maftir is the mashlim?

Speaker 1:

He is mashlim and then there’s maftir? Ah, because he repeats. Maftir is the one who repeats. Mashlim is the acharon. Yes. So, me’ikar hadin mashlim is golel. Golel means mashlim is notel sachar kulam. So therefore, what? It’s not the golel alone, the one who goes up and someone is golel for him. Like for example we call up a bachur to do gelilah. But the importance of it is on the last koreh.

Discussion: What Does “Golel Notel Sachar Kulam” Mean?

Speaker 1:

So, golel means simply, and it appears from the Rambam, that simply the last one who is golel, it hasn’t come, we haven’t spoken about hagbahah at all here. What we do hagbahah, I don’t know, it doesn’t say in the Rambam. Until now I’ve learned that the last one who reads, he now closes the Torah, he is golel. That’s the, so therefore he makes the last. But we who make the last, and then an extra person we call up for hagbahah, it could be that on the contrary, the last one may not go up as a gadol, but rather the one who is golel. We need to know what the meaning of “golel notel sachar kulam” is, does this literally mean the golel, or perhaps it means the last one? According to the Rambam I understood that it means the last one.

“Ein maftirin b’navi ad sheyigol sefer Torah”. So the last one is golel sefer Torah, and before that one begins the navi.

Speaker 2:

No, that’s what I’m saying, but what we do extra gelilah and extra the mashlim, so the mashlim is the one who was golel the Sefer Torah.

Speaker 1:

The Ashkenazim understood that what it says “golel notel sachar kulam” means the gelilah, not the last aliyah. It’s interesting, simply this is perhaps not so.

Perhaps one can understand that they come like from “gadol hama’aseh yoter min ha’oseh”, what does this mean? You’ve occupied yourself with kavod haTorah, so that’s as important as the reader. It’s something like that, it’s not clear. Simply this has to do with the acharon being more beloved, something like that, simply we finish. It seems so, I don’t know how one understands this, it’s just some kind of segulah. What is the matter? I haven’t understood the great matter of goral. Excuse me, I don’t understand what the matter is. I don’t even understand it, but someone can tell me, let him call me, send a message, explain to me the meaning. There are still many things. Meanwhile I don’t understand any meaning. Yes, there are already many Jews that I know live with a goral, and I don’t understand the matter.

Ein Sham Kohen, Ein Sham Levi

Speaker 1:

Okay. Now one needs to know like this, what happens when there’s no kohen? So the halacha is, we call up kohen, levi, and then yisrael. The Rama says, “ein sham kohen, oleh yisrael”. Then we don’t go… When there’s no kohen, it’s not understood that now we look, okay, there’s no kohen, at least a levi. No, when there’s no kohen, the order has been broken. There’s no longer any hierarchy. Oleh yisrael, and he doesn’t inherit the levi at all. Yes, so that the levi shouldn’t go after.

The same thing, “ein sham levi, kohen shekara rishon koreh pa’am shniyah bimkom levi”. If there’s no levi, the kohen goes up twice, so that it shouldn’t look like, people shouldn’t start thinking about a yisrael that he’s a levi or something. That’s the reason? Okay, what do I mean? “Aval lo yikra acharav kohen acher”. Ah, that’s the point. “She’omrim harishon pasul, lfikach kara kohen acher”. People will see that one kohen went up, then a second kohen, they’ll think, ah, they realized that he’s not a good kohen or something. Very good. “V’chen levi achar levi lo yikru shneihem”. Yisrael after yisrael is no problem, because everything is the same. But by kohen and levi one might think that we found that there’s a problem, he’s not a kohen, so therefore we don’t do that.

Order of Prayer with Keriat HaTorah

Speaker 1:

Until here we’ve learned Hilchot Keriat HaTorah. Now we’re going to learn, as they learned, keriat haTorah and tefillah. So it’s like this, “kol yom sheyesh bo tefilat musaf”, every day that also has a musaf, that means many times of keriat haTorah that have a musaf, like Rosh Chodesh and the like, so “achar shegamar shaliach tzibur tefilat shacharit omer Kaddish”, he says a Kaddish, which is the proper Kaddish Titkabal, after Shemoneh Esrei comes a Kaddish, “u’motzi sefer Torah”, he takes out a Sefer Torah, “v’koreh l’echad echad min hatzibur”, he calls up the kohanim, and he fulfills with a Torah. “U’chshegomer u’machzir sefer Torah, omer Kaddish u’mitpalellin tefilat musaf”. Very good.

