The Triennial Torah Reading Cycle

Introduction

In modern rabbinical Judaism, the five books of the Torah are read in one year. This is because rabbinical Judaism reads the Torah according to ancient Babylonian Jewish custom. However, the custom in Galilee and Judea was to read the Torah in a cycle of three years. In the early centuries after the destruction of the Temple, the rabbis in Babylon were politically stronger than the disenfranchised Jewish community in the Land of Israel. As a result, their custom prevailed over that of Jews who remained in the Holy Land.

Reading the Torah in one year results in very long readings that few people can hold attention to, and as a result, any sermon afterwards can only give a cursory exposition of the text – if one is given at all. The Reform movement has attempted to get round this problem by reading only a third of each reading; in the first year they read the first third of each portion, in the second year they read the second third, and the third year they read the third. Its drawback is that it results in a disjointed flow of narrative.

However, reading the Torah in a three-year cycle gives a shorter reading that people can absorb much more easily. It also provides the sermon-giver with the opportunity to go into an exposition of the text in greater detail. It is also interesting to note that the current divisions into chapters that we have now in the bible very closely correspond to the weekly portions of the triennial cycle.

The three-year cycle also enables certain readings to be read at appropriate times of the year – for example, the story of the Exodus and of the Israelites leaving Egypt is read around Passover in the second year.

Within the Talmidi community, the custom of Torah reading differs. Liberal Talmidis and Yeshuinists read the Torah in the ancient three-year cycle of Eretz Yisrael; Ebionites and Beth Emet read Torah according to the Babylonian one-year cycle

Year 1, Year 2, Year 3,