Halakhah Study Group 016

1:
We have mentioned now on several occasions that in earlier times each honoree would read his own part of the lectionary for that day. The first paragraph of Section 139 states that in congregations where this is the usage a worshipper should refrain from accepting an Aliyyah if he has not previously read through the relevant section of the Torah "two or three times".

2:
Generally speaking it is wrong to refuse an honour accorded one in the synagogue. The Gemara [Berakhot 55a] even goes so far as to say that

However, it is reasonably clear that most people would not be able to read the Torah correctly and coherently unless they had rehearsed it beforehand. This is the reason for the rule given in 139:1. The sages even found a biblical hook on which to hang their requirement that one rehearse the Torah reading privately in advance: Job 28:27 is interpreted as saying

2:
Rabbi Mosheh Isserles adds a note which more or less states the obvious. He says that in congregations – such as ours today – where each honoree does not read his own passage but it is read for him or her by a Torah Reader, the person acting as Torah Reader must have gone through the passages that they are to read "two or three times" beforehand.

3:
Paragraph 2 is another example of where earlier authorities were much stricter than later authorities. It is understandable that in a congregation where the Torah Reading is executed by the honorees themselves that there would be no point in giving an honour to someone who cannot read Hebrew and cannot understand the text. As we move into the high Middle Ages we find that this situation no longer generally prevails. Because most people would not have been capable of reading accurately from the Torah it became the custom for a Torah Reader to read the lectionary 'on behalf' of the honorees. A very great authority, the Maharil [Rabbi Jacob Möllin, 1360-1427] stated that this rule should no longer be applied, and it is now accepted throughout the Jewish world that a person may accept a Torah honour even though they cannot read the text.

4:
Having said that, I should perhaps point out that where an honoree is capable of doing so he or she should silently mouth the words of their passage together with the Torah Reader as they are read out loud.

I wrote [hsg 015] that The answer to this conundrum is that the first honoree reads verses 1-3, the second reads verses 3-5, thus repeating verse 3, and the third honoree reads verses 6-10. This leaves verses 11-15 for the fourth honoree. This is the only arrangement that will answer to all the requirements.

Alana Suskin writes:

Doesn't this violate the rule stated previously that, "Similarly, he should not start less than three verses [from the beginning of a parashah] because of people who may be coming into the synagogue [at that point] who might
[otherwise] say that the last honoree read only two verses." Or did I misunderstand one part or the other? It
seems to me that re-reading the third verse would stilll leave the community vulnerable to someone coming in during that reading and saying to themselves, "Oh, they only read two verses last aliyah!"

I respond:

Many much greater than either Alana or me have seen this problem. In his commentary on the Shulĥan Arukh [Oraĥ Ĥayyim 423:2] the Vilner Ga'on [Rabbi Eliyahu ben-Shlomo Zalman, 1720-1792] writes that the solution given by the Shulĥan Arukh follows that established by the Ge'onim in Babylon in the period immediately after the close of the Talmud. However, he says, many later sages disagree with their decision for the reason that Alana has pointed out. He proffers the following solution:

The first honoree reads the first three verses of Numbers 28; the second honoree reads verses 4 through 8, and the third honoree reads verses 6-10 (the first three verses of which have already been read by the second honoree. (It is permitted to stop at the end of verse 10, as Isserles pointed out at the end of Section 138.) The fourth honoree, of course, reads verses 11 through 15.

I do not know why this solution has not been more widely accepted, since it does solve the problem raised by Alana quite neatly. In the Conservative Movement, Rabbi Isaac Klein in his Guide to Jewish Religious Practice, page 264, gives the allocation given in the Shulĥan Arukh without comment. I cannot see any reason why those congregations who wish to follow the Talmudic rule exactly should not adopt the solution offered by the Vilner Ga'on.