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Synagogue Readings
Charles Perrot
This article first appeared in Foi et vie, LXXXII, No. 4 (1983) and it is reproduced here with the kind permission of the author and the Editor. A slight adaptation has been made in the text because of the omission of the triennial cycle (cf. Note 1).
The synagogue is first and foremost the place of the Word, the place of both the God who continues to speak to his people and of the faithful who answer him. It is therefore a place of dialogue where the sovereign word calls forth prayer. Nevertheless, prayer is not the main activity of the synagogal assembly; rather it is the divine word which challenges the assembly through the reading of Scripture. The Bible, and therefore especially the Torah, creates the synagogue, that is to say, the assembly. This means that between the synagogue and biblical reading there is an immediate, even constitutive relationship, in spite of the fact that the synagogue qua institution includes other activities. If we study the pattern of bible reading on sabbath and feast day mornings in Palestine during the early centuries of our era, we will be able to understand better how the synagogue is the place for the word which echoes and re-echoes unceasingly.
Today synagogues arrange the readings from the Torah according to an annual cycle, distributing the fifty-four parashot throughout the year, beginning at Simhat Torah, the feast of the rejoicing of the Torah which falls on 23 Tishri (September-October) at the end of the feast of Sukkot (Tents). Thus the so-called Babylonian cycle is followed, with some variations according to the different rites. The custom was very different in Palestine, especially before the seventh century; a triennial cycle was followed, first of all distributing the readings over three and a half years, then over three years. In the Palestinian triennial cycle there are thus some 154-158 readings from the Torah, which are called sedarim (seder in the singular), also probably beginning in the context of the feast of Sukkot. These two traditional practices, annual and triennial, apparently go back to the end of the second century of our era, probably both in Palestine. In fact one finds that the principle of continuous reading of the Torah was hardly ever applied until the middle of the second century of our era, following a controversy between Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Judah (cf. Tosefta Megillah 4,10).
The golden age of the Palestinian triennial cycle coincided with the extraordinary architectural development of the Galilean synagogues in the third and fourth centuries, without speaking of the magnificent flowering of the homiletic art of this time, directly linked with the cycle of readings. The great books of homilies, such as the Midrash Rabbet) or the Tanhumot reflect this development.
Reading of the Haftarah
The reading from the Torah is generally followed by a text from the prophets, of ten taken from Isaiah or the twelve minor prophets. Certain scrolls like that of Ezekiel were still being questioned at the end of the first century of our era in what concerns their suitability for inclusion in these readings.
The author of Acts writes:
"After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them saying: Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it" (Acts 13:15).
At Antioch in Pisidia, where Paul was, as in the rest of Palestine, it was then the custom to read a passage taken from the prophets before giving the homily or saying a word of encouragement. But even at that time a custom such as this, while certainly adding value to the prophetic text and supported by the scribes and pharisees, was not universally accepted. Without speaking of sadducean circles or the Qumran sect, this practice does not seem to have been customary in places such as Alexandria; the homily or biblical exhortation of someone such as Philo of Alexandria follows immediately after the reading of the Torah. But possibly the custom of ending the office with a haftarah taken from the prophets was adopted more speedily; it is a word of farewell in the etymological sense. Nevertheless in first century Palestine the custom of reading from the prophets before the homily was already fairly widespread. There also it was question of selected passages, beginning with a new paragraph and chosen in relationship to the text from the Torah which immediately preceded it after some blessings had been pronounced. A verbal and above all a thematic link united the two readings. The prophetic text was thus presented as the completion or accomplishment of the Torah, its actualization and first official commentary. Under these circumstances it can be seen easily that any text from the prophets chosen at random would not be suitable; there must be a definite selection. On the other hand, certain texts from the Torah and the prophets were quickly juxtaposed by the process of textual attraction, which little by little gave rise to certain customary practices. There again, lectionaries and a calendar of readings did not yet exist, although it was already customary to put certain texts from the prophets alongside certain readings from the Torah. In the context of the triennial cycles, apart from the annual cycles still used today, a certain selection of prophetical readings became traditional.
A Triennial Cycle Reconstructed
A triennial cycle, as far as it has been possible to reconstruct it, can be drawn from the work of Jacob Mann 1, starting from the ancient Palestinian manuscripts or fragments discovered in the Genizah of Old Cairo. The length of the readings is noteworthy: those from the Torah (sedarim) have at least twenty verses and those from the prophets (haftarot) about ten. The divisions for the readings from the Torah vary according to regions: several variations are indicated (very often ancient ones). The choice of haftarot also vary according to synagogues, as has already been stated. Mann has question marks to show readings whose existence is doubtful.
The Palestinian readings for major and minor feasts are in part different from those accepted in Babylon; this means that the readings currently used in the synagogue are also different. Examples of this are Rosh ha-Shanah (New Year) with readings from Lev. 23:23ff. and Joel 2:1ff. and the seven days of Passover.
Scripture: Threading a String of Pearls
The haftarot are chosen in the light of Torah readings. A verbal link, a joining word, above all one or more similar themes, bring them together. One example is the reading concerning the burning bush, that is, seder 47, which comprises the reading Ex. 3:14:17. (It is quoted in Mark 12:26 and by Philo of Alexandria in his De Somniis para. 194). After the text of •the Torah (Ex. 3:1: Moses was keeping the flock...) a haftarah taken from Isaiah is read; at first it included twenty verses, but later only twelve were considered necessary: Is. 40:11-19, 31 or Is. 40:11-18, 21-22 (Is. 40:11: He will feed his flock like a shepherd).
In the magnificent homilies which flourished particularly from the third century down to our own day, you see the homilist take up an opening verse (petihah), for example, Ps. 78:71: From tending the ewes that had young he (God) brought him (David) to be shepherd of Jacob his people. Starting here, he would show how God, the shepherd of Israel, himself chose shepherds for his people, having first tested them with the shepherding of a flock. The homilist uses many examples of the pastoral theme drawn from the Pentateuch, the Prophets and the Writings; one such is Mic. 7:14: Shepherd thy people with thy staff. Such biblical chains made up of links from the same theme, vibrated round the synagogue until it was transformed into a sort of living concordance of the whole Bible. The biblical texts were in fact threaded like pearls, according to an ancient expression, in order to highlight the fundamental message.
In addition, the homilist freely makes use of elements drawn from oral haggadie or narrative tradition, in order to build up and elaborate the theme proper to the sabbath. The synagogue thus becomes the place for the collection and unification of the whole of Revelation, starting from Scripture and this oral Bible, the latter also deriving from Moses. In this homiletic game where the Bible explains the Bible in never-ending echoes, the word spoken in the synagogue is never out-of-date. The action and reaction of the biblical texts one upon the other enable the homilist both to recall the different interpretations already given to a text by the rabbis of yesteryear and to clarify their meaning; in this way he himself enters and brings others into the very movement of the text as it renders up its perennial significance.
Notes* Pere Charles Perrot lectures at l'Institut Catholique, Paris, and is author of several articles and books, notably one which is directly linked with our subject: La lecture de la Bible dans la synagogue. Les anciennes lectures palestiniennes du Shabbat et des fêtes, Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 1973.
1. Jacob Mann: The Bible as Read and Preached in the Old Synagogue, Vol. 1, Ktav, New York 1971; Jacob Mann & Isaiah Sonne, Vol. II, Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati 1966. Their work has been systemized by Charles Perrot into a complete list of the triennial cycle of Torah and Haftarot in La Lecture de la Bible dans la Synagogue, Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 1973, pp. 53-87.
