Thursday 25 February 2010

Purim II

Originally published 2/25/10, 6:18 PM.
We are now observing Parshat Zachor in Yeshivat Machmirim min Hamachmirim.

Here is the description as transcribed by the Press Corps covering the Olympic Laining Tryouts...

In a 3.5 hour long ritual, Parshat Zachor will be read sufficient times so as to cover all the Halachic bases - a kind of Spring Training for Baaeli Q'riah.

First - the entire Zachor must be read in full twice - once with Zecher and once with Zeicher
Second - every halachic permutation for the proper Torah and Masoretic text must be accommodated. 

What good is Zachor with Zecher if the sefer is not correct!? Thus Ashkenazic scrolls, Rambam Scrolls, Chabad Scrolls, Mitnagged scrolls etc. must be supplied using every version of Sta"m Ashurit EG Beth Yosef and Arizal etc.

Third - every communal pronunciation must also be accounted for

  • Teimani
  • Moroccan
  • Syrian
  • Yekke
  • Spanish-Portuguese
  • Litvisher
  • Hungarian
  • Polish
  • Galician
  • Romanian
  • Modern Israeli
  • Etc.

Must also be lained in conjunction with all of the above.

The Ritual takes about 3.5 hours to read the 3 verses enough times to satisfy everyone. The amount of otyot read accumulates to 75,000 which matches the death toll in Persia on the 13th of Adar.

After the marathon laining is over, everyone is too tired to eat so a cup of wine is consumed for kiddush, and then the community then takes its Shabbat nap, giving this yeshiva of machmirim a head start on ad d'lo yada before the rest of the world rests.

Freilichen Purim,
RRW

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