Halakhah Study Group 049
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BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI
of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel
HALAKHAH STUDY GROUP
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SHULĤAN ARUKH, ORAĤ ĤAYYIM: The Rules of Torah Reading
148
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אין שליח ציבור רשאי להפשיט התיבה בצבור כל זמן שהם בבית הכנסת.
The Sheli'aĥ Tzibbur may not divest the Tevah publicly as long as they are in the synagogue.
EXPLANATIONS:
1:
The origin of the one ruling that is the subject of paragraph 148 is to be found in the Mishnah, Tractate Sotah, Chapter 7, Mishnah 7. When we studied this tractate we learned:
How [are we to understand] the High Priest's blessings? The Overseer would take a Sefer Torah and pass it to the Head of the Assembly, who would pass it to the Deputy, who would pass it to the High Priest. The High Priest would recite Aĥarei-Mot and On the tenth day. Then he would roll up the scroll and, holding it close to his chest, he would say, "More than what I have read to you is written here." [Then] he would recite by heart On the tenth day from the book of Numbers. Now he would recite eight blessings: on the Torah, on the ritual, on thanksgiving, on the forgiveness of sin, on the Temple, on Israel, on the priests, and on the rest of the prayer.
Obviously, this mishnah is speaking about the ritual in the Bet Mikdash on the Day of Atonement, when the High Priest read from the Torah. When we studied this mishnah my explanations included the following comment:
The Hebrew word Ĥazzan I have translated "overseer". Perhaps "organizer" would be more appropriate. The term ĥazzan derives from the Aramaic verb "to see" – the person who "sees to things" and makes sure that they get done. Thus originally the term Ĥazzan ha-Knesset meant the person who organized the activities of the synagogue. During the first century of this era the Hebrew term was also taken over by the fledgling church to indicate the "person who sees to things" or "oversees". In Greek the term "overseer" was translated literally as "epi-skopos", from which eventually developed the task of the bishop.
2:
In his commentary on the above mishnah Rashi also makes the point very clearly:
Ĥazzan ha-Knesset means the synagogue functionary whose task it is to tend to the needs of the synagogue. It is he who brings [the Torah scroll] and returns it, strips the reading desk and prepares everything.
3:
Elsewhere in the same tractate [Sotah 39b] we find the following:
Rabbi Tanĥum quotes Rabbi Yehoshu'a ben-Levi: the Sheli'aĥ Tzibbur may not strip the Tevah publicly because of the respect due to the congregation.
In this translation I have deliberately left two terms untranslated. I have done so because it is clear that when used by the Talmudic sages they did not have the same meaning as they have today. Clearly, the term Sheli'aĥ Tzibbur in this context is meant to indicate the Ĥazzan ha-Knesset, whose function Rashi has pithily described above. The meaning of the other Hebrew term left untranslated, Tevah also developed over time. Here, it clearly serves to indicate the desk or table upon which the Torah scroll was placed when it was being read publicly.
4:
It was their custom [in Talmudic times] to bring the Torah scroll [to the synagogue] from a house where it was kept. They would spread beautiful coverings over the reading desk [Tevah] and place it [i.e. the scroll] on it. When they departed and took the Torah scroll back to the place where it was kept they would not remove the covers [that had been put on the reading desk] while the congregation was still there because it would be troublesome for the congregation to remain behind with the Torah scroll [while the covers were removed]. So the Torah scroll would be taken to its home and housed there as all the people followed in its train. Only then would he return to strip the desk.
5: We can now understand that the contents of paragraph 148 have nothing at all to do with modern synagogue custom. We no longer keep the Torah scroll in a separate building and we no longer cover the reading desk specifically for the Torah reading ceremony, but it is left covered all the time. Furthermore, the two Hebrew terms have changed their meaning: Seli'aĥ Tzibbur now indicates the cantor and for us Tevah is the term that indicates the Ark. But it would be completely wrong to understand the paragraph as saying that "the cantor may not divest the Ark". The correct meaning of the paragraph is that "the synagogue attendant may not strip the covers from the desk from whcih the Torah has been read as long as the congregants are still in the synagogue". NOTICE:
I repeat the request I made last week: 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. So far few people have made suggestions.
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