Talk:Weekly Torah portion

Combined parshot
Among other changes, I just marked with an asterisk those portions which can be combined with the succeeding portion in order to fit the right number of weeks in a year with less than 54 weeks. I'm not completely certain how this works and would certainly love to have more information. My source for this was ; I just cross-referenced the names and Scripture references to see which ones were combined. Something I read implied all leap years were 54 weeks and all non-leap years were 50 weeks, but my initial thoughts from what I understand of the Hebrew calendar are that there would have to occasionally be slightly different numbers of weeks. So is there a precedence on how this combination is done, or what? Jdavidb 18:19, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

misspelling??
I think this is a misspellng of pārāšāh, pārāšath-hašŠābhūa‘. parshan means a "commentator". (I'm japanese)
 * --Sheynhertzגעשׁ״ך 18:26, 26 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Parsha and parshan are not really necessarily derived from the same Hebrew root word (although there may be a philological connection on some level). The Hebrew word parsha is related to the word parash (liphrosh) = "to separate or divide" because the Torah portions are separated/divided from each other into 54 PORTIONS (parshiot) in the original Torah scroll they are written in. Similarly the name sidra is from the root seder which means "order" or "organized" (meaning the 54 Torah portions or "organized" in an "orderly" fashion). Whereas the parshan is related to the word perush = "explanation" and the job of a parshan would be to "explain" (the Torah) = to be a "commentator" (see rabbinical literature, where only the very learned classical rabbis are called meforshim = "[providers of] explanations / reasons"). Thus: Rabbis = Tannaim = Amoraim = Parshanim = meforshim = "commentators". Hope this helps. IZAK 10:30, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Parsha or Parasha?
I'll assume it's under Parsha for a reason, and won't change it just yet, but parasha seems to be correct, according to the Even Shoshan Hebrew dictionary. This dictionary also contains Aramaic and Biblical words, but does not contain an entry for 'Parsha' at all, and does for Parasha with many meanings. So, is there any reason it's at 'parsha'? -- Ynhockey 08:19, 28 November 2005 (UTC)


 * The most common usage today by Jews who attend synagogue every Shabbat (Saturday, the day of the Jewish Sabbath) to hear the weekly Torah reading (which is what this article is about: Torah reading = Parsha), is definitely Parsha, even though it could be Parasha (but it's used less frequently). Parsha alone denotes one singular "portion" whereas parashat  also denotes the possessive "the portion of" (so one can hear it said in Hebrew: Parashat HaShavua = "[The Torah ] Portion of the Week"). But nevertheless parsha is used in the same sense as parashat. Parasha should be a redirect to Parsha. IZAK 10:17, 21 December 2005 (UTC)
 * I agree with IZAK, well put. --PinchasC | £€åV€ m€ å m€§§åg€  17:37, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

The correct plural of parasha is parashiyot.67.61.33.64 (talk) 21:35, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

Date?
When did the calendar of readings stabilize in its current form? --Jim Henry 15:45, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Torah portion
FYI: (1) The weekly Parsha (Torah portion) is the main Torah reading in all synagogues every Shabbat as well as on Monday and Thursday mornings. (2) The template Torah portion is at the bottom of the Maftir article's page, so essentially it's part of the "See also" section which is a legitimate way of connecting related and connected topics on an article. (3) If a reader finds the Torah portion to be "too intrusive" then any reader is free to click "Hide" on the top right section of the template's heading which shrinks it to an unobtrusive one liner. Finally, (4) the Torah portion is presently diligently updated weekly by User:Dauster early each Sunday so that any readers may learn more about the weekly Parsha. User:Dauster summarizes each week's Parsha and adds some interesting graphics which surely adds life and color to a page that may gain the attention of readers who don't know much about this subject and may want to learn more. Please refer all further comments and discussions to one centralized location at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Judaism Thank you. IZAK 09:10, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Rename
I suggest that this article be more accurately renamed "Parashat Hashavua" as it is in the Hebrew version (or perhaps even better Weekly Torah portion in English). The reason is that even though English speaking Jews (especially traditional ones) popularly use "Parshah" to refer to the weekly Torah reading, the term also has a much more precise, technical halakhic meaning, one that I would like to write an article about.

