SEDER K’RIAT HATORAH L’SHABBAT:  READING THE TORAH ON SHABBAT (1)SEDER HOTSA’AT HATORAH:  REMOVING THE TORAH FROM THE ARK
Rabbi Richard Sarason

The opening of the ark, the removal of the Torah scroll, and the parading of the scroll through the congregation (hakafah) are moments of great liturgical drama, solemnity, and festivity.  These actions are accompanied by the singing or recitation of (mostly) scriptural texts, often in a call-and-response pattern, by the reader and the congregation.   We remarked last week that there is a certain amount of variation even among traditional rites in the texts that are declaimed.   That variety has existed in Reform prayer books as well, where a mixture of Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and additional textual selections have been used.

The additional, “left-page,” texts that appear in Mishkan T’filah on pp. 363 and 365 all derive from Gates of Prayer (1975).  Gates of Prayer offered five different options for the Torah-reading liturgies, the first being more traditional Ashkenazic—corresponding to the “right-page” text in MT—and the other four giving still other textual possibilities:

1. Hakheil et haam (“Assemble the people;” Deuteronomy 31:12-13a), the text at the top of p. 363 in MT, is found at the beginning of GOP’s second Torah service (GOP, p. 425).  This text is thematically appropriate, since it depicts God’s instruction to Moses to gather the people every seven years during the festival of Sukkot for a public reading of “this Torah” in what amounts to a covenant renewal ceremony that is to take place all the time that the people inhabit the land. (This ceremony is referred to in traditional shorthand as hakheil, after the commandment’s first word.)  In mythic terms, this text is the earliest warrant for the public reading of Torah, so it nicely frames what the congregation is about to do.  Chaim Stern, in his commentary to this text in Gates of Understanding, p. 233, notes that “the use of this passage to introduce the Torah Service was an innovation of Service of the Heart [the 1967 British Liberal prayer book edited by Rabbis Chaim Stern and John D. Rayner that served as the model for GOP], p. 172.”

2. Ashrei adam matza chochmah (“Happy is the one who finds wisdom;” Proverbs 3:13-15), the text at the bottom of p. 363 in MT, is found at the beginning of GOP’s fourth Torah service (GOP, p. 437).  The situational relevance of this text derives from the Rabbis’ association of chochmah/Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs (and in the biblical wisdom literature generally, which includes as well the books of Job and Ecclesiastes) with Torah:  for rabbinic Judaism, Torah is the embodiment of divine wisdom.¹ Chaim Stern, in Gates of Understanding, p. 234, notes that these verses had been used at the conclusion of the Torah Ritual in the British Liberal Service of the Heart, p. 195, and its predecessor, Liberal Jewish Prayer Book (1937 edition, edited by Israel I. Mattuck), p. 409.

3. Lo yarei’u (“They shall not hurt;” Isaiah 11:9) and V’yashvu ish (“And all shall sit;” Micah 4:4), the texts at the top of p. 365 in MT, are found at the beginning of GOP’s third Torah service (p. 431).  The situational thematic connection is to be found at the end of the Isaiah verse:  in the messianic future there will be no more violence or warfare among humans because the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God.  As before, this knowledge is associated with Torah.  Chaim Stern, in Gates of Understanding, p. 233, notes that the usage of these verses in this context goes back to the Union Prayer Book (newly revised edition, 1940), p. 94, in the Torah service for Shabbat evening.

4. V’chit’tu charvotam l’itim (“They shall beat their swords into plowshares;” Isaiah 2:4), the text at the bottom of p. 365 in MT, is also found in GOP’s third Torah service (p. 435), when the Torah is returned to the ark, so that it serves as a “book-end” with Lo yarei’u.  These two Isaiah texts had been associated in a popular musical setting by Cantor William Sharlin (incorporating a tune for V’chit’tu by Israeli composer Ezri Gabbai) for Reform services and camp settings prior to the publication of GOP (see The Complete Shireinu, p. 136.)

5. “In this scroll,” the blue-lined text that extends across pp. 364 and 365 in MT derives from GOP, p. 437.  It was written by Chaim Stern.

Additionally, MT gives four “Hakafah Selections” on p. 367.  These are biblical and rabbinic texts that can be sung when more material is needed beyond L’cha Adonai to cover the procession of the Torah scroll through the congregation and back to the bimah.  Traditional liturgy in fact supplies more biblical text here for that purpose.  The first MT selection, Rom’mu (Ps. 99:9), is part of traditional Ashkenazic liturgy at this point.  Aside from their thematic relevance, the other selections appear here on account of their popular musical settings.

On January 12, 2010 a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, causing untold damage and loss of life. The Union for Reform Judaism has opened a disaster relief fund to assist the affected community. Go to www.urj.org/relief to make a donation or obtain more information about the Union’s relief efforts.

Sign up today for The Weekly Briefing, Jewish news from Reform Movement and the greater Jewish world.

Registration is now OPEN for the Fourth Annual Israel Kallah to be held April 29-May 9, 2010 in Jerusalem. Developed by the Saltz International Education Center of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Join us as we study, pray and travel the Land of Israel.

Who do we want our children and grandchildren to be? Give the gift of Judaism!
Registration is now open for a URJ Camp or Israel experience.
Please Click on:
http://urjcamps.org/directory.shtml
or
http://rjisrael.org

10 Minutes of Torah is produced by the Union for Reform Judaism to support Lifelong Jewish Learning.

Your gift makes Ten Minutes of Torah and other programs of the Union for Reform Judaism possible.

Copyright © Union for Reform Judaism 2010