The Structure of Keri’at HaTorah

The Talmud (Bava Kamma 82a) informs us that the Rabbinic takana of reading the Torah on Monday, Thursday, and Sabbath afternoon originated with Moshe Rabbeinu. The basic requirement he established was that three verses be read by each of three men (aliyot), giving us a minimum of nine verses. Subsequently, Ezra and his Beit Din augmented this takana by requiring a minimum of ten verses for every Torah reading.

The Talmud (Megillah 21b) offers various sources for the required number of aliyot on different occasions: three on Monday and Thursday, four on Chol HaMo’ed and Rosh Chodesh, five on Yom Tov, six on Yom Kippur, and seven on Shabbat morning. Rav Soloveitchik noted that the number of aliyot relates directly to kedushat hayom – namely, the greater the sanctity of the day, the more aliyot are required. But the basic requirement of a minimum of three verses for each oleh laTorah and a minimum of ten verses for the Torah reading remains consistent.

According to Rav Soloveitchik, the verses for each oleh laTorah must contain a chiddush, something new. Since it is possible for there to be two consecutive verses that do not teach us anything new – such as “Hashem said to Moshe” followed by “Speak to the Children of Israel, saying” – it is conceivable that two entire verses will not teach us any new din, mitzvah, or halacha. Therefore, a third verse must be read which will inevitably add something new.

Similarly, in the aliyot of the Torah reading taken as a whole, there must be a complete theme, or at least a significant part of a theme. As a matter of fact, Tosafot (Megillah ad loc.) point out that the one exception to this rule occurs on Purim morning, when we read the portion of the confrontation with Amalek at the end of Parshat Beshalach, which is only nine verses long. Tosafot explain that the reason this is accepted is that these nine verses provide us with an entire theme (desalik inyana), and thus an exception to the rule can be made. Hence, we see that the rule does not depend on the number ten itself, but is rather a thematic concern.

Parenthetically, some communities abide by the rule of ten verses even on Purim by repeating the last verse, but that is not the prevalent custom in most communities.