Halakhah Study Group 012

This shiur is dedicated by Moshe Mendelowitz with prayers for a Refuah Shelemah for his uncle, Harav Dov Ze'ev Ben Penina Perilee – Rabbi William Horn of Summit New Jersey. The prayers are from Moshe, Rosanne, Rachel and Dylan Mendelowitz, and all of us.

1:
On Monday and Thursday mornings, Shabbat afternoons, Ĥanukah, Purim and fast days (including Yom Kippur afternoon) only three people are called to the Torah. (In those congregations which give the Kohen his traditional privileges these three will be a Kohen, a Levi and one Israelite – subject to the provisions that we covered in Section 135.) The first paragraph of Section 137 states that these three people must read from the Torah a total of not less than ten verses. The provisions of paragraph 2 of this Section will only be applicable when only this minimum number of verses is read. Under such circumstances the allocation will have to be that two of the three honorees will read 3 verses and one of them will read 4 verses.

2:
To those of us who are used to following the Torah Reading from printed Ĥumashim [Five books of the Torah] it will seem strange that the Shulĥan Arukh has to deal with this matter at all. After all, the traditional breakdown of the verses of the Torah Reading among the honorees is indicated in the Ĥumash. (And for weekday readings the allocation is usually indicated in most prayerbooks.) But we must understand that these traditional allocations are just that: traditional. Originally each of the persons called to the Torah (on any day) would read their passage themselves. However, we must also bear in mind that originally there was no universally recognized division of the Torah into weekly portions. Mr Cohen would be called and he would read from the Torah a short passage and he would stop where he felt it was appropriate. After him Mr Levy would also read a short passage, starting where Mr Cohen had finished and stopping after a few verses where he felt it was appropriate. After Mr Levy Mr Israel would follow the same procedure, and this would conclude the reading from the Torah on a weekday. On the following Shabbat the Kohen would start reading where our Mr Cohen had started and a similar procedure would continue until seven people had read from the Torah.

3:
Since for all practical purposes each of them had read as much or as little as they wanted it follows that what was read in one synagogue on any given Shabbat was not the same as what was read in another synagogue. Indeed, we can be reasonably certain that no two synagogues were reading the same material from the Torah on any particular Shabbat. It follows that in Talmudic times in Eretz-Israel itinerant preachers (the gist of whose sermons have been preserved for us in the various midrashic collections) would not know in advance what text would be read from the Torah in the place they were visitng. Thus all their sermons were impromptu – a magnificent feat! We can substantiate this by reference to a passage such as one that is preserved in one collection [Esther Rabba 3:6]

4:
Under such circumstances it is but logical that the sages had to legislate certain minimal standards for this reading, and this is the basis for the decision concerning the minimum number of verses to read read on a weekday. The three people called to the Reading of the Torah read no less than three verses each and a total of not less than ten verses. (As we shall see, there were other regulations which further circumscribed their freedom of choice.)

5:
The Gemara [Megillah 21b] discusses this matter. If each person was required to read no less than three verses it would seem logical to set the minimum number of verses to be read by three people at nine.

A few notes on this passage:

When we studied Tractate Rosh ha-Shanah from the Mishnah we noted "ten householders who were free from all other chores and were to be found in the Bet Kenesset at all times in order to serve the public's needs [Batlanim]" [RMSG Rosh ha-Shanah 030]. These are the "ten unoccupied people" to whom the first sage quoted above refers. Perhaps it would not be too inappropriate also to note here that Rav Yosef has no qualms about the idea that all that Moses received at Sinai were the Ten Commandments (and not the whole Torah). The 10 praises uttered by David refers to the fact that while many of the psalms have a heading "A Psalm of David" there are only ten which refer to David's praising God. The heading of Psalm 145 ["Ashré"] is probably the best known example. The statement of Rabbi Yoĥanan is based on the number of times in the creation story [Genesis 1] that the text reads "And God said" that a certain thing should happen, and it did.

6:
In his original statement concerning the minimal ten verses to be read Rav Shimi stated that there was no problem with the semi-ubiquitous verse "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying" being included in these ten verses – despite the fact that it is so short and occurs so many times that one might think that it should not count. This is faithfully recalled by Rabbi Yosef Karo in the paragraph of Section 137 which is the subject of our present study.

7:
The way that the Torah Readings are now traditionally allocated leaves us with only one occasion when less than ten verses are read. Karo states that it the subject matter of the reading concludes after nine verses it is permitted to stop there. This is what happens during the Torah reading on Purim morning. We read Exodus 17:8-16. This portion can be neatly divided up as follows:

Since the text concludes this story at this point and continues with a completely different topic it is permissable to conclude the reading after these nine verses, and not worry about adding a tenth.

Yiftah Shapir asked concerning the halakhic status of priests who marry women who had previously been divorced or had converted to Judaism, and whether Conservative rabbis may officiate at such unions. I responded at length concerning the union of a Kohen and a divorcée. Now Yiftah returns to the fray:

Thanks for the very detailed response… however I feel that still – נותרתי וחצי תאוותי בידי…. Most of your response deals with the problem of a divorced woman. This case is relatively straightforward, since the Torah says "ואישה גרושה מאשה לא יקחו". My question still remains.. regarding the Giyoret..since the Torah does not prohibit a Kohen from marrying a Gyoret – it prohibits marrying a Zonah… so this brings me back to my original question: Is a Gyoret considered a Zonah? and how does the traditional approach conciliates the approach to Goyim as sexually promiscuous and the assumption that they do accept the 7 Noahide commandments?

I respond:

We do not consider a woman convert to Judaism to have been ipso facto previously promiscuous. Though this is not the meaning given by the sages to the Hebrew term zonah in this context. They saw the problem not as being so much the behaviour of the woman but rather the probable behaviour of her biological parents: incest and promiscuity was rife – say the sages – in pagan society. At any rate, for the reasons mentioned by Yiftah (and for others) a modern gentile woman hailing from western society is not considered by Conservative rabbis as being a zonah.

Yiftah continues: As for the responsum you mentioned in your discussion – I understand that the issue there was "should a Conservative Rav officiate in a marriage of a Kohen and Grusha" – but if I understand correctly – even the most Orthodox Rav would agree that a marriage of a Kohen and Gyioret or a divorced woman are valid (bedi'avad) and this means that in each and every such case the Nissu'in did take place this way or another….the only question is what is the status of the sons. are they Kohanim or Hallalim??.

I respond:

This is correct.

The topic of the status of Kohanim in matters unconnected with Torah Reading is now closed.

Recently I have been asked by several participants to extend the Hebrew texts of the Halakhah Study Group to the Rabin Mishnah Study Group as well. Before I start to consider this I would like to know the extent to which it is successful in this study group (HSG). So please click here and indicate which option is correct for you. Thank you all for your very kind cooperation.