The term parashah, ( Pārāšâ, "portion", Tiberian , Sephardi , plural: parshiot, also called parsha) formally means a section of a biblical book in the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). In common usage today the word often refers to the weekly Torah portion (a shortened form of Parashat HaShavua). This article deals with the first, formal meaning of the word. In the Masoretic Text, parashah sections are designated by various types of spacing between them, as found in Torah scrolls, scrolls of the books of Nevi'im (Prophets) or Ketuvim (Writings) (especially the Megillot), masoretic codices from the Middle Ages and printed editions of the Masoretic Text.
The division of the text into parshiot for the biblical books is independent of chapter and verse numbers, which are not part of the masoretic tradition. Parshiot are not numbered, but some have special names.
The division of parshiot found in the modern-day Torah scrolls of all Jewish communities is based upon the systematic list provided by Maimonides in Mishneh Torah, Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah and Torah Scrolls, chapter 8. Scholars mostly (see footnote) believe that Maimonides based his division of the parshiot of the Torah on the Aleppo Codex.Though initially doubted by Umberto Cassuto, this has become the established position in modern scholarship. As Goshen–Gottstein, Penkower, and Ofer have shown, Cassuto's doubts were based upon apparent discrepancies he noted between the parashah divisions in the Aleppo Codex and those recorded by Maimonides. However, the most striking of these apparent discrepancies are rooted in the faulty manuscripts and printed editions of Maimonides that Cassuto consulted (as noted in his personal journals), while the remaining cases can be reasonably explained as differing interpretations of very small spaces in the Aleppo Codex. Furthermore, the best manuscripts of Maimonides describe highly unusual implementations of spacing techniques that are found in no other masoretic manuscript besides the Aleppo Codex. Full explanations of each individual discrepancy appear in the notes to this article. The division of parshiot for the books of Nevi'im and Ketuvim was never completely standardized in printed Hebrew bibles and handwritten scrolls, though important attempts were made to document it and create fixed rules.
Incorrect division of the text into parshiot, either by indicating a parashah in the wrong place or by using the wrong spacing technique, halakhically invalidates a Torah scroll according to Maimonides.For more details see the section on Halakhic significance below.
Purpose
A parashah break creates a textual pause, roughly analogous to a modern paragraph break.For a general description of the section divisions and their purpose, see Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 2nd revised edition (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001), pp. 50-51. Such a pause usually has one of the following purposes: In most cases, a new parashah begins where a new topic or a new thought is clearly indicated in the biblical text. In many places, however, the parashah divisions are used even in places where it is clear that no new topic begins, in order to highlight a special verse by creating a textual pause before it or after it (or both). A special example of #2 is for lists: The individual elements in many biblical lists are separated by parashah spacing of one type or another.This phenomenon often borders on "song" format. The various types and degrees of "song" format as a sophisticated expansion of the parashah spaces in the Tiberian masoretic manuscripts has been analyzed at length by Mordechai Breuer in The Aleppo Codex and the Accepted Text of the Bible (Jerusalem: Mosad Harav Kook, 1976), pp. 149-165 (Hebrew).
To decide exactly where a new topic or thought begins within a biblical text involves a degree of subjectivity on the part of the reader. This subjective element may help explain differences amongst the various masoretic codices in some details of the section divisions (though their degree of conformity is high). It may also explain why certain verses which might seem like introductions to a new topic lack a section division, or why such divisions sometimes appear in places where no new topic seems indicated. For this reason, the parashah divisions may at times contribute to biblical exegesis.Tov, p. 51: "The subdivision into open and closed sections reflects exegesis on the extent of the content units... It is possible that the subjectivity of this exegesis created the extant differences between the various sources. What in one Masoretic manuscript is indicated as an open section may appear in another as a closed section, while the indication of a section may be altogether absent in yet a third source. Nevertheless, a certain uniformity is visible in the witnesses of M."
History
Parshiot appear in manuscripts as early as the Dead Sea Scrolls, in which the division is generally similar to that found in the masoretic text."The division of the text in the Qumran scrolls into content units reflects in general terms the system of parashiyyot that was later accepted in M: a space in the middle of the line to denote a minor subdivision and a space extending from the last word in the line to the end of the line, to denote a major subdivision..." (Tov, p. 210). "Although the medieval manuscripts continue the tradition of the proto-Masoretic texts from Qumran in general, they often differ with regard to the indication of individual section breaks..." (ibid., p. 50). Data on the manuscript evidence for parashot beginning with the Dead Sea Scrolls is collated in the Hebrew University Bible Project. The idea of spacing between portions, including the idea of "open" and "closed" portions, is mentioned in early midrashic literatureDibbura de-Nedava (introduction to Sifrei on Leviticus). and in the Talmud. Early masoretic lists detailing the Babylonian tradition include systematic and detailed discussion of exactly where portions begin and which type they are.
