Saturday, January 27, 2018

Beshalach - Takana to read Torah on Monday & Thursday

Bava Kama mentions from this week's parsha the Takana or Gzeirah to read Torah on Monday & Thursday (in addition to Shabbos) so we don't go 3 days without hearing Torah.  (Rav Yoshe Ber has a yahrzeit shiur about this in Shiurim L'zecher Abba Mari).

Rav Baruch Halevi Epstein, the Torah Temima in his other sefer, Tosefes Bracha, says this is a minimum, to not go 3 days without Torah, but you can increase it and read Torah more often.

This was surprising to hear, since in practice we've never seen this.

Maybe his logic isn't so good.  First of all,t his uncle the Netziv paskened you can't lain, even without a bracha, for a special ceremony in Baltimore when they were dedicating a new shul on a Sunday.  Meishiv Davar I 16.  According to Tosefes Bracha you can add to the number of times a week you lain.  Unless he's agree you'd have be consistent about it and not do a one time thing.

The Tosefes Bracha's logic isn't as good as it first seems.  From Netziv we see there are brachas that are not required.  Then, we have a mitzvah vehagisa bo yomam valayla (see Menachos 99b), so personally you can't go 1 day without Torah, so the public Kriyah is independent of this.  Thinking more about this, see my post about having to learn Torah every day, that form Rashi and Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim, as long as we have Torah once a week it is considered in our consciousness; therefore this takana/gzeira is a special gzeira to be stricter for public Torah reading (not 3 days without it) than other things (once a week is considered constant).  Since it's a special reason, there is no logic to say it is a minimum as Tosefes Bracha says.

(These are first impressions; I did not look at any of these sources in great detail)