Halakhah Study Group 026

נושא: HSG

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

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אם שליח ציבור רוצה לברך לעצמו ולקרות צריך שיעמוד אחר אצלו, שכשם שנתנה תורה על ידי סרסור כך אנו צריכים לנהוג בה על ידי סרסור:

If the cantor himself wishes to recite the blessings and read someone else must stand beside him; for just as the Torah was given through a middleman so must we treat it through a middleman.

1:
Paragraph 4 of section 141 is concerned with the situation that can arise when the cantor is also the honoree called to have an aliyyah to the Torah. (We must recall here, as I mentioned in hsg024, that the term 'cantor' here is being used here by the Shulĥan Arukh to indicate the person actually reading from the Torah, regardless of its possible connotation elsewhere.) So far we have had occasion to relate to three personalities in connection with Torah Reading – the honoree, the Torah reader ('cantor'), and the synagogue officer administering the honours. Now this third personality will be emphasized.

2:
In the Torah [Deuteronomy 5:4-5], when Moses reminds the Israelites how the Torah was given to them, he says:

God spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the midst of the fire, (I stood between God and you at that time, to show you the word of God: for you were afraid because of the fire, and didn’t go up onto the mountain;) saying…

This idea of God giving the Torah to Israel with Moses acting as a kind of go-between is developed in the Talmud of Eretz-Israel [Megillah 78d]:

Just as it [the Torah] was given to us in fear and awe so must we relate to it with fear and awe … just as it was given through a middleman so must we relate to it through a middleman.

However simple it may seem to be I found this last phrase very difficult to translate into English. The Hebrew term used is sirsur which usually indicates the office of a pimp. I am grateful to the late Marcus Jastrow, in his dictionary, for supplying the English term 'middleman'.

3:
What this ruling of the Talmud means is that our reading of the Torah must be a kind of re-enactment of the original giving of the Torah from Sinai. It may well be that in the earliest phases of development the idea of reading the Torah from a raised platform may have come from a desire to indicate the Torah being given from a mountain. Personally, I find it more likely that the custom arose in imitation of Ezra's reading of the Torah to the assembled returnees in the year 444 BCE, as described in the bible [Nehemiah 8:1-6], though that too could have been in imitation of the original event.

All the people gathered themselves together as one man into the broad place that was before the water gate; and they spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which God had commanded Israel. Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women, and all who could hear with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. He read therein before the broad place that was before the water gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women, and of those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. Ezra the scribe stood on a dais of wood, which they had made for the purpose… Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: and Ezra blessed God, the great God. All the people answered, Amen, Amen, with the lifting up of their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshiped God with their faces to the ground…

What the Talmud emphasizes concerning this re-enactment was that three personalities are involved: God is present as the Giver of Torah, Israel is present as the recipient of the Torah, and Moses is present as a middleman or go-between.

4:
Paragraph 4 of section 141 states that when it is the Torah reader himself (or herself) who is the honoree one of the three essential personalities in this re-enactment is missing. For the Torah reader represents Moses in this re-enactment – the person who actually delivers God's Torah to Israel; the honoree, of course, is there on the bimah representing the whole people of Israel; the officer administering the aliyyot represents God. In our more modern sources he is termed segan. (In our Conservative synagogues, where the direct collection of money in connection with an aliyyah to the Torah is usually deprecated, segan is surely a better term to use than the term more usually encountered: gabbai, which means 'collector'.)

5:
It is this missing personality that paragraph 4 states must be replaced when the cantor ceases to represent Moses and takes on the rôle of Israel. Because there must be three people present on the bimah a third person must stand there to represent Moses, as it were.

6:
It thus transpires that at any time during the Torah reading three people should be present on the bimah – the honoree, the Torah reader and the person acting as segan. I have often seen less knowledgeable people add a fourth person. I have no idea where this addition came from and, of course, it completely destroys the impression that the Talmud wishes to create – a re-enactment of the original giving of the Torah.

In our last shiur I wrote: Nowadays the honoree should be permitted to read his or her own portion only under two circumstances: either the honoree is reading from the Torah for others anyway – i.e. the honoree is the 'cantor', or the honoree is Bar-Mitzvah or Bat-Mitzvah.

A subscriber called Adriana and who does not give her family name asks:

May a person who will chant the Haftorah, also chant the preceding Maftir Torah portion?

I respond:

Ideally, no. But this is a decision that must be at the discretion of the local rabbi. He or she will know both the letter of the law (or rather, custom) and when circumstances dictate that the rule be bent a little to accommodate greater values (such as peace, harmony, wellbeing). Under most circumstances such a deviation from the rule should be avoided: all other things being equal, why should one honoree be permitted to shame another honoree? Not all those who are capable of reciting the haftarah are capable of reading from the Torah.

I take this opportunity to gently point out that the transliteration "haftorah" is erroneous. It should either be 'haftarah' (Israeli pronunciation) or 'haftoroh' (Ashkenazi pronunciation). Etymologically speaking, there is no connection at all between the term 'Torah' and the term 'Haftarah'.

More of your queries and comments next time.

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