Removing the Torah

Koren Shalem Siddur·PDF 222-223·Hotzaat Sefer Torah

הוצאת ספר תורה

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הוצאת ספר תורה

REMOVING THE TORAH FROM THE ARK

On Mondays and Thursdays, Rosh Hodesh, Hol HaMoed, Hanukka, Purim and Fast Days, the Torah is read when a minyan is present. On all other days, continue with “Happy are those” on page 176.

Before taking the Torah out of the Ark, on Mondays and Thursdays, stand while reciting “God, slow to anger.” It is not said on Rosh Hodesh, Hol HaMoed, Erev Pesah, Hanukka, the 14th and 15th of Adar I, Purim and Shushan Purim, Yom HaAtzmaut, Yom Yerushalayim, Tisha BAv or in a house of mourning, and in Israel on Isru Hag. Most people say both paragraphs; some say only the first.

Hebrew

אֵל אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת, אַל בְּאַפְּךָ תוֹכִיחֵנוּ. חוּסָה יְהוָה עַל עַמֶּךָ, וְהוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ מִכָּל רָע. חָטָאנוּ לְךָ אָדוֹן, סְלַח נָא כְּרוֹב רַחֲמֶיךָ אֵל.

English

God, slow to anger, abounding in loving-kindness and truth, do not rebuke us in Your anger. Have pity on Your people, LORD, and save us from all evil. We have sinned against You, LORD. Please forgive in accordance with Your great compassion, God.

Sephardi

el ereche afayim verab chesed veemet, al beafecha tochiychenu. chusa Adonai al amecha, veoshiyenu michal ra. chatanu lecha adon, selach na cherob rachameycha el.

Hebrew

אֵל אֶֽרֶךְ אַפַּֽיִם וּמָלֵא רַחֲמִים, אַל-תַּסְתֵּר פָּנֶֽיךָ מִמֶּֽנוּ: חֽוּסָה יְהֹוָה עַל-יִשְׂרָאֵל עַמֶּֽךָ וְהַצִּילֵֽנוּ מִכָּל-רָע: חָטָֽאנוּ לְךָ אָדוֹן, סְלַח נָא כְּרוֹב רַחֲמֶֽיךָ אֵל:

English

God, slow to anger, full of compassion, do not hide Your face from us. Have pity on the remnant of Israel Your people, LORD, and deliver us from all evil. We have sinned against You, LORD. Please forgive in accordance with Your great compassion, God.

Sephardi

el ereche afayim umale rachamiym, al-taseter faneycha mimenu: chusa Adonai al-Yisrael amecha vehatziylenu michal-ra: chatanu lecha adon, selach na cherob rachameycha el:

The Ark is opened and the congregation stands. All say:

Num. 10; Is. 2

Hebrew

וַיְהִי בִּנְסֹֽעַ הָאָרֹן וַיּֽאמֶר משֶׁה קוּמָה יְהֹוָה וְיָפֻֽצוּ אֹיְבֶֽיךָ וְיָנֻֽסוּ מְשַׂנְאֶֽיךָ מִפָּנֶֽיךָ: כִּי מִצִּיּוֹן תֵּצֵא תוֹרָה וּדְבַר יְהֹוָה מִירוּשָׁלָֽםִ: בָּרוּךְ שֶׁנָּתַן תּוֹרָה לְעַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל בִּקְדֻשָּׁתוֹ:

English

Whenever the Ark set out, Moses would say, “Arise, LORD, and may Your enemies be scattered. May those who hate You flee before You.” For the Torah shall come forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. Blessed is He who, in His holiness, gave the Torah to His people Israel.

Sephardi

vayehiy binesoa haaron vaymer Moshe kuma Adonai veyafutzu oyebeycha veyanusu meshaneeycha mifaneycha: ki mitziyon tetze Torah udebar Adonai miYerushalayim: Baruch shenatan Torah l'amo Yisrael bikedushato:

// Commentary

From earliest times, the public reading of the Torah has been a constitutive element of the spiritual life of Israel. At Mount Sinai, to confirm the covenant between the people and God, Moses “took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people” (Ex. 24:7). The penultimate commandment of the Torah specifies that every seven years, on Sukkot following the sabbatical year, there should be a national assembly at which “the people, men, women, children and the strangers in your communities” are to hear the Torah proclaimed “so that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and observe faithfully all the words of this Torah” (Deut. 31:12).

At critical moments during the biblical era, when the people had drifted from their faith, national renewal was marked by a public Torah reading. King Jehoshaphat sent out officers who “taught throughout Judah, having with them a scroll of the LORD’s Torah. They circulated throughout the towns of Judah and taught the people” (II Chr. 17:9). King Josiah assembled “all the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the Levites, and all the people, young and old alike, and read to them the entire book of the Covenant which had been found in the LORD’s Temple” (II Chr. 34:30).

The book of Nehemiah (8:1-12) contains a graphic description of the return of the Babylonian exiles to Israel. Ezra gathered the people at the Temple and read the Torah to them “from dawn until midday,” assisted by Levites who “interpreted it and explained its meaning, so that they understood the verses.”

These were national occasions. At a more local level, tradition holds that Moses instituted the practice that the Torah be read on Shabbat, Yom Tov, Hol HaMoed, and Rosh Hodesh. Ezra ordained that it also be read on Mondays and Thursdays, market days in ancient times, and on Shabbat afternoons (Yerushalmi, Megilla 4:1). The public reading of the Torah is as ancient an institution as prayer itself.

The synagogue thus became not only a house of prayer but also a house of study. The result is a dynamic tension between speaking and listening. In prayer, we speak to God. In study we listen to God speaking to us, His word unchanged and undiminished across the centuries.