The correct, technical meaning of "parashah" in halakhic literature refers to blank spaces left in the biblical text when Torah scrolls, or even scrolls of Nevi'im and Ketuvim, are written. These are generally called "open" and "closed" sections in English (petuhot and setumot in Hebrew), though in the middle ages a third class was called parashah setumah. There is a long halakhic history regarding where and how these spaces should appear, as well as rulings on whether or not scrolls are kosher if the parashah is in error.

I think each of the meanings deserves its own article with its proper term. Dovi 20:23, 17 April 2007 (UTC)


 * As there were no objections, I have done so. Please make improvements to my new stub on Parashah.


 * Also: Parashah now links to פרשה in Hebrew, and this article Weekly Torah portion to פרשת השבוע in Hebrew. Dovi 13:28, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Spam?
When I first came to Wiki a little over a month ago, I made a mistake. Having looked at existing entries in various Torah related sections, I added links absolutely in line with what I saw in those sections, to related Torah commentaries at LearningTorah.org, a non-profit organization whose work is to spread Torah. As I understood from the Wiki moderators, there was no problem with the relevance of the links or the relevance of the commentaries, but the problem was the amount of links that were added at one time which made it appear that this was spam. In fact, this was just a desire to add to the list of commentaries that are included in Wiki, to help to further spread commentaries about the Torah. It is very similar in nature to other sites that are in fact listed as commentary under every single Weekly Torah Portion section. In fact, the relevance of these links and commentaries can be seen in Parsha Shemini or Tazria where for some reason, the LearningTorah commentary is still up.

Now I see that the site has been added to the Wiki spam list and this is very concerning. I request to please have this decision reversed and also to be treated as as the norm with other listed commentary sources that you can see under every section of the Weekly Torah Portions.

I appreciate Wiki very much and look forward to contributing in the future. Torahorg 06:45, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
 * As someone who has spent a lot of time helping to expand the pages for the parshiot, I wanted to say that I have no objection to the LearningTorah.org listings. I agree that they appear to be similar in content to other commentaries listed.  And I see a value in having a wide variety of commentaries posted. Dauster 11:11, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 13:56, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

References vs footnote
I'm no wiki-guru so I'd like to ask if anyone knows how to shift the three items listed here as references to being footnotes.Joe407 (talk) 15:25, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I just added a reference so I can take a stab at this. I am not entirely clear what you are asking for here (I am certainly not a guru so I may be misunderstanding).  The references listed in this article are footnotes through the  template.  See Help:Footnotes for more details.  Is this what you are asking about or am I misunderstanding?  Thanks, meshach (talk) 19:10, 24 May 2012 (UTC)

Discussion about the 54 parsha articles

 * REQUEST: Please see the centralized discussion about this subject, relating to sources, links, content, etc at Talk:Chayei Sarah (parsha). Thank you, IZAK (talk) 09:40, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

Delete external link
The external link to The Weekly Parshah is seriously outdated. Currently (Feb. 2019) it says
 * The Weekly Parshah
 * Published in Jewish Heritage
 * 26 Jul 2013


 * The Weekly Parshah
 * Parshat Tzav
 * Leviticus 6:1–8:36
 * Torah Reading for Week of April 1 - 8, 2017

I am deleting it.

--Thnidu (talk) 06:50, 5 February 2019 (UTC)


 * Thank You Thnidu. But this External link: *The Weekly Parshah in Hebrew leads me to some japanese site. maybe it should be changed to this link : https://www.chabad.org/parshah/torahreading.htm thanks again and cheers. תנא קמא (talk) 19:15, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

What happens on the 55th week?
The explanation re. HOW MANY parashot there are was and still is very unsatisfying. 54 in total? What happens then on the 55th week when it occurs in lap years? Now the text says "Apart for the "immovable" final portion, there can be up to 53 weeks available for the other 53 portions." It doesn't add up, 1+53=54, never 55. Arminden (talk) 10:13, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

The text as written is correct. 55 weeks and 54 parashas is fine because there are *never* more than 53 weeks of the year in which a parasha is read on Shabbat (because on at least 2 weeks a ‘special’ Torah reading is used). Djford10 (talk) 15:42, 20 December 2021 (UTC)