Why We Read the Torah Mondays & Thursdays | Water, Ezra’s Takkanah, and Who’s Obligated скачать в хорошем качестве

Why We Read the Torah Mondays & Thursdays | Water, Ezra’s Takkanah, and Who’s Obligated

In this shiur, Rabbi Perlow explains the deep roots of Krias HaTorah (public Torah reading) and why Chazal established a fixed rhythm of reading from a Sefer Torah on Shabbos, Monday, and Thursday. He begins with the week’s parsha, where the nation goes three days in the desert without water, and the Gemara learns from this that Torah is compared to water: just as water is essential for physical life, Torah is essential for spiritual life. Because three days without Torah “wears a person down,” the early leaders enacted public Torah reading so that no three-day stretch would pass without Torah. Rabbi Perlow then addresses why the weekday readings were set specifically for Monday and Thursday. He brings a Midrash (quoted by Tosafos) that Moshe Rabbeinu ascended to receive the Torah on a Thursday and came down on a Monday, making those days a special eis ratzon (a favorable time) for tefillah and Torah. This also helps explain why other communal practices and fasts are often associated with Monday and Thursday. The shiur explores why the solution to “three days without Torah” was specifically a formal public reading from a Sefer Torah, with all its rules, rather than other forms of learning. One key idea is that the original problem was public, and the remedy needed to be a tikun for the tzibbur (the community). Rabbi Perlow explains how communal Torah learning—especially Torah read publicly with a minyan—has a unique spiritual power that individual learning cannot fully replicate. From there, he discusses Ezra’s role in strengthening the enactment: Ezra set minimum standards (three aliyos and at least ten pesukim on Monday/Thursday, and a brief reading on Shabbos afternoon) to give the takkanah structure and make it “catch on” in a lasting way. This leads into an important halachic question: Is Krias HaTorah de’Oraisa (biblical) or derabbanan (rabbinic)? Rabbi Perlow presents the Bach’s minority view that if the takkanah traces back to Moshe it may be de’Oraisa, but explains that the mainstream assumption among most Rishonim and Acharonim is that it is derabbanan—an issue with practical implications in cases of doubt (safek). The shiur then tackles another major question: Is Krias HaTorah an obligation on each individual to hear every word, similar to hearing Megillas Esther, or is it primarily an obligation on the tzibbur that when ten are present they must read publicly? Rabbi Perlow brings three strong proofs that it is mainly a communal obligation: the discussion about a minor (katan) being able to receive an aliyah, the Gemara describing a sage who did not actively listen in the usual way (with the main concern being kavod haTorah—respect for the Torah), and the famous shul in Alexandria where thousands could not hear the blessings clearly yet still answered Amen via signals—explained by Tosafos as acceptable because this was not the same kind of personal obligation as other mitzvos that require direct hearing. He also notes that while most sources frame Krias HaTorah as a communal obligation, there are minority views that treat it more like a personal obligation, and he discusses how later Poskim weigh these approaches. The shiur concludes with a practical and spiritual takeaway: whatever the technical categories, the accepted minhag of Klal Yisrael is to be careful to listen attentively to every word, to treat leining with seriousness, and not to talk during Krias HaTorah—recognizing it as a unique and powerful form of Torah learning that comes straight from the Sefer Torah. krias-hatorah torah-reading monday thursday shabbos public-reading takkanah enactment torah-as-water midbar three-days ezra aliya aliyos ten-pesukim shabbos-mincha rambam kesef-mishneh bach deoraisa derabbanan safek doubt obligation tzibbur community individual chiyuv megillah mikra-megillah alexandria-shul amen-yesoma hearing-bracha tosafos ran mishnah-berurah igros-moshe rav-moshe-feinstein missed-torah-reading make-up-leining covid making-up-parshiyos not-talking-during-leining