Why We Combine Only Certain Parshios
“Why did you vote for that candidate?” I asked.
I was curious. The shul in question was looking for a rav and brought in three well-known talmidei chachamim for probahs.
One of the members of the board –a friend –was giving me updates throughout the process, so as to discuss the proper procedures of those three complicated shabbosim.
It was time for the vote and he volunteered that he was voting for Rav X.
At risk of avak lashon harah, I wondered what maaleh he saw in this particular rav (without sharing perceived chasronos of his or the others, hence the risk of avak lashon harah).
He explained, “Well, they were all fantastic, however, my decision was easy. On the Friday night of this particular rav’s prabah, most of the shul lined up to wish the candidate a gut Shabbos…”
I’ve been in this situation before, and it is always a strenuous pressure. Everyone shares with you their name, you respond with questions (e.g. “Oh, are you related to so-and-so?” etc.). There is simply no way to remember all of these brief –and sometimes intimate- rapid exchanges that you had. By the next day your mind is mush; an amalgam of thousands of bits of info.
He continued. “So, when it was my turn I was brief. But my teenage son asked him a quick kashah on the parsha –something that has long bothered him. We then quickly shuffled off. The next day, as we were waking to shalosh seudos the candidate walked over to my son. ‘I found that the Netziv asks your question’ he said. He then proceeded to give over the Netziv’s answer as well as an answer of his own.
“If someone, during such an significant 24-hour period of their life –and one of the busiest –took time to look-up and answer a young man’s shailah, well, that is the rav for me.”
I could not agree more. We have said often in this space that one of the great maalos of rabbanus is not just the interesting questions one receives –as we all hear great kashos from time to time – but the necessity to at least give effort in finding answers.
This year is a great example of this. There is a question which I would venture every reader has had in their back of their mind this year (and previous similar years), and even if ever verbalized rarely took the time to search for an answer.
I do not have that ‘luxury’.
This morning, after shachris, a young member asked me this question.
Whenever the 22nd of Nissan fall on Shabbos a strange situation is created. In eretz yisroel it is just a regular Shabbos, although issru chag, and they read the parshas hashavuah. For us in chutz l’aretz, it is acharon shel pesach, which has its own special kriah. Meaning, the next week we read the parsha they had read the Shabbos before.
We are out of sync!
This continues so that the week you are reading this article, if you are in chutz l’aretz the parsha is Emor, and if you are in eretz yisroel, the parsha is Bahar!
(This can happen due to Shavuos as well, see Biur HaGr’a and Biur Halacha siman 428 s.v. bamidbar for all the ways the parshios can fall out each year, and why. See also Shaarei Yitzchak end of klal 11. See Magen Avraham ad loc. sif katan 6 and Mishna Berrura 10).
The questions become numerous. For instance, my father and other bnei eretz yisroel who were here for Pesach will soon be returning to eretz yisroel. They will be one parsha behind! What to do in such a case is a matter of great discussion, and the reader is advised to see Yom Tov Sheni K’Hilchoso, pages 138-141).
But there is a deeper, non-halachik question that this creates, and it was this that the young man this morning wished to know. Why do we wait so long to get back in sync? Amazingly, it is not until the month of Av–the parshios of Mattos-Massei –that we catch up! That week, in eretz yisroel they lein only Massei while we lein both.
His question is a great one.
There certainly are sooner candidates, for example, this year, chutz l’aretz could have easily merged Achrei Mos and Kedoshim and we would have been caught the very first week! Another sooner candidate is the potential double parsha of Behar–Bechukosei as is done in non-leap years.
In addition, when the 22nd of Nissan falls on Shabbos in non-leap years, we could also easily merge in chutz l’aretz Tazria–Metzorah.
Why then do we wait all the way till the summer? It seems that we are going out of our way to stay out of sync for some time.
Strange.
To get an understanding of all of this, we first have to unpack the history of the parshios.
Historically, finishing the Torah once a year was not a universal custom, with some communities completing it only once every three years-three and a half (see Megilla 29b).
Still in the year 1170 there were two shuls in Egypt –one that leined what we know today as the parshios of the week, and the other that read at a third that pace (Masoas Binyamin M’Toledo, Adler edition, p. 63)!
Yes, this means that the latter group did not have ‘Simchas Torah’! (See Toldos Simchas Torah, ch. 1)
At some point, around 800 years ago, everyone began to complete the Torah cycle once every year.
The system still went through certain revisions, for instance the Avudaram gives us one double parsha that we no longer observe –Shelach–Korach!
In fact, the Chida quotes from the Rosh that “The purpose of the divisions of parshios is simply so as to finish the Torah once every year. Each leader of every community separates and combines the parshios as he sees fit, for these are not halachos rather minhag (shu’t Chaim Shaal, Chazah HaTenufa; Kitzur Teshuvos HaRosh 54. See also shu’t Ohr Zarua 2:45 for an interesting communal case where he echoes the same point as the Rosh).
However, certainly at our point in history we are obliged to follow minhag yisroel.
With the above in mind our question is only stronger –why don’t we just combine an earlier set of parshios instead of waiting till the month of Av to become in sync?
Before providing an answer, one more piece of history is critical.
Have you ever wondered why we start from Bereishis at Sukkos time? Would it not make more sense to create a yearly cycle that began and ended on Shavuos?
Imagine dancing with the Torah on the very day of nesinas hatorah (sh’baal peh, see Gittin 60)!
The answer comes from a chazal (Megilla 31b) where we are taught that Ezra established that we read the kelolos found in Vayikra before Shavous and those found in Devarim before Rosh Hashana, so that the new years (Shavuos is the new year for the fruits of trees) can commence with the curses behind them.
Meaning, even those that only finished the Torah once every three years would stop at these times of year to lein Bechukosei and Ki Savo.
Now, if one pauses to think about it, one will recognize that with our one-year cycle that starts on Sukkos it works out anyway to read those parshios at their designated times! Meaning, we set our weekly schedule to fit the takana of Ezra!
With all of this in mind we get an answeras to why we wait so long to be in sync with eretz yisreol.
The Maharit (d.1639) in a teshuva (2:4) asks this question. He first quotes the above gemara about takanas Ezra, and reminds us that we follow the view of Tosfos (s.v. kelolos) to lein the kelolos two shabbosim before those yomim tovim, so that we have a buffer of one stam parsha in-between.
Now we can understand why we wait so long to join eretz yisroel. Because of the way Pesach fell this year they will be leining the kelolos with a two week buffer before Shavous. While they have no choice in the matter, we certainly do not wish to join them in being so distant from the takana of Ezra!
There are other explanations to this issue –and even some who do split earlier parshios in eretz yisroel (see shu’t Mishpetei Yisroel 3:58), but we chose this answer here for with it one learns so much about the history of krias haTorah! And so, I answered the young man…thankfully I already have the job!
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