Kaddish by Maftir

Speaker 1:

What are the days that there’s maftir and musaf? Yes, in other words Rosh Chodesh doesn’t have maftir, that’s the side. What is Yom Tov and the like that also has maftir, nohagim lomar Kaddish kodem she’ya’aleh hamaftir. Why did we learn? This is in order to separate between the keriat haTorah and the haftarah. “V’yesh mekomot shenohagim lomar achar hamaftir”. There are those who also say after the maftir, or only after the maftir the Kaddish? Lechatchilah only. There are customs, customs to say, but there are, there are those who conduct themselves differently. What’s the point of that Kaddish? I don’t know. I think there are those who say both Kaddishes today. I don’t know. Just after keriat haTorah there should be a Kaddish as if, not in order to separate between this and that. Okay.

When we carry two Torahs there’s a whole dispute what we do with the Kaddish, one should look in the siddur and do what it says there. Okay.

Minchah of Shabbat and Yom Kippur

Speaker 1:

Now, what is minchah? Yes, minchah shel Shabbat v’Yom Kippur when we also read then, is after the shaliach tzibur says Tehillah l’David and seder hayom, what we call Ashrei, omer Kaddish, u’motzi sefer Torah v’koreh bo, u’machziro, v’omer Kaddish, u’mitpalellin minchah. Yes. “V’chen b’ta’anit”, on a fast day there’s no seder hayom, but we say, korin b’minchah, v’achar kach omer Kaddish, u’mitpalellin tefilat minchah. Yes. “Aval b’Yom Tov ein nohagim ken”, on Yom Tov it’s not the custom to read at minchah.

I know the yoshvei karnot Yom Tov, you already know there what… So we learned there that Yom Tov at night is a small congregation in the beit midrash, we learned. Yes. The takanah was only Shabbat.

Speaker 2:

Do you know why we have the same yoshvei karnot? You said that it wasn’t established for Yom Tov, we see that Yom Tov isn’t there.

Speaker 1:

Because on Yom Tov people aren’t as bored, because on Yom Tov one can at least cook. Ah, okay.

On a Day Without Musaf

Speaker 1:

“U’v’yom she’ein bo musaf”, a day like Monday and Thursday when there’s no musaf, after shacharit we say Kaddish, we take out the Torah, we read it, we put it back, we say Kaddish, then we say Tehillah l’David and seder hayom like every day, and we say Kaddish, “v’az hem niftarin”. We do a bit differently, we leave the Torah out until after Kaddish and seder hayom. For some reason, but that’s the custom, and the Rambam the opposite. Yes, I’m saying, I think the “v’az niftarin” is a very important thing at the end of davening, a part of the end of davening is leaving. As the Rambam also calculated when he finishes davening. Because therefore, when a person who comes to the beit midrash, as one knows that from eight until eleven thirty one is in the beit midrash, one turns and one rejoices, come, daven, go home. “V’az niftarin”.

Okay, no problem. It’s printed in the siddurim. “V’az niftarin”. It doesn’t say in the siddur. It doesn’t matter, this isn’t Torah. The Chida also davened with a siddur, he learned.

Hilchot Sefer Torah

Speaker 1:

Okay, now we’re going to learn two more halachot. Until here is essentially all Hilchot Keriat HaTorah. Now we’re going to learn Hilchot Sefer HaTorah, one could say. Halachot of how to honor a Sefer Torah, which relates to the reading. From which sefer does one read keriat haTorah?

Ein Korin B’Chumashim

Speaker 1:

And it’s like this, the Rambam, “ein korin b’chumashim”. What does this mean? There’s a sefer where all five books of the Torah are written in one sefer, and there are also those who used to write the five books of the Torah in five parts. We don’t read from such a chumash b’batei knesiot mishum kevod hatzibur. But what then? We take a chumash in which everything is written.

