Halakhah Study Group 048

1:
On Shabbat, on Yom Tov and on certain other days the reading of the Torah is followed by a reading from the prophetic literature. The technical term for the reading from the prophets is haftarah, and the person who performs this task is therefore called maftir (both words derive from the same Hebrew root, פטר). In passing, please note that there is no philological connection between Torah and haftarah, the spelling of each, in Hebrew, being quite different. The term haftarah means 'leave-taking', 'departure' or 'conclusion', therefore the cognate term maftir designates the person who will perform the 'leave-taking', the 'departure' or the 'conclusion'. (Also, in passing, let us note that none of the terms used in our modern ĥumashim to indicate the various aliyyot of the Torah reading designate the portion itself: terms such as Levi, shishi and maftir denote the honoree, not the honour.)

2:
The origins of the haftarah are lost in the mists of time, but we can make a few reasonable guesses as to the historic developments. The basic fact is the threefold division of our Hebrew scriptures into Torah, Prophets and Writings. This division derives from the fact that these three sections of the Hebrew bible were canonized (i.e. accepted as sacred literature) at different times. Without going into detail, modern scholarship is agreed that the Torah as we now have it was canonized at a public assembly held in Jerusalem in the year 444 BCE. The second section, Prophets, was canonized some considerable time before the Maccabean uprising which started in 168 BCE – let's say that the Prophets were canonized during the third century BCE or maybe even as early as the late fourth century BCE. The third section of the Tanakh, the Writings, were canonized by the sages assembled in Yavneh, some time after the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 CE – let's say around the year 100 CE.

3:
We have seen [Torah002, explanation #2] that the origin of the custom of reading from the Torah publicly is to be sought in the special readings for festivals and the four special sabbaths of the month Adar. It was quite some time after this custom of a regular public reading of the Torah had taken root that the Prophets were canonized. It seems that it was then decided that the Torah service should conclude with a reading from the prophetic literature. Hence, the reading from the prophets was called 'conclusion', haftarah.

4:
It seems that originally the person called as maftir would make his own selection from the prophetic literature, and there was not necessarily a thematic connection between the reading from the Torah and the reading from the prophets. It was only much later that it became customary to require a linkage of some form or another between the two readings. In Eretz-Israel the person chosen to be maftir had to be proficient enough to make such a connection from his personal knowledge; not surprisingly, it gradually became the custom to 'suggest' an appropriate passage. The connection was usually to be found in the first words of the Torah reading.

5:
Originally, the Haftarah was quite short. In the Gemara [Megillah 23b] we read as follows:

Nevertheless, it gradually became the custom to aim for twenty-one verses – three verses to parallel each of the seven aliyyot of the Torah reading. However, the haftarah lectionary today contains several haftarot that are much longer and several that are much shorter than twenty-one verses.

6:
Among Babylonian Jewry it gradually became the custom to associate each parashah with a specific haftarah – though local custom often defines what the customary reading should be for that parashah, so there is no uniformity in this matter throughout all Jewish communities. It is for this reason that no one can really read 'the wrong haftarah'; it can only be said that they did not read the customary haftarah.

7:
Nowadays the connection between the parashah and the haftarah can sometimes be obvious and sometimes very recondite. The haftarot for the festivals and special days usually have a reasonably obvious connection, but in some cases it is very difficult indeed to spot the connection between the haftarah for an ordinary Shabbat and the parashah. One example may suffice: parashat 'Lekh-Lekha' describes how Abraham leaves his original country and travels west to Eretz-Israel. The haftarah customarily associated with that parashah includes Isaiah 41:2-4. This is a passage in which the prophet hints very strongly that Cyrus King of Persia is about to overthrow the Babylonian Empire, which is holding the people of Israel captive:

However, there is a rather obscure midrash which describes Abraham as being the one who was 'roused from the east', and so this passage becomes the one usually associated with that parashah.

8:
When reading the two paragraphs from section 147 that are the subject of today's shiur we must bear in mind that throughout section 147 the reference to "rolling" and the person doing the rolling is to what we recognize today as hagbahah and gelilah – raising the Torah scroll and binding it closed. Paragraph 7 teaches that the person who is to read the haftarah may not commence his or her task before the Torah scroll has been completely adjusted and covered.

9:
Paragraph 8 is concerned with what happens when more than one Torah scroll is being used – on occasions when there is a special second reading (and on rare occasions when there is a third reading). Each scroll bears a sanctity of its own and each must be treated with equal honour and respect. We should not start opening the second scroll until the first has been completely redressed. However, as regards taking the scrolls from the Ark and returning them to the Ark, we do not say that each scroll has a sanctity of its own and therefore they must be taken out and returned separately: all the scrolls to be used may be taken from the Ark and returned there at the same time.

We are approaching the end of the section of halakhot which deals with the Torah reading. I would like to hear from you of another topic that you would like to study in a similar fashion. For example, maybe you would be interested in studying about Erev Shabbat in the home, or the Passover Seder Service, or Rambam's laws of government according to halakhah. You will probably have more ideas. Please send an e-mail with your suggestions to me, and I will put some of your suggestions to a general vote.