Congregation Beth Ha'Mashiach
(House of the Messiah) - Worshipping ADONAI
& His Messiah, Yeshua Ha'Mashiach
Living & teaching as our
Messiah taught us to Live
Messianic
Congregation serving Northeast Atlanta Georgia (Gwinnett, Barrow,
Dekalb, Rockdale, Walton)
Phone 770
554-2867 - email:
rabbi@cbhm.org
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Reading in the Temple or Synagogue from the Torah, the
Prophets and the B'rit Hadashah every Shabbat, in Temples all
over the world, Torah scrolls are ceremoniously removed from
arks, carried through the aisles to be touched reverently by the
congregants (the custom symbolizes devotion to the Word of G-d), and
then placed on the bimah (pulpit). The parashah
(portion) read each week, anywhere between one and six chapters
long, is not picked on the spur of the moment but follows a
prescribed sequence tied to the Jewish year. Fifty-four
parashat are read in order, commencing with B'resheet
(Genesis) 1 on the autumn holiday Simchat-Torah (Rejoicing of
the Torah) and ending with D'varim (Deuteronomy) 34 on
Simchat-Torah the following year, when with great joy the
scroll is immediately re-rolled, and B'resheet 1 is read
again.
Moreover, the reading from the Bible does not end with the Torah
portion. After the Torah, a related section from the
Prophets is read: this is called the Haftarah (completion),
since it completes the prescribed Temple Scripture reading.
The B'rit Hadashah reports that in Natzeret (Nazareth) Yeshua
was invited to read the Haftarah, which that week was from
the book of Yesha'yahu (Isaiah), and He daringly applied the passage
to Himself.
Being called up to the bimah for the Torah reading is
an honor. The Hebrew word for such an invitation is aliyah;
it means "going up." (The same word, aliyah, means
"immigrating to Israel," since it is a spiritual "going up" for a
Jew to return to the land G-d gave to our people.)
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Serfardic
- refers to the Middle Eastern and North African Jewish communities.
The other readings in the CJB are Ashkenanzic (European) and are
designated by the symbol (A).