It’s simply not… There’s a difference between printed or written, but the main difference is between whether it’s all in one sefer or whether it’s divided into five. The Rambam says it’s only kevod hatzibur. From here it’s implied that if it were a yachid for example, he could have read in keriat haTorah. He just has a minyan, not a congregation with all the honor. It’s not a matter, it’s not understood that it’s a disqualification in the Sefer Torah of the chumash. According to the Rambam what it says here, and the Gemara one must be medayek, that it’s a kosher Sefer Torah, it lacks honor.

What this means to say, that if someone should drag a small Sefer Torah on a plane because he needs to daven on a plane, because what isn’t kevod hatzibur in a chumash, is much greater kevod hatzibur to leave the Sefer Torah at home, and everyone should quietly take out a chumash and read a bit on the plane. No, but you understand that there’s a matter of kevod hatzibur. Perhaps there are others who learn that it’s indeed more of an impediment than this. The Rambam learns so. Okay.

Ein Gollelin Sefer Torah B’Tzibur

Speaker 1:

“Ein gollelin Sefer Torah b’tzibur, and we don’t take out a Sefer Torah in public”. Why? Doesn’t it say “yagbihennu v’yaglelenu l’einei kol ha’am ad sheyigmor”. We need to read another piece, one should stand and roll, and show that we’re reading the Torah.

Speaker 2:

No, he must stand because when the Sefer Torah stands.

Speaker 1:

No, the rabbis said that one should stand for a Sefer Torah. He hasn’t said it yet, he’s going to say it in a minute, but not exactly that one should stand, I don’t know. But the simple understanding is still that one stands.

Laws of Torah Reading: Not Rolling a Sefer Torah in Public, Laws of Rolling, and Escorting a Sefer Torah

Law: Not Rolling a Sefer Torah in Public

Speaker 1: Okay? Perhaps there are others who learn that it is indeed more lenient than this. The Rambam says so. Okay.

Another thing, v’ein gollin Sefer Torah b’tzibur – one does not roll a Sefer Torah in public. Why? Kedei shelo yitztarchu la’amod ul’hamtin ad sheyigolel – so that they won’t need to stand and wait until it is rolled. One needs to read another portion, one must stand and roll, and one wants to read the Torah.

And one shouldn’t have to stand, because when the Sefer Torah stands… No, the Rema hasn’t yet said that one should stand for a Sefer Torah. He hasn’t said it yet, and he’s going to say it in a minute, but not exactly that one should stand. I don’t know. But the simple understanding is, no, one shouldn’t stand.

The Rema already said one shouldn’t leave. He said that while the Sefer Torah [is out] one shouldn’t leave, or from back to back one may. I don’t know if he means literally standing, or he means that one should actually be there… yes. Not be elsewhere.

Therefore — We Take Out Two Torahs

He says further, lfikach – therefore, if one needs likro shnei inyanim – to read two topics, for example if one needs to read a Sefer Torah for Rosh Chodesh or… two topics today, one takes out two Torahs. Very good. It should hold from having nothing, because of kavod hatzibur (honor of the congregation) one needs to have even to read a Sefer Torah, one holds by two Torahs. But that’s how it is, yes.

The Opinion of the Ben Ish Chai

The Ben Ish Chai argues that this law doesn’t apply in current times when it takes just a few minutes. He means that in the past they used to keep the Torah in another room, which one had to go see later, it was a long time to bring. But today it’s not such a problem.

Question from Jerusalem — Custom of Two Torahs Even When It’s Close

It has become a custom to take out [two Torahs] even when the two topics are very close in the Torah. True. Which means that the two Sifrei Torah are more tircha d’tzibura (burden on the congregation), but still one does it. This is a question from the Yerushalmi’im. There are people who actually don’t conduct themselves this way. In Jerusalem, when it happens, for example when it’s Shabbos… Shabbos Shekalim can happen that it’s right there, or such times, there are actually places in Jerusalem, Jews who conduct themselves to take out only one Torah.

On Yom Tov this happens many times when the reading is very close. It could be, I don’t know. I don’t know. Not always Pinchas, but perhaps there is Pinchas, I don’t remember. It happens, such things can happen.

