{"id":145,"date":"2020-04-20T18:59:51","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T01:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trmarvin.org\/?post_type=encyclopedia&p=145"},"modified":"2020-04-20T18:59:51","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T01:59:51","slug":"parsha","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"http:\/\/trmarvin.org\/?encyclopedia=parsha","title":{"rendered":"Parsha"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The common meaning of parashah (plural: parshiyot; colloquially, “parsha”)<\/strong> is the weekly Torah portion. The Torah (also called Ch<\/span>umash, or the first five books of the Bible) is divided into sections read cyclically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The beginning of Parashat Nitzavim in the Koren edition of Sefer Devarim (Deuteronomy).<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Reading Cycles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are two cycles for reading: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(1) An annual cycle<\/strong> of 54 portions, meaning that you read the entire Torah yearly (some are doubled up)—the most commonly used cycle today;<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(2) A triennial cycle<\/strong>, meaning that the entire Torah is read every three and a half (it varies slightly) years.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each parsha is known by a name, taken from the first notable word of the portion.<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public reading<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A parsha is read on Shabbat morning in the presence of a minyan (quorum of ten), and portions of the portion are read at Monday and Thursday morning minyan of the week leading up to that Shabbat, as well as on Shabbat afternoon. Most Jewish calendars print the name of the weekly portion on the Shabbat on which it will be read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parsha itself is divided into seven aliyot (readings; singular: aliyah) on a standard Shabbat. Today there is a ba’al kriyah (Torah reader) who chants the Torah text from a kosher scroll, with the person receiving the aliyah chanting the blessing before and after each aliyah. If there is one present, the first aliyah is given to a kohen (a man of priestly lineage), the second is given to a Levi (one whose lineage places him among the tribe of Levi), and a bar mitzvah often chants the final portion of the seventh aliyah, called the maftir (from the same root as haftarah<\/a>). The Torah reading is followed by a haftarah<\/a>, pesuk<\/span>im from Neviim (Prophets) that are thematically related to the parashah or to the time of year. The haftarah<\/a> is also traditionally read by a bar mitzvah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commentaries on the Parsha<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Each parashah has engendered volumes of commentary. Many collections of Midrash are organized by parsha. Another important work organized by parsha is Sefer ha-Ch<\/span>inuch<\/em>, by an unknown Rishon (medieval Torah scholar), which takes Rambam’s enumeration of the mitzvot and reorganizes it according to the order that the mitzvot occur in Torah.<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parshah and Sidra<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Another, possibly more technically correct, term for the weekly Torah portion is s<\/span>idra (plural: sederot or sedarim). In common speech, parashah and s<\/span>idra are used interchangeably.<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> However, the term parashah has a separate meaning as a different kind of subdivision of Mikra (Torah text). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two different kinds of parshiyot<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A parashah in the sense of subdivision is shorter than a weekly parashah. Parshiyot in the narrower sense function like paragraphs. (So, a parashat ha-shavua<\/em> is made up of many parshiyot<\/em> of text.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The text of Tanakh is divided into two kinds of parshiyot: <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(1) Petuch<\/span>ah<\/strong> (“open”): Sets of pesukim that are grouped by a full line break after them. This is conventionally indicated in a printed Tanakh with the Hebrew letter {פ}, for פתוחה, though some publishers indicate the breaks visually. Here is the same text (Devarim 31:1) showing a parashah petuch<\/span>ah, first visually:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Devarim 31:1 (the beginning of Parashat VaYelekh) in the Koren edition.<\/sup><\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And, with the {פ} notation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Devarim 31:1, the same parashah petuhah in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS)<\/a><\/sup>.<\/em><\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

(2) S<\/span>etumah<\/strong> (“closed”): Sets of pesukim that are grouped together by means of a wide space (the equivalent of nine letters) after them, with the next parashah beginning on the same line. This is conventionally indicated in a printed Tanakh with the Hebrew letter {ס}, for סתומה, but again, it’s sometimes represented graphically:<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Devarim 29:38 in Koren, a parashah s<\/span>etumah<\/em> indicating a break before the next group of parshiyyot, which also begins the fourth aliyah.<\/em><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Devarim 29:28 in the BHS, the same parashah s<\/span>etumah indicated by a {ס} (even though, visually, it looks like a petuchah).<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These divisions are important because they indicate cohesive units of text according to Mas<\/span>orah (authoritative tradition). They are meaningful, usually as a topical and\/or thematic organization of the text. The chapter and verse numbers that are commonly used today to identify a pasuk—for example, “Amos 2:16″—are actually a medieval Christian method of numbering the verses.<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why the Koren Tanakh<\/a>, the first Tanach in history printed by as well as for Jews,<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> has both the now-conventional book and verse numbers in the inner column, and also prints and preserves the traditional Jewish divisions, which are somewhat different, in the outer column. Other Jewish publishers today have adopted the visual style of indiciating parashah petuchah or setumah also.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are communities today that tend to use the term <\/span>sidra (sometimes spelled sedra) for the weekly, annual-cycle Torah portion. The term<\/span><\/span> sidra is also associated with the triennial cycle, probably because it was the term used in ancient Eretz Yisrael.<\/span>10<\/sup><\/a><\/span> It seems that sidra was once the common term used by Ashkenazim <\/span>11<\/sup><\/a><\/span>. I’d conjecture that parsha, used by Sefardi communities, was subsequently widely adopted as an element of Sefardi-based modern Israeli Hebrew. It’s now the prevalent term used.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The common meaning of parashah (plural: parshiyot; colloquially, “parsha”) is the weekly Torah portion. The Torah (also called Chumash, or the first five books of the Bible) is divided into sections read cyclically. 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