As a group, Tiberian Masoretic codices share similar but not identical parashah divisions throughout the Bible. Unlike the Babylonian mesorah, however, Tiberian masoretic notes never mention the parashah divisions or attempt to systematize them. This is related to the fact that the Babylonian lists are independent compositions, while the Tiberian notes are in the margins of the biblical text itself, which shows the parshiot in a highly visible way.
In the centuries following the Tiberian Masoretic Text, there were ever-increasing efforts to document and standardize the details of the parashah divisions, especially for the Torah, and even for Nevi'im and Ketuvim as time went on.
Spacing techniques
In most modern Torah scrolls and Jewish editions of the Bible, there are two types of parshiot, an "open portion" (parashah petuhah) and a "closed portion" (parashah setumah). An "open portion" is roughly similar to a modern paragraph: The text of the previous portion ends before the end of the column (leaving a space at the end of the line), and the new "open" portion starts at the beginning of the next line (but with no indentation). A "closed portion", on the other hand, leaves a space in the middle of the line of text, where the previous portion ends before the space, and the next portion starts after it, towards the end of the line of text.
In some manuscripts and in many printed editions, an "open portion" (petuhah) is abbreviated with the Hebrew letter "פ" (peh), and a "closed portion" (setumah) with the Hebrew letter "ס" (samekh), often in place of the visual gap in the line.The abbreviations are most often used in Hebrew editions of the Bible with commentaries, and in older one-volume editions of the Tanakh published through the first half of the 20th century. Though most current Jewish editions use the actual spacing techniques instead of the abbreviations, they are still used in some one-volume editions, most notably the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Rough English equivalents are "P" and "S" respectively.As described, for example, in
In masoretic codices and in medieval scrolls, these two spacing techniques allowed for a larger range of options: An "open portion" always started at the beginning of a new line. This could happen the way described above, but also by leaving a blank line between the two portions, thus allowing the previous portion to sometimes entirely fill its last line of text. A "closed portion" never began at the beginning of a line. This could happen as in modern scrolls (a space in the middle of a line), but also by the previous portion ending before the end of the line, and the new portion beginning on the next line after an indentation.
Open portions often seem to reflect the beginning of a new topic or a major subdivision within a biblical book, while closed portions seem to reflect smaller units or minor subdivisions.Tov, pp. 50-51, 210-211. However, no comprehensive and systematic study of the matter has even been done.
Most printed Hebrew bibles today represent the parshiot using the more limited techniques found in typical modern Torah scrolls: A space in the middle of a line for a closed portion, and beginning at the start of the next line for an open portion (not a blank line). A notable exception is The Jerusalem Crown (The Bible of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2000), whose typography and layout is fashioned after the Aleppo Codex, and follows the medieval spacing techniques for parashah divisions by leaving an empty line for {P} and starts {S} on a new line with an indentation.Maimonides and Rabbeinu Asher (Rosh) differ on their definition of 'Open' and 'Closed' sections (פרשה פתוחה ופרשה סתומה). The present custom of Askhenazi and Sephardic scribes is to compromise, where both an Open and Closed section end in the middle of the line, but in an Open section the next section commences on the following line, whereas in a Closed section, the next section commences on the same line after a short blank space (Soncino edition, Shabbat 103b, note c ). The Yemenite custom follows the practice of Maimonides.
Medieval Ashkenazic sources beginning with the Mahzor Vitry also refer to a third spacing technique called a parashah sedurah. This involved starting a new parashah at the same point in the line where the previous parashah ended on the line above.
Halakhic significance
Validity of scrolls According to the ruling of Maimonides, any error regarding a parashah completely invalidates a Torah scroll. This includes a parashah in the wrong place, of the wrong type, or a missing parashah.
However, there is also a responsum by Maimonides Blau, responsum #294; also appears in Shu"t HaRambam Pe'er HaDor #9, and is thus cited by Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef in Yehaveh Da'at VI:56. in which he ruled that one may recite a blessing over reading from an invalid scroll, based on the reasoning that the commandment is in the reading itself, not in the text being read from.