The Enactment of Torah Reading
תקנת הקריאה בתורה
Before we begin to address some of the laws of Torah reading, it is important to first explain that there is a mitzva to study Torah, and this mitzva is so important that the Sages said it is equivalent to all the mitzvot. It has no special time; rather, every person must set times for himself for Torah study. In addition to this mitzva, there is a communal enactment dating back to the time of Moshe Rabbeinu to read from the Torah every Monday, Thursday, and Shabbat, so that no more than three days pass without reading from the Torah.
The Sages said (Bava Kamma 82a) that this enactment was established following what is stated: “And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water” (Shemot 15:22). Moshe Rabbeinu and his disciples, the elders and the prophets, understood that the thirst for water was caused because for three consecutive days Israel had not engaged in Torah publicly. The Torah is likened to water: just as water gives life to all living and growing things in the world, so the Torah gives life to the soul. And since they had disconnected somewhat from the Torah, the springs of water also ceased to flow. Presumably the Torah scholars of that generation did study during those three days; rather, the meaning is that for three days Israel did not engage in Torah publicly. Therefore they instituted that the Torah be read every Monday, Thursday, and Shabbat, so that three days would never pass for Israel without a public Torah reading.
It is important to know that the purpose of the enactment of Torah reading is not only to fulfill the mitzva of Torah study, for the mitzva of Torah study does not require a kosher Torah scroll, as one can make use of printed Ḥumashim or study by heart. Rather, the essence of the enactment is that the public hear the Torah from the sanctified Torah scroll, written in ink on parchment, just as Moshe Rabbeinu was commanded at Sinai to write it.
Therefore, care is also taken to lift up the Torah scroll and show its letters to the whole congregation, and the Sages even said (Megilla 32a) that the one who rolls it – meaning the one who lifts it – receives a reward equal to that of all those who were called up to the Torah. Therefore, it is proper to honor one of the distinguished members of the congregation with hagbaha (lifting the Torah). Nowadays the custom is to honor ordinary people with hagbaha as well, but the more correct custom is to honor the distinguished members of the congregation with hagbaha. In any case, one must be careful not to honor with hagbaha someone about whom there is concern that the scroll might fall from his hands.
As we will learn below (section 15), according to a minority of Rishonim, be-di’avad, a congregation that does not have a kosher Torah scroll may read the Torah from an invalid Torah scroll and even recite the berakhot over reading from it. For example, if one letter is missing from the scroll, or it is written improperly, the scroll is invalid; nevertheless, in their opinion, in a pressing situation one may fulfill the mitzva of Torah reading with it, since it is written in ink on parchment, as it was given at Sinai. According to most Rishonim, even in a pressing situation one may not fulfill the mitzva of Torah reading with an invalid Torah scroll, and of course one may not recite the berakhot over reading from it. So it was ruled in the Shulḥan Arukh (OḤ 143:1): “Even in villages that do not have a kosher Torah scroll available, one does not recite a berakha over an invalid Torah scroll” (this will be explained further in section 15).
To summarize: the foundation of the enactment of Torah reading is that the public encounter, once every few days, the original, sanctified Torah scroll, as it was given to Moshe at Sinai.