[Avodah] division of parshas hashavua

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Aug 04, 2008 at 01:55:20PM -0400, Litke, Gary wrote:
: Abarbanel says in intro to Sefer Shmos that this comes from Moshe
: Rabbeynu mipi HaGvura. [He also says that Sefer Shmos has 12 portions;
: presumably he followed minhag Barcelona and divided Mishpatim into two,
: with the second beginning at 'Im Kesef Talveh'.]

Thanks. I always wondered if the Chinukh really had two parshiyos, or
if he was just trying to keep his chapter on Mishpatim from being so
long.

(Posting to list to point out that the Chinukh has them split.)

As for the substance of the cycle, see
<http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=327&letter=T>. In it,
Joseph Jacobs writes:
> The Masoretic divisions known as "sedarim" and variously indicated in
> the text, number 154 in the Pentateuch, and probably correspond,
> therefore, to the Sabbath lessons of the triennial system, as was
> first surmised by Rapoport ("Halikot .edem," p. 11). The number
> varies, however, so that Menahem Me'iri reckoned 161 divisions,
> corresponding to the greatest number of Sabbaths possible in three
> years; the Yemen grammars and scrolls of the Pentateuch enumerate 167
> (see Sidra); and the tractate Soferim (xvi. 10) gives the number as
> 175 (comp. Yer. Shab. i. 1). It is possible that this last division
> corresponds to a further development by which the whole of the
> Pentateuch was read twice in seven years, or once in three and a half
> years. The minimum seder for a Sabbath portion when seven persons are
> called up to the Law (see 'Aliyah) should consist of twenty-one
> verses, since no one should read less than three verses (Meg. iv. 4).
> Some sedarim have less than twenty-one verses, however, as, for
> example, Ex. xxx. 1-8.

> If the 154 sedarim are divided into three portions corresponding to the
> three years, the second would commence at Ex. xii. and the third at Num.
> vi. 22, a passage treating of the priestly blessing and the gifts of the
> twelve tribal chiefs after the erection of the Tabernacle. Tradition
> assumes that the events described in Num. vi. took place on the 1st of
> Nisan, and it would follow that Gen. i. and Ex. xi. would also be read
> on the first Sabbath of that month, while Deut. xxxiv., the last portion
> of the Pentateuch, would be read in Adar. Accordingly, it is found that
> the death of Moses is traditionally assigned to the 7th of Adar, about
> which date Deut. xxxiv. would be read.

> A. Buchler has restored the order of the sedarim on the assumption that
> the reading of the Law was commenced on the 1st of Nisan and continued
> for three years, and he has found that Genesis would be begun on the 1st
> of Nisan, Deuteronomy on the 1st of Elul, Leviticus on the 1st of
> Tishri, and Exodus and Numbers on the 15th of Sheba., the four NewYears
> given in the Mishnah (R. H. i. 1)....

Bottom line, before the guesswork, it seems likely they matched the
sedarim in the seifer Torah, not 1/3 of our parshiyos.

That said, I don't see how they can hold like Rav, and have the tochakhah
said 2nd week before RH, etc... Did they make them maftir, like the
4 parshiyos of Adar/Nissan? Was Rav the one who made the annual cycle
the norm?

-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Zion will be redeemed through justice,
micha at aishdas.org        and her returnees, through righteousness.
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