Torah Reading on a Friday Night
Daniel Faigin
regarding the reading of Torah. Some background:
1. We have a regular Saturday morning learners' minyan that reads
Torah every Saturday morning. This is relatively new (past 3 years);
before that, there was regular reading about 2x a month on Friday
night.
2. We have a set service schedule, with Torah centered (i.e., reading
or study) services on the 1st and 3rd Shabbats. One is normally a
Torah study; the other a Torah reading. [FYI: The 2nd is a family
service; the 4th is either social action or a meditation
(spirituality) service]
This year, things have conspired against us regarding reading the
Torah on Friday nights. We've either had holidays (Yom Kippur, Rosh
Hashanah (which moved a social action service), Chanukah) or Bar/Bat
Mitzvahs interfering.
So, on to my questions:
(1) In your congregation, if a Bar/Bat Mitzvah is scheduled for the
following morning, do you read Torah the Friday night before? Do you
read the same portion as the child will read the following morning?
(2)Does your congregation regularly read Torah on a Friday night? If
so, how frequently, and how many aliyahs do you typically have?
Daniel
W/H: faigin -at pacificnet.net http://www.pacificnet.net/~faigin/
Mod., Mail.Liberal-Judaism (www.mljewish.org) Advisor, s.c.j.Parenting
Maintainer, S.C.J FAQ/RL (www.scjfaq.org) Daddy to Erin Shoshana
Maintainer, Calif. Highways List (www.cahighways.org)
Webmaven, Temple Beth Torah of Granada Hills (www.bethtorah-sfv.org)
Don Levey
> Our (Reform) congregation is having an interesting discussion
> regarding the reading of Torah. Some background:
>
> So, on to my questions:
>
> (1) In your congregation, if a Bar/Bat Mitzvah is scheduled for the
> following morning, do you read Torah the Friday night before? Do you
> read the same portion as the child will read the following morning?
>
We will do so, regardless of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah, if possible.
Since we tend not to read the entire parsha, we will select a section
different from the one read the next day, in most circumstances.
> (2)Does your congregation regularly read Torah on a Friday night? If
> so, how frequently, and how many aliyahs do you typically have?
>
> Daniel
>
We read on Friday night about 50% of the time. However, we do not have
the full 7 aliyot then; we tend to stay around 1-3.
--
Don Levey NOTE: spamtrapped address likely to change
Framingham, MA at any moment. Most recent post has best
address.
Tonibaruch
fai...@pacificnet.net wrote on 2-12-2003 22:36:
>
> 1. We have a regular Saturday morning learners' minyan that reads
> Torah every Saturday morning. This is relatively new (past 3 years);
> before that, there was regular reading about 2x a month on Friday
> night.
>
> 2. We have a set service schedule, with Torah centered (i.e., reading
> or study) services on the 1st and 3rd Shabbats. One is normally a
> Torah study; the other a Torah reading. [FYI: The 2nd is a family
> service; the 4th is either social action or a meditation
> (spirituality) service]
Our Torah reading service always is Shachrit Shabbat. I can't remember any
occasion when we read Torah in the evening. Sometimes, we had an
anticipation of the derasha of the following morning. We use to study the
Parashah individually (I often do it on thursday night or friday night after
the service which includes a common dinner) and on shachrit shabbat we have
a discussion on it instead of a sermon, usually. But this may vary if some
Rabbi visits. In this case we'll most probably will be eaager to hear what
the visiting rabbi has to say before and make some short comments and
discussions after, keeping time in consideration (nobody looks to end
Shachrit late in the afternoon...).
Antonio
Antonio
Tonibaruch
Don_...@the-leveys.us wrote on 2-12-2003 23:51:
> Since we tend not to read the entire parsha, we will select a section
> different from the one read the next day, in most circumstances.
Our structure tends to be more traditional, as we read the entire parasha on
shabbat shacrit. Exceptions are rare.
As we are selecting a congregational rabbi, if some candidate comes, we'll
tend to spend more time in the discussion with him and less to reading. In
these occasions we will go for just a selection of the Parasha.
Antonio
Herman Rubin
Daniel Faigin <fai...@pacificnet.net> wrote:
>Our (Reform) congregation is having an interesting discussion
>regarding the reading of Torah. Some background:
>1. We have a regular Saturday morning learners' minyan that reads
>Torah every Saturday morning. This is relatively new (past 3 years);
>before that, there was regular reading about 2x a month on Friday
>night.
>2. We have a set service schedule, with Torah centered (i.e., reading
>or study) services on the 1st and 3rd Shabbats. One is normally a
>Torah study; the other a Torah reading. [FYI: The 2nd is a family
>service; the 4th is either social action or a meditation
>(spirituality) service]
>This year, things have conspired against us regarding reading the
>Torah on Friday nights. We've either had holidays (Yom Kippur, Rosh
>Hashanah (which moved a social action service), Chanukah) or Bar/Bat
>Mitzvahs interfering.
>So, on to my questions:
>(1) In your congregation, if a Bar/Bat Mitzvah is scheduled for the
>following morning, do you read Torah the Friday night before? Do you
>read the same portion as the child will read the following morning?
>(2)Does your congregation regularly read Torah on a Friday night? If
>so, how frequently, and how many aliyahs do you typically have?
We regularly have the Torah read on Friday night; not the
entire parashah, but a selection from it. I do not recall
whether we do this when there is a bar/bath mitzvah the
next day; often we have our b'nei mitzvah on Friday night.
On a normal Friday night, we have one aliyah. B'nei mitzvoth
typically have three or four, as well as the haftarah. I do
not recall ever having the full six plus maftir.
If a holiday causes a different Torah portion to be read,
the other portion is read instead.
In the summer, there are several weeks where we read the
haftarah, usually from Isaiah, instead of the Torah portion.
--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
hru...@stat.purdue.edu Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558