Halakhah Study Group 050

2:
In our last shiur we saw how up until the high middle ages it was not customary to house the Torah scrolls in the synagogue, but in some other place – presumably where they would be safer when under constant surveillance. When the time came for the Torah to be read it was brought into the synagogue and set down on the reading desk, Tevah, ready for the reading. Gradually, however, it became the custom – particularly in Ashkenazi circles – to house the Torah scrolls in a special closet, the holy closet, Aron Kodesh. Section 149 deals with both possibilities.

3:
If the Torah scroll is housed somewhere away from the synagogue, after the reading everybody present must accompany it back to the place where it is kept. While the Torah scroll obviously is not God, for Jewish tradition it does contain the word of God. In ancient times when the king enacted a new law it was inscribed on permanent material – stone and later parchment – and paraded with great pomp and circumstance for all the people to see. The people would accompany this parade, for if this was not the king himself it certainly was the word and will of the king. The Torah scroll was seen in an analogous light, and it was expected that all the assembled congregation would show respect and reverence for God's word by being in attendance as it was carried to its resting place.

4:
Rabbi Isserles, in a note, adds that if a few individuals do not accompany the Torah scroll it does not matter; and Rabbi Karo notes that where the synagogue has more than one entrance people may leave through the entrance which is not used by the Torah processional. This seeming lenience is because it is the congregation which is required to show its respect for the Torah scroll, (the individuals being seen as being a part of the congregation); so as long as there is a group of people accompanying the scroll the fact that a few individuals are not able to do so does not detract from the proper respect being paid. (We must bear in mind that the Torah is also read on weekdays and it could well be that some of the congregation had to hurry away after the service to go about their daily business.)

5:
In another note Rabbi Isserles deals with the modern situation with which we are familiar, the situation in which after the Torah reading ceremony the Torah scroll is returned to the Ark in the synagogue. Here too, he notes, it is the duty of everyone present to show respect to and reverence for the Torah scroll. The Torah is carried from the Tevah to the Aron Kodesh in a processional. The cantor, bearing the scroll leads; the persons honoured with raising the Torah scroll after the reading (Hagbahah) and with redressing it (Gelilah) must follow behind. And then, as the procession passes, each congregant must leave his or her seat and join in the procession. Where the number of worshippers is such that it would be impractical for everybody to join in each person should at the very least leave his or her place as the Torah scroll approaches and show respect and love – usually by touching it. It is clear from this reasoning that the Torah scroll is not brought to the worshipper at his or her convenience: it is the worshipper who must inconvenience himself and go to meet the Torah scroll.

6:
In many congregations they have the very beautiful custom that children are encouraged to come forward to kiss the Torah scroll as it passes: there can be no better way of educating them to show respect and reverence for what it represents.

I was reading a book by an Episcopal Bishop about the Gospels as Jewish documents whose argument rested on a surprising assertion, namely that at the time of the second Temple, the Torah reading cycle started with the first Shabbat of Nissan. My understanding is that up until some time after the start of the Common Era, that there was no universal fixed Torah reading cycle. I had learned, from past shiurim as well as other sources, that the Torah reading cycle we follow now originated in the Babylonian Diaspora community and competed with, and eventually supplanted, the 3 year Palestinian cycle. Is there any basis for the suggestion that there was an annual Torah reading cycle that began in Nissan and ended in Adar? I suspect that this author is misled by the welter of “new years” that the Torah and Jewish tradition has identified.

I respond:

No, the author was not misled, even though I think that he is wrong. About 100 years ago a scholar, Adolf Büchler [1867-1939], was led to the conclusion that each triennial cycle in Eretz-Israel began around Rosh Ĥodesh Nisan and was concluded towards the end of Adar three years later. His theory was based on the coincidence of many midrashim. If the reading starts at Nisan, he reasoned, by the following autumn we would have reached the story of the birth of Isaac. He says that this is why to this day we read this story on Rosh ha-Shanah and this fact is the origin, he claims, of the belief that Sarah became pregnant on Rosh ha-Shanah. Towards Adar we would reach the story of the birth of Moses, and, of course, in the third year we would read of the death of Moses in the month of Adar. Büchler suggests that this is the origin of the legend that Moses was born and died on the same day. I could continue, but I think the pattern is clear. While the suggestion is ingenious it has never been proven; there is certainly no evidence that the triennial cycle was practiced in Eretz-Israel at the turn of the era. Possibly we can say that the bishop was "right for the wrong reasons".

Jerry Langer has sent this:

Perhaps I've missed this in previous shiurim, but with all the cautions in the Shulhan Aruch about touching the Torah, do you know the evolution of the custom that those called for an aliyah do touch the Torah, albeit with the corner of the talit, the wimple, etc? At least in the communities I've observed (conservative, modern ortho, reform), to not touch the Torah before each b'racha would be considered odd, and the gabbai would probably direct you to touch.

I respond:

The Gabbai would be better advised not to do so! We noted this in Torah044 and and was discussed in Torah045 and Torah047. If people insist on touching the scroll it is better that this be done with a piece of material – such as the tzitzit. At any rate, it is forbidden to touch the parchment with one's bare hands. I have noticed in several communities that the honoree touches the scroll with his or her tallit, but on the exposed underside of the parchment, wound around the handle, Etz Ĥayyim, not where the text is. It would seem that this is a preferable way to show reverence. As for the origin of the custom, it must derive from the ruling [Oraĥ Ĥayyim 239:4 HSG018] that before reciting the berakhah the honoree must note the place where he is about to read. But the ruling there says "see", not "touch".