[Avodah] Questions about Krias Ha Torah

[Professor L. Levine via Avodah]

In response to my questions


1.  What was the schedule for Krias Hatorah both before and during the first Bais Mikdash?


2.  According to one source I have,  Krias Ha Torah during the time of the Tannaim followed the yearly cycle,  but changed during the time of the Amoraim to a triennial cycle.   Is this true and why did this change take place?


3. When Jews returned to EY in numbers they opted for the yearly cycle.  Why didn't the return to the triennial cycle?


 about Krias Ha Torah, R. Micha Berger wrote:


1. What was the schedule for Krias Hatorah both before and during the
: first Bais Mikdash?

There were no standardized sedros.

See BQ 82a. Moshe Rabbeinu established leining on Shabbos, Mon and Thu,
and how many aliyos. Ezra added Shabbos minchah and the idea that we
lein in cycles, and not just whatever reading the minyan wanted to.

: 2. According to one source I have, Krias Ha Torah during the time of
: the Tannaim followed the yearly cycle, but changed during the time of
: the Amoraim to a triennial cycle. Is this true and why did this change
: take place?

I think it was by location, not era.

For example, Megillah 29b says the triennial cycle was followed bemaaravah.

: 3. When Jews returned to EY in numbers they opted for the yearly cycle.
: Why didn't the return to the triennial cycle?

They also didn't opt to reintroduce reading with Targum. Only Teimanim
still lein the way we used to.

And without Targum, leining 1/3 of a parashah isn't all that much. Perhaps
that's part of the reason why.

There wasn't really all that standard of a triennial cycle either. Some
read from Shavuos to the third Shavuos. Others completed the Torah twice
per shemittah (every 3-1/2 years, not 3). Etc...

In Binyamin miTudela's day (1170) some congregations in Egypt were still
leining in the 3 year cycle. And apparently the custom wasn't entirely
dead in the Rambam's day either.

But it not only required our 4 special parashios in Adar, the triennial
cycle also had to make special parashios for the tokhachos. It didn't
work as smoothly. A second possible piece to the answer.

But I think the main answer is that most of us have our roots in Bavel,
whether Sepharadi (which is almost entirely Babylonian mesorah) or
Ashkenazi (which is more of a mix). And even if not, from the end of
the Yerushalmi to the end of the geonim, we all turned to Babylonian
rabbanim. The same reason why "The Gemara" is Bavli. That's 800 years
of Babylonian leadership shaping the mesorah.
____________________________________________________

I have posted selections from two seforim that discuss this issue at

https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/levine/krias_ha_torah.pdf


While they agree in part to what Reb Micha wrote,  they do not agree entirely.  In fact, they do not even agree with each other.  The first selection from Avraham Ya'ari's sefer Toldos Chag Simchas Torah mentions two triennial cycles in EY - one for 3 years and one for 3 and a half years.


The second selection from Yesodos Ha Tefillah by Rav Eleazar Levi does not mention the 3 and half year cycle at all (as far as I can see).  In addition this sefer asserts that during the time of the Tanaim  Krias Ha Torah in EY  was done yearly (He gives no source for this assertion.)  and that during the time of the Amaraim it changed to the triennial cycle.  Ya'ari does not mention this at all.


Thus,  as far as I can see,  I still do not have a definitive answer as to how the Torah was read before the first Bais Ha Mikdash,  during the first Bais Ha Mikdash, and during the Second Bais Ha Mikdash.


YL


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