Halakhah Study Group 014

1:
In this shiur we shall deal with the last three paragraphs of section 137. The theme that is common to all three paragraphs is what to do if one of the honorees has not read enough.

2:
Paragraph 4 is concerned with what must have been a reasonably regular occurrance in the days when each honoree read his own passage. It is Shabbat afternoon. Starting at the place where the reading finished earlier that day, Mr Cohen reads three verses. After him Mr Levy reads the next three verses. When Mr Israel is called to read inadvertantly he commences reading at the same place as Mr Levy began. If all he reads is the same three verses it is as if he has not read at all, because those verses have already been read. The solution is to have him read on, and since he must add at least three 'new' verses he will have to read a total of at least 6 verses. However, in 137:1 [HSG 012] we learned that all three honorees may not read less than ten verses between them. This being the case, Mr Israel will have to read at least 7 verses.

3:
However, as we shall learn when we reach section 138, there are places where one can conclude the reading of one's verses and there are places where one cannot do so. Without going into details at this point, let us assume that after Mr Israel begins to add on three verses to what Mr Levy had already read it becomes apparent that at the end of the third verse is a place where he may not stop. In such circumstances he must continue reading until he reaches a place where he may stop. But, let us imagine another scenario. When Mr Israel reaches the end of his third 'new' verse he reaches a place where he may stop, but if he stops there all three will only have read nine verses between them. In such a situation Mr Israel may stop his reading at that point, since we also learned in 137:1 that the reading for Purim morning only has nine verses and this is acceptable.

4:
The last clause of paragraph 4 reads: "But if they read less than nine they must read again". A careful reading of this clause might lead us to conclude that all three honorees must do their reading once more. After all it does say they must read again. However, in his commentary on this clause [Mishnah Berurah #16] Rabbi Israel Me'ir Kogan states that this is not the intention of the clause: only Mr Israel would be required to do his bit again.

5:
During the month of Adar (the one that comes immediately prior to Nisan) we read four special sections from the Torah in addition to the regular section of each Shabbat. The reading of these sections at that time of year is so ancient that many scholars believe that it is in the reading of these four sections that we may perceive the remotest origins of the public ritual reading of the Torah. The third of these sections is called Parah. This is because it is concerned with the ritual of the preparation of the ashes of the Red Heifer, about which we expatiated when we studied Mishnah Tractate Yadayyim. (This special section is read at this juncture of the year because people had to make themselves ritually pure in order to eat the pashcal lamb, as we learned when we studied Mishnah Tractate Pesaĥim.) Parshat Parah begins at Numbers 19:1 and continues through to Numbers 19:22.

6
Now, the person reading that section might think that all he must read is the minimum ten verses. This would take him to the end of verse 10, of course, which concludes with the words "the sojourner among you". However, to stop at that point is not legitimate, and the reading must continue until the end of the passage. If the error is discovered immediately it is only necessary to prompt the reader to continue until the end of the passage. However, if the reading has been concluded and the honoree has recited his second blessing then the whole passage must be repeated from beginning to end (with the appropriate blessings) since the ritual was not performed properly.

7:
This halakhah has modern repercussions. When this section is read as part of the annual reading (as was the case in Israel last Shabbat and will be the case in the diaspora next Shabbat) the reading for the first honoree traditionally closes at the end of verse 17. Since, in most Ĥumashim this is marked as the end of the first passage and the beginning of the second inexperienced readers have been known to conclude the reading at that point also on Shabbat Parah. If the error is not corrected before the honoree recites the second blessing the whole passage must be repeated correctly, as noted in explanation #6.

8:
Paragraph 6 has already been explained to all intents and purposes in explanation #2 to #4 above. We only need to add an explanation of the phrase "the bulls of Sukkot". During Ĥol ha-Mo'ed Sukkot (the intermediate days of the festival) the reading from the Torah is from Numbers 29:17-34. These verses detail the sacrifices that were offered in the Bet Mikdash on each day of the festival. For example:

In the Land of Israel these are the only verses to be read, the three verses that are appropriate to each of the six days. (In the diaspora the reading for two consecutive days is the lectionary.) Four honorees are called to the Torah – and each of them reads the exact same three verses because there are no other verses that are apporpriate. This is why paragraph 6 points out the exception that is Ĥol ha-Mo'ed Sukkot: despite the fact that only three verses are read and despite the fact that each of the honorees reads the same three verses, this is acceptable because here "it is not possible" to act otherwise.

The ability to teach our computers how to read Hebrew is still a problem for some people. Therefore I reproduce here some correspondence that may be of benefit to those still struggling.

Shel Schiffman wrote to me:

I can't see the Hebrew as Hebrew, although I do have … Hebrew fonts, and I have no difficulty seeing Hebrew in other places, e.g., Snunit… I tried copying the text into Word and applying a Hebrew font, to no avail. Please advise.

I responded:

In your mailer programme go to Tools and then to Options. Somewhere in there (it could be under "read" or under "language" or something similar find the "default encoding" choice box. Set it to "Hebrew ISO-logical" and see if that helps. If it does not, set it to "Hebrew-Windows" and see if that helps. (Whenever on the Web you can't read the Hebrew try right-clicking and selecting "encoding". Seek for the Hebrew encoding and play around with it until the Hebrew becomes readable.)

Shel responded to me:

Setting the default encoding to Hebrew (there was only one Hebrew option) in Outlook Express made the Hebrew text in your mailing readable. Unfortunately, I can't leave that setting because I don't like its effect on my English font…

Before I could respond to Shel I got the following joyous message from Ellen Schwartz:

I had always been able to see correct Hebrew off the web site and I never understood why the Hebrew was gibberish in the emails. It had certainly been disappointing to me to not be able to view the Hebrew text. I just tried looking in the View menu in Outlook Express and under "encoding" I saw that it was set to "Western European (ISO)" When I looked under other encoding options I found two for Hebrew and selecting either of those made the Hebrew appear perfectly (while not affecting the English text). This same solution worked when I accessed the emails directly from hotmail (without using Outlook). Perhaps others were also not aware of these encoding options. Just passing it along as a suggestion for others.