After the Torah scroll has
been carried through the congregation, it is returned to the bimah
where its mantle and binder are removed and it is prepared for reading.
Traditionally, on Shabbat, seven people ascend (‘olim) to the
bimah to recite the blessings over the Torah, before and after each
section is read. This honor is called an aliyah (ascent, going up). The
first aliyah goes to a kohen, a member of the ancient priestly
clan, and the second aliyah to a levi, a member of the tribe
that assisted the priests in the Temple service. The remaining aliyot
are given to any Israelite/Jew. (Traditionally, all of these people are men. The
statuses of kohen and levi are inherited from father to son;
daughters are designated as bat kohen and bat levi, but no
privileges are attached to these statuses.) The kohen is called up to
the bimah with a festive formula that begins by invoking divine
protection on all who trust in God, and inviting the congregation to praise God
(hakol havu godel leiloheinu ut’nu chavod latorah; “Let all ascribe
greatness to God and render honor to the Torah”). The invocation ends with the
repetition of Baruch sh’natan torah, to which the congregation
responds, And you who cling to Adonai your God are all alive today
(Deut. 4:4).
In the nineteenth century,
the Reform movement eliminated the privileges of the priests and Levites as
remnants of the Temple cult—the restoration of which was no longer hoped for--
and called up to the Torah all (male) Jews without distinction. The length of
the Torah portion read each week was shortened considerably: only excerpts from
the weekly portion were read. Consequently, there was no longer a need for
seven aliyot on Shabbat. In North America, the custom of calling people
up to the Torah was gradually abandoned in many Reform congregations, as a way
of instituting decorum and eliminating “clutter” and “traffic” from the service.
The Torah blessings were recited by the rabbi, who also read from the scroll.
Over the past decades, more of the traditional customs surrounding the reading
of the Torah have been revived in Reform worship—the hakafah, or
procession with the Torah scroll both before and after the reading; the
aliyot (though not always the full seven on Shabbat; seven
aliyot do not work well with an abbreviated Torah reading if they
appear to take more time and focus than the reading itself!); and the prayers
for healing (Mi sh’beirach) that follow upon the reading from the
scroll.
Mishkan T’filah (p.
368) gives the address to the congregation, Havu godel leiloheinu,
before the aliyah is called up. In Gates of Prayer and the
Union Prayer Book, this sentence appeared before the Torah was removed
from the ark; no aliyot were indicated in these prayer books. MT then
suggests that “one who makes an aliyah might offer: Adonai
imachem (May God be with you!),” to which the “congregation responds,
Y’varech’cha Adonai (May God bless you!)” This suggested exchange of
blessings is new to North American Reform liturgy; it is a Sefardic custom.
The blessings recited before
and after the Torah is read are the same in the traditional and Reform prayer
books. Before the Torah is read, the person reciting the blessing first invites
the congregation to praise God: Bar’chu et Adonai ham’vorach (Praise
Adonai, who is worthy of praise), to which the congregation responds, Baruch
Adonai ham’vorach l’olam va’ed (Praised be Adonai who is worthy of praise
for all time). The response is then repeated softly by the reader, to indicate
that he (now s/he) includes him/herself in the addressed congregation as well.
(Classical Reform practice generally omitted the congregational response; both
the invocation and the response were recited by the reader.) This, of course, is
the same invocation-and- response that begins public worship morning and
evening. It appears in these contexts in the Mishnah and the Talmud of the Land
of Israel (Berakhot 7:3).
The Torah blessings praise
God for having given the Torah to Israel, thereby “implanting within us eternal
life.” The text of the blessing before the Torah reading first appears in the
Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 11b. There it is given as one of three
alternative formulas to be recited before private Torah study each morning. (The
other two, la’asok b’divrei torah [“who has commanded us to occupy
ourselves with the study of Torah”], and v’ha’arev na [“make the words
of Your Torah sweet to us”], now appear in the introductory portion of the
morning service; see MT, p. 42, 204, 296-297, 430; all three appear together in
the traditional preliminary morning service). The blessing recited after the
reading of the Torah is first found in Tractate Soferim, which deals
with the writing of Torah scrolls, tefillin, and mezuzot; it
also contains our earliest account of the rabbinic Torah-reading liturgy, and
derives from the Land of Israel around the eighth century CE.
In the nineteenth century,
many Reform congregations eliminated the traditional chanting of the Torah as
too “oriental,” incompatible with western (Protestant) aesthetics and worship
styles. Instead, the Torah was simply read in Hebrew and in the vernacular. The
last several decades have seen a significant return to the custom of chanting
the Torah in Reform synagogues. Similarly, the custom of bar mitzvah at
the age of thirteen was replaced in the nineteenth century by the practice of
confirmation at the age of sixteen or seventeen, following the parallel custom
in Protestant Christianity, and on the theory that thirteen-year-olds were still
too immature in western society to accept upon themselves the adult obligations
and mature understanding of the Jewish faith. The custom of bar and
bat mitzvah, too, has had a resurgence in North American Reform
congregations over the past forty or so years. While the return to more
traditional customs in the North American Reform movement is often (and not
incorrectly) seen as a phenomenon initiated in the late 1960’s and early 70’s,
responding to the breakup of the “melting pot” theory of American culture in the
wake of the cultural upheavals of that era and the resurgence of ethnic pride
among minorities (and Jewish ethnic pride after the Six Day War), it actually
has its roots as early as the 1920’s and 30’s, with the influx into Reform
congregations of the children of eastern European Jewish immigrants, who sought
a more tangibly and familiarly Jewish worship experience.
In early rabbinic practice,
as attested in the Mishnah (Megillah 4:2), those who were called up to
the Torah actually read brief sections of the text (a minimum of three verses);
the blessings over the Torah were each recited only once, before the first
reading and after the last reading. This was the practice in the Land of Israel,
where the weekly readings were briefer and the reading of the Torah was
completed over a period of between three-and-a-half and four years. The
Babylonian custom of completing the reading of the scroll annually entailed
longer weekly Torah portions (the ones which are customary today), and a
regular, “professional” reader. In Babylonia, the seven people called up to the
Torah on Shabbat were only required to recite the blessings; that is the custom
that has persisted until today.
Chile Earthquake Relief
On February 28,
2010 an earthquake struck Chile, killing hundreds, displacing thousands and
causing widespread destruction. The Jewish Coalition for Disaster
Relief, of which the Union for Reform Judaism is a member, is accepting
donations for Chile. Click here to make
an online donation.
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.
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
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