Law: One Person Does Not Go Up for Two Topics in Two Torahs

Another thing, ein ish echad oleh lishnei inyanim bishtei Torahs – one person does not go up for two topics in two Torahs. One person reads one Torah, one shouldn’t take out in the middle, uh. When one takes out two Torahs it must be two things, like the maftir with this. Not the simple understanding that one should read a new Torah, I have two people with a Torah, they both want us to read ours, I know that one reads one Torah twice, and two Torahs. Why? Shelo yomru yom ra v’ra shepagum hu – so they won’t say it’s a bad day and bad that it is defective. I’ll add another nice point for you, like by the Kohen with the Levi.

Very good. One shouldn’t say about a person that he is defective, or about a Sefer that it is defective. Unless it is actually defective, that’s a different question.

Okay. No, I mean to say, we haven’t learned, but there is a law what one should do when one finds a pasul (defect) in a Sefer Torah. Here we’re not talking about that, here we’re talking about when it’s a kosher Torah, so obviously one shouldn’t embarrass the Torah.

Law: Whoever Rolls a Sefer Torah Rolls It from the Outside, and When Tightening, Tightens from the Inside

Now there is another law about how one handles the Torah. Kol hagolel Sefer Torah gollo mibachutz – I don’t know what the meaning of this is, uch’shemhadko mehadko mibifnim – I have no idea what the meaning of this is. The first thing I understand, mehadko mibifnim I don’t know what the meaning is. Do you know what the meaning is?

Explanation: Gollo Mibachutz

It’s simple, kol hagolel Sefer Torah gollo mibachutz can mean that the letters shouldn’t be exposed to the public, but rather the opposite, they should be turned inward.

Explanation: Mehadko Mibifnim — The Rema’s Opinion

And what is the meaning of mehadko mibifnim? He brings there the Rema explains that one should place the knot… when one makes a knot, one doesn’t make a knot, the Torah is usually on such a velcro, I don’t know, or it has such a hook. The hook should be on the open side, not in the back.

Okay, it’s a practical thing apparently.

Another Explanation — Connection to Sheets

Yes, I mean, something there are commentators who say that it has to do with the fact that the Sefer Torah is sewn together from sheets (yeri’os), and we want that when one closes the Sefer Torah it should be close to the end of the sheet, so if someone, if it happens one stretches it, this shouldn’t tear. So the statement gollo mibachutz means close to the end of the sheet. And mehadko mibifnim means that it also has something to do with this, that one should place it there where it is sewn, because otherwise.

Law: A Person May Not Leave Until the Sefer Torah Leaves — Escorting the Sefer

After that it is so, b’makom shemotziin Sefer Torah achar shekaro bo – one takes out the Sefer Torah, one places it in another place, there is a law that one should take it out from the Aron Hakodesh and place it in another place. The Rav said earlier by the Beis Haknesses, that one places the Torah in an ark in the heichal. Because see what we’re talking about here, in the Gemara’s time there perhaps wasn’t the heichal, or sometimes one didn’t have the Sefer Torah in the shul, it wasn’t safe. Or one needed in a shtibel, not in the main Beis Haknesses, one brought out the Sefer Torah. Or sometimes the shul wasn’t safe, one transferred the Torah somewhere else.

So when one finishes davening and one carries out the Sefer Torah, the people can’t continue davening and ignore the Sefer Torah that is going out. No, “ein adam rashai latzeis ad sheyetzei Sefer Torah” – he shouldn’t leave, the public, before the Torah. But they’re still davening, and one is still upstairs. So this is a ma’amad halvayat haSefer Torah (ceremony of escorting the Sefer Torah), one makes an escort for the Torah.

Comparison to Taking Leave

But it’s already similar to, like one takes leave from the davening. This is… one remains a little bit and steps out, so someone takes leave. But this is more a matter of kavod (honor), but one doesn’t let the Torah go alone, one brings it along for such a sort of thing. So it actually says in the Shulchan Aruch that the hand with which one places it in the ark is still escorting, one goes with it, one goes with it. Okay…