RAMBAM: Tefillah uBirkat Cohanim (13)

Torah Reading 

 

It is a minhag (tradition, you apikores who only keeps the laws) around Israel to read through the whole Torah every year. Not half the Torah, or just the beginning parts. The whole thing, without the vowels. This all starts the Shabbat after Sukkot. This isn't one of those 'lets push it off for a week, because we want to sleep in' kind of things.

There are some weeks we read two Parshiyot (portions from the Torah, you overeating heretic who is not eating the not food of life), others we skip, due to holidays. Ezra decreed that certain ones have to be read at certain times, and according to this, we try to fit in the Parshiyot. Shtick is important. We do not want to start reading the one about Jews stuck in the desert, around Chanukach time. When it is my birthday, they try to read about Jews rebelling against Moshe and Aharon and red heifers. Why? Because that connects to me. 

Lesson (L): It is a holiday when we do not have to read the full Torah portion. That is how we know it is time to celebrate. When we get out of shule a half hour earlier, that is time to celebrate. Many of times, during holidays, we are celebrating so much and so happy that we are not reading the Torah portion, that we don't even do a Kiddush (post services snacks, you non-blessing making heathen who jumps into the cholant meat without even knowing what it is). People are just so happy to get out early. That is the celebration. 

And then we read at Mincha on Shabbat, from where we left off on the Shabbat morning. That same 10 or so psukim is also read on Monday and Thursday. You think it is over. You think life is all about a break. No. Life is about going into the next part. We keep that whole Torah reading thing on our minds all week. Constantly thinking, 'That is going to be an extra 10 minutes in the shule.'

Generally, we are supposed to begin and end each Aliyah with good stuff. However, because HaAzinu is reproach, we end on bad notes. Kind of like every time I show up to a meeting with the people in my shule. This bad note thing gets people thinking they have to improve. It probably doesn’t get them thinking much, as the people in the shule are still selfish and only care about their set seat. The whole HaAzinu thing doesn't do its job when the "people" have no idea what it is saying.

L: Not knowing Hebrew makes shule a much more enjoyable experience.

Nowadays, we don’t stop in the middle of the long reproaches in the Torah. People are weak and they are coming out to shule for the Carlebach songs. The part that where they nay nay nay for twenty minutes, because they don't understand the transliteration. One person reads that whole reproach (in one Aliyah). We try to get that over with, so we can get back to the good stuff about being stuck in the desert.

For the major holidays, we stop the regular Torah reading and read the reading for that holiday. Moshe Rabeinu decreed this one. Some portions are crowd favorites. So we read those in their time and then at the holidays. We can pull out up to three Torahs, such as on Rosh Chodesh that falls out on Chanukah. We do not pull out four Torahs, as there is not four people in shule who have the ability to lift the Torah correctly. And we can not depend on Marvin to wrap the thing correctly. It just gets too complicated after three Torahs.

The list of what to read is right in the Rambam. Do I have to spell this out for you too? Yes. But I will not. Maybe open a Rambam.

Man is obligated to do two readings of the Torah and one translation, every week. Where this comes from, I do not know. But I do know that it sounds hard and time consuming. Hence, it is a tradition. If you are not doing it because it is a tradition, it is a law. Either way, it is definitely a requirement (something you have to do, you corner cutting apikores who needs a reason for everything).