Haftarah readings given in brackets in the above table indicate readings used in the Shephardic tradition where these differ from the Ashkenazic reading. The Maftir The word maftir , which belongs to the same Hebrew root as haftarah [ pey. This person normally reads the haftarah. The maftir reading normally repeats the last words of the parashat hashavuah. This is according to an ancient custom which sort to honor the greater importance of the Torah over the Prophetic reading Talmud, Megillah 23a.
On special Sabbaths and holidays a special reading is added [provided in the table above] which is related to the celebration or event. A Point of interest: The division of parashot [sometimes spelled and pronounced, Parshiot or Parshiyot : the plural of parashah ] found in the modern-day Torah scrolls of all Jewish communities Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Yemenite is based upon the systematic list provided by Maimonides in Mishneh Torah , Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah and Torah Scrolls, Ch.
Maimonides based his division of the portions of the Torah on the Aleppo Codex. The Triennial Torah Reading Cycle. In some traditions the cycle of Torah readings is completed over three years—this pattern is modelled on an ancient Rabbinic tradition in Israel [which may in fact be even older] in which each portion was divided into three parts, each part being read in sequence over the course of three years thus completing the reading of the five books of the Torah over three years.
This practice has been revived in some Jewish congregations today. Six days a year we are forbidden to eat or drink. About eighty days of the year we are commanded to feast — a 13 to 1 ratio of feasting to fasting. Rather than being ascetic, Judaism clearly rejoices in life and seeks to elevate the material world through the commandments. The purpose of the fast days is to achieve a certain mood or state of mind, not self- torture.
As Maimonides states:. The Torah commands us to cry out to God… when any tragedy strikes the community… This is part of the process of repentance — when a misfortune occurs and the community prays, cries out and assembles, they will realize that this has happened as a result of their sins… And the Sages further obligated the community to fast on the occasion of any tragedy…. The prophets mention the obligation to mourn the exile through fasting but they stress that the fast is primarily a means to gather the entire community together for prayer:.
In the book of Jonah, God called upon Jonah to inform the citizens of the city of Nineveh that unless they changed their ways, corrected the injustices in their city and refrained from theft, God would destroy their city. The people of Nineveh took the warning seriously:. I think there is. Do you attempt to acclimatise and acculturate yourself to the world around you, the world that seems threatening?
Or do you strengthen yourself internally by strengthening Torah and spirituality in the life of the people? That was the response of Ezra and those like him. From the perspective of history, we can see that one response is really tragic. Some felt the need to recast Judaism into Greek categories, and the truth is that it led, in quite a profound sense, to the birth of antisemitism.
Whereas the Ezra achievement of strengthening the inner resources of the people had consequences, positive ones, that last to this day. He really laid the foundations for Judaism as a living civilisation that would survive defeat, exile, and every other external threat. Antisemitism has clearly returned to the Jewish world, particularly to Europe and to America, and Jews feel it deeply. But the way to react is not to, as it were, submit to the cultural imperatives of the larger society and simply try to disappear.
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