Megillah, Daf Kaf Daled, Part 1

 

Introduction

Today’s section opens with mishnah teaching various rules about reading the Torah in public.

 

משנה.

1)     הקורא בתורה לא יפחות משלשה פסוקים,

2)     ולא יקרא למתורגמן יותר מפסוק אחד.ובנביא שלשה.

a)     היו שלשתן שלש פרשיות קורין אחד אחד.

3)     מדלגין בנביא, ואין מדלגין בתורה.

a)     ועד כמה הוא מדלג? עד כדי שלא יפסוק המתורגמן.

 

 

1)     One who reads the Torah [in public] may not read les than three verses.

2)     And he should not read to the translator more than one verse [at a time], but [if reading from the book of a] prophet [he may read to him] three at a time.

a)     If the three verses constitute three separate paragraphs, he must read them [to the translator] one by one.

3)     They may skip [from place to place] in a prophet but not in the Torah.

a)     How far may he skip [in the prophet]? [Only] so far that the translator will not have stopped [before he finds his place].

 

Section one: An aliyah may not consist of less than three verses.

Section two: In mishnaic times the spoken language was Aramaic. Many people, perhaps most people, would have had trouble understanding the Torah in its original Hebrew. Therefore, as part of the public reading of the Torah, there was a translator who would translate verse by verse. The reader was to read one verse and then the translator would translate this verse. However, when it came to reading the haftarah from one of the prophets, they allowed the reader to read three verses at a time. They were less exacting on the precision of the haftarah translation than they were for the translation of the Torah. However, if each verse is its own section, then the reader must read each one on its own. This refers to Isaiah 52:3-5 where there are three verses, each considered to be its own section.

Section three: When reading the haftarah, he may skip from place to place so long as he doesn t have to roll the scroll so far that they translator has completed his translation before he gets to the new verse. Today there are many haftarot where we skip from one place in the book to another, or if reading from one of the twelve minor prophets, from one prophet to another. However, when it comes to the Torah it is forbidden to skip around.

 

גמרא. הני שלשה פסוקין כנגד מי? אמר רב אסי: כנגד תורה נביאים וכתובים.

 

GEMARA. What do these three verses represent? R. Assi said: The Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings.

 

The number three is considered representative of the three parts of the Bible Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim.

 

ולא יקרא למתורגמן יותר מפסוק אחד ובנביא שלשה פסוקים, ואם היו שלשתן שלש פרשיות קורא אחד אחד, כגון +ישעיהו נ"ב+ כי כה אמר ה‘ חנם נמכרתם, +ישעיהו נ"ב+ כי כה אמר ה‘ אלהים מצרים ירד עמי בראשנה, +ישעיהו נ"ב+ ועתה מה לי פה נאם ה‘.

 

And he should not read to the translator more than one verse [at a time], but [if reading from the book of a] prophet [he may read to him] three at a time.

If the three verses constitute three separate paragraphs, he must read them [to the translator] one by one.

For instance, [the three verses], "For thus says the Lord, you were sold for nothing" For thus says the Lord God, my people went down to Egypt in times of yore" ; Now therefore what is there for me here, says the Lord" (Isaiah 52:3-5).

 

Sometimes one verse can constitute a single paragraph. In such a case the reader must read each verse to the translator one at a time. The Talmud cites an example of this from Isaiah.

מדלגין בנביא ואין מדלגין בתורה, ורמינהי: קורא +ויקרא ט"ז+ אחרי מות +ויקרא כ"ג+ ואך בעשור. והא קא מדלג. אמר אביי: לא קשיא: כאן בכדי שיפסוק התורגמן, וכאן בכדי שלא יפסוק התורגמן.

 

They may skip [from place to place] in a prophet but not in the Torah. They raised contradiction [between this and the following]: He [the High Priest] reads [on Yom Kippur] "After the death" (Leviticus 16) and "Only on the tenth day" (Leviticus 23:26-32). But he is skipping?

Abaye said: There is no contradiction; here so that the translator will have come to a stop [before the place is found] in the other case he will not have come to a stop.

 

The Mishnah states that one may not skip in reading from place to place when reading the Torah. However, a baraita describes the reading of the High Priest in the Temple on Yom Kippur. He begins with Leviticus 16 and then skips to Leviticus 23. How can he skip?

Abaye answers that if the skip is short enough to get to the next place before the translator has completed his translation, it is okay to skip. These two passages in Leviticus are close enough that it is allowed to skip.

 

והא עלה קתני: מדלגין בנביא ואין מדלגין בתורה, ועד כמה הוא מדלג עד כדי שלא יפסוק התורגמן, מכלל דבתורה כלל כלל לא.

 

They may skip [from place to place] in a prophet but not in the Torah.

How far may he skip [in the prophet]? [Only] so far that the translator will not have stopped [before he finds his place].

From this we infer that in the Torah he may not skip at all?

 

The Mishnah said that one could skip when reading the Prophets only as long as it takes the translator to complete his translation of the prior section. But this is only with the Prophets. When it comes to the Torah, skipping is not allowed at all.

 

אלא אמר אביי: לא קשיא: כאן בענין אחד, כאן בשתי עניינות. והתניא: מדלגין בתורה בענין אחד, ובנביא בשני עניינין. כאן וכאן בכדי שלא יפסוק התורגמן.

 

Rather Abaye said: There is no contradiction: Here [the reader deals] with one subject, in the other case with two; and in fact it has been taught: The reader may skip in the Torah within one subject, and in a Prophet even if he goes on to another subject ; and in both cases only so far that the translator will not have stopped [before he finds the place].

 

Abaye now refines his previous resolution. One is not allowed under any circumstances to skip from one topic to the other when reading the Torah. The two passages in Leviticus are both about Yom Kippur and since they are in close proximity one can skip from reading one to the other.

Thus there are two conditions needed to allow skipping around in the Torah: one subject and close proximity. The congregation should not be confused by skipping from subject to subject nor should they be inconvenienced by having to wait for the Torah to be rolled to some far off place.

 

תניא אידך: אין מדלגין מנביא לנביא, ובנביא של שנים עשר מדלג, ובלבד שלא ידלג מסוף הספר לתחילתו.

 

It has been taught in another baraita: They may not skip from one prophet to another. In the Twelve Minor Prophets they may skip, as long as he does not skip from the end of the book to the beginning.

 

It is forbidden to skip from one book of the Prophets to another. The Twelve Minor Prophets were all written in one scroll, and therefore one can skip from one prophet to another within the scroll. But skipping from the beginning to the end is overdoing it, for it would take too long.