'' opened for liturgical use in a synagogue service]]The Triennial cycle of Torah reading may refer to either
The annual reading cycle as practiced by the Jewish exile community in Babylonia was known by them to be different from the custom of the remaining Jews of the Land of Israel. The Babylonian Talmud refers only once to the triennial cycle: "...The people of the west (i.e. the Land of Israel) who complete the Torah in three years." Megillah 29b
By the Middle Ages, the annual reading cycle was predominant, although the triennial cycle was still extant at the time, as noted by Jewish figures of the period, such as Benjamin of Tudela and Maimonides. Dating from Maimonides' codification of the parashot in his work Mishneh Torah in the 12th Century CE through the 19th Century, the majority of Jewish communities adhered to the annual cycle.
In a systematic review of the history and religious basis of the ancient and modern triennial cycles undertaken on behalf of the Conservative movement, Lionel E. Moses cites Maimonides, who in Mishneh Torah observes "The widespread practice in all of Israel is to complete the Torah in one year. There are some who complete the Torah in three years, but this is not a widespread practice."Moses, p. 335.
The triennial cycle "was the practise in Israel, whereas in Babylonia the entire Pentateuch was read in the synagogue in the course of a single year." Triennial cycle, citing Megillah 29b. As late as 1170 Benjamin of Tudela mentioned Egyptian Jews that took three years to read the Torah."Itinerary," ed. Asher, p. 98
In 1517, Daniel Bomberg (a Christian United Synagogue Review Fall 2006) published the first Bible with rabbinic commentary, divided into 154 sedarim. United Synagogue Review Fall 2006
Joseph Jacobs notes the transition from the triennial to the annual reading of the Law and the transference of the beginning of the cycle to the month of Tishri are attributed by Adolph Büchler to the influence of Abba Arikha (175–247 CE), a Babylonian Talmudist who established at Sura the systematic study of the rabbinic traditions, which, using the Mishnah as text, led to the compilation of the Talmud: "This may have been due to the smallness of the sedarim under the old system, and to the fact that people were thus reminded of the chief festivals only once in three years. It was then arranged that Deut. 28 should fall before the New-Year, and that the beginning of the cycle should come immediately after the Feast of Tabernacles. This arrangement has been retained by the Karaite Judaism and by modern congregations."
However, since the 19th century, many congregations in the Conservative, Reform, and (more recently) Reconstructionist and Renewal movements adopted a triennial cycle distinct from the ancient practice, by reading roughly a third of the annual cycle's sedra during the appropriate week of the year, in a manner that covers the entire Torah over the course of three years. In a 1987 responsum, the Conservative Movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards published a triennal calendar for congregations choosing to read Torah in that way. That calendar is not divided strictly into thirds, in order to preserve the narrative flow of the sections being read, to keep intact passages that are to be read uninterrupted, and to ensure that the subdivision into aliyot conforms with the requirements of Jewish law. This was done in order to shorten the weekly services and allow additional time for sermons, study, or discussion. United Synagogue Review Fall 2006
The Reconstructionist movement's prayer book, Siddur Kol Haneshamah, similarly contains a triennal Torah reading calendar.
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