What is the weekly Torah portion (parsha)?
Prayer and synagoguePending rabbinic review
Short answer
The Torah is divided into 54 portions (parshiyot), one read in the synagogue each Shabbat, so the whole Five Books are completed every year on Simchat Torah. Shorter readings from the next portion are read on Monday and Thursday mornings and Shabbat afternoon. Some weeks two portions are combined to fit the calendar.
Who instituted it
The Talmud traces the Monday and Thursday readings to the prophets of Moses’ generation, so that three days would never pass without Torah, and lists the Shabbat afternoon reading among the enactments of Ezra the Scribe. In ancient Israel a three-year cycle was common; the Babylonian one-year cycle became universal.
How it is read
The portion is read from a handwritten scroll by a trained reader, with traditional cantillation. On Shabbat morning seven people are called up (aliyot), first a kohen, then a levi, then other Jews; on Monday and Thursday three. After the reading a passage from the Prophets, the Haftarah, linked to the theme of the portion, is read.
Combined portions
A regular year has fewer Shabbatot available than 54 portions (festivals falling on Shabbat replace the regular reading), so in some weeks two portions are read together – for example Vayakhel–Pekudei or Matot–Masei. In a leap year more are read separately. Israel and the Diaspora sometimes read different portions for a few weeks after a festival day that is kept for two days abroad.
Studying the parsha
The Shulchan Aruch asks every Jew to review the weekly portion twice in Hebrew and once in the Aramaic translation (Targum Onkelos) or with Rashi’s commentary – “shnayim mikra ve’echad targum”. Many families discuss the parsha at the Shabbat table; children often learn a short idea from it in school.
Finding this week’s portion
Our Jewish calendar shows the portion read each Shabbat.
Sources
Also asked as
- What is this week’s parsha?
- What is the Torah portion this week?