Weekly Torah portion
The weekly Torah portion (Hebrew: פָּרָשַׁת הַשָּׁבוּעַ Parashat ha-Shavua, popularly just parashah or parshah // or parsha and also known as a Sidra or Sedra // is a section of the Torah (Hebrew Bible). It is read publicly and aloud by a designated reader (ba'al koreh) in Jewish prayer services, usually in full during the Shabbat (Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath) morning service and in part during the Shabbat afternoon and Monday and Thursday morning services, except when pre-empted by a religious holiday. There are 54 such parashiyot (plural) or parshahs (anglicized pluralization) in Judaism, and the full cycle is read over the course of one Jewish year.
Each weekly Torah portion takes its name from the first most distinct word in the Hebrew text of the portion in question, often from the first verse. Dating back to the time of the Babylonian captivity (6th century BCE), public Torah reading mostly followed an annual cycle beginning and ending on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, with the divisions corresponding to the lunisolar Hebrew calendar, which contains up to 55 weeks, the exact number varying between leap years and regular years.
In ancient times some Jewish communities practiced a triennial cycle of readings. In the 19th and 20th centuries, many congregations in the Reform and Conservative Jewish movements implemented an alternative triennial cycle in which only one-third of each weekly parashah was read in a given year; and this pattern continues. The parashot read are still consistent with the annual cycle but the entire Torah is completed over three years. Orthodox Judaism does not follow this practice.
Due to different lengths of holidays in Israel and the Diaspora, the portion that is read on a particular week will sometimes not be the same inside and outside Israel.
Division into weekly parashot
The division of parashiot found in the modern-day Torah scrolls of all Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Yemenite communities is based upon the systematic list provided by Maimonides in Mishneh Torah, Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah and Torah Scrolls, Chapter 8. Maimonides based his division of the parashot for the Torah on the Masoretic text of the Aleppo Codex.
Table of weekly readings
In the table, a portion that may be combined with the following portion, to compensate for the changing number of weeks in the lunisolar year, is marked with an asterisk.The following chart will show the weekly readings.
|Book||Parsha Name||English Equivalent||Parsha Portion|
|Bereshit (Genesis)||Bereshit, בְּרֵאשִׁית||In the beginning||Gen. 1:1-6:8|
|Noach, נֹחַ||Noah (rest)||6:9-11:32|
|Lech-Lecha, לֶךְ-לְךָ||Go forth, yourself!||12:1-17:27|
|Vayeira, וַיֵּרָא||And He appeared||18:1-22:24|
|Chayei Sarah, חַיֵּי שָׂרָה||Life of Sarah||23:1-25:18|
|Vayetze, וַיֵּצֵא||And he went out||28:10-32:3|
|Vayishlach, וַיִּשְׁלַח||And he sent||32:4-36:43|
|Vayeshev, וַיֵּשֶׁב||And he settled||37:1-40:23|
|Miketz, מִקֵּץ||At the end of||41:1-44:17|
|Vayigash, וַיִּגַּשׁ||And he drew near||44:18-47:27|
|Vayechi, וַיְחִי||And he lived||47:28-50:26|
|Shemot (Exodus)||Shemot, שְׁמוֹת||Names||Ex. 1:1-6:1|
|Beshalach, בְּשַׁלַּח||When he sent out||13:17-17:16|
|Tetzaveh, תְּצַוֶּה||You shall command||27:20-30:10|
|Ki Tisa, כִּי תִשָּׂא||When you elevate||30:11-34:35|
|*Vayakhel, וַיַּקְהֵל||And he assembled||35:1-38:20|
|Vayikra (Leviticus)||Vayikra, וַיִּקְרָא||And he called||Lev. 1:1-5:26|
|*Tazria, תַזְרִיעַ||She bears seed||12:1-13:59|
|Metzora, מְּצֹרָע||Infected one||14:1-15:33|
|*Acharei Mot, אַחֲרֵי מוֹת||After the death||16:1-18:30|
|Kedoshim, קְדֹשִׁים||Holy ones||19:1-20:27|
|Emor, אֱמֹר||Say gently||21:1-24:23|
|*Behar, בְּהַר||On the Mount||25:1-26:2|
|Bechukotai, בְּחֻקֹּתַי||In My statutes||26:3-27:34|
|Bemidbar (Numbers)||Bamidbar, בְּמִדְבַּר||In the wilderness||Num. 1:1-4:20|
|Behaalotecha, בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ||In your uplifting||8:1-12:16|
|Shlach, שְׁלַח-לְךָ||Send for yourself||13:1-15:41|
|Masei, מַסְעֵי||Journeys of||33:1-36:13|
|Devarim (Deuteronomy)||Devarim, דְּבָרִים||Words||Deut. 1:1-3:22|
|Eikev, עֵקֶב||As a result||7:12-11:25|
|Ki Teitzei, כִּי-תֵצֵא||When you go out||21:10-25:19|
|Ki Tavo, כִּי-תָבוֹא||When you enter in||26:1-29:8|
|Vayelech, וַיֵּלֶךְ||And he went||31:1-31:30|
|V'Zot HaBerachah, וְזֹאת הַבְּרָכָה||And this the blessing||33:1-34:12|
- Sefer Torah
- Tikkun (book)
- Torah reading
- Weekly Maqam
- One week is always Passover and another is always Sukkot, and the final parashah, V'Zot HaBerachah, is always read on Simchat Torah. Therefore, there are in practice up to 53 available weeks for 53 portions. In years with fewer than 53 available weeks, some readings are combined to achieve the needed number of weekly readings.
- Though initially doubted by Umberto Cassuto, this has become the established position in modern scholarship. (See the Aleppo Codex article for more information.)
- Links to the Hebrew text for weekly Torah portions
- Google Calendar of weekly Torah portions for Diaspora
- Google Calendar of weekly Torah portions for Israel
- Weekly Torah portion videos
- Torah portion for kids
- The Weekly Parshah
- Parsha Partner Discussion topics based on the weekly Torah portion
- The Weekly Parshah in Hebrew