IIANNAH, properly CHANNAII onn, gra ciousness ; Sept. 'Ania), wife of a Levite named and festival of the year. As these lessons have been read from time immemorial in conjunction with sections from the law, and as it is to both 'the reading of the law and the prophets,' that refe rence is made in the N. T. (Acts xiii. 15, al.), we propose to discuss both together in the present article.
t. Classification of the lessons, their titles, signi fication, elc.—There are two classes of lessons indi cated in the Hebrew Bible, the one consists of fifty-finir sections into which the entire law or Pentateuch (C11171) is divided, and is called Par shioth (11Mit, plur. of r1;211a, from nt, to sepa rate), and the other consists of a corresponding number of sections selected from different parts of the prophets, to be read in conjunction with the former, and are denominated Haphlaroth or Haf toroth (111nUtil, plur. of rnutri). As the signifi cation of this term is much disputed, and is inti mately connected with the view about the origin of these prophetic lessons, we must defer the discus sion of it to section 4. The division of the Penta teuch intofifty:Attr sections is to provide a lesson for each Sabbath of those years which, according, to Jewish chronology, have fifty-four Sabbaths (see sec. 2), and to read through the whole Pentateuch, with large portions of the different prophets, in the course of every year. It must be observed, however, that this annual cycle was not universally adopted by the ancient Jews. There were some who had a triennial cycle (comp. 29, b). These divided the Pentateuch into one hunth-ed and My-three or fifty-Jive sections, so as to read through the law in Sabbatic lessons, once in three years. This was still done by some Jews in the days of Maimonides (comp. Lod fla-Chewka Hilchoth Te filla, xiii. t), and I3enjamin of Tudela tells us that he found the Syrian Jews followed this practice in Memphis (ea'. Asher, vol. i., p. 148). The sections of the triennial division are called by the Alassorites Sedarint or SedaroM (DYTID, n1110), as may be seen in the AIassoretic note at the end of Exodus : Here endeth the book of Exodus . . it hath eleven ParshiaM (nrcna, e., according to the annual division), twenty-nine Sedarath (11111D, e., according to the triennial division), and forty chapters (:rjr1D).' Besides the Sabbatic lessons, special por tions of the law and prophets are also read on every festival and fast of the year. It must be noticed, moreover, that the Jews, who have for some cen turies almost universally followed the annual divi sion of the law, denominate the Sabbatic section Sidra (N11'0), the name which the Massorites give to each portion of the triennial division, and that every one of the fifty-four sections has a special title, which it derives from the first or second word with which it commences, and by which it is quoted in the Jewish writings. To render the following
description more intelligible, as well as to enable the student of Hebrew exegesis to identify the quotations from the Pentateuch, we subjoin chrono logical tables of the Sabbatic Festival and Fast Lessons from the law and prophets, and their titles.
2. The reading of the Law and Prophets' as in dicatea' in the Hebrew Bible, and practised ly the Yews to the present day :— As has already been remarked, this division into fifty-four sections is to provide a special lesson for every Sabbath of those years which have fifty-four Sabbaths. For the intercalary year (n-Inpo Mt"), in which New Year (ruvn z:,,N-1) falls on a Thurs day, and the months Cheshvan and Kisier C6D:) have twenty-nine days, has fifty-four Sab baths which require special lessons. But as ordi nary years (rotilm) have not so many Sabbaths, and those years in which New Year falls on a. Monday, and the months Cheshvan and Kislev have thirty days, or New Year falls on a Saturday, and the said months are regular, i.e., Cheshvan having, twenty-nine days and Kislev thirty, have only forty-seven Sabbaths—fourteen of the fifty-four sec tions, viz., 22 and 23 own, rip4)), 27 and 2S (vilvD, ran), 29 and 30 (onnip, nvo 4inN), 32 and 33 onpnn, inz), 39 and 40 (p3, nprO, 42 and 43 (+Ivo, Imuu), so and 5 (-it>n, n,2v, have been appointed to be read in pairs either wholly or in part, according to the varying num ber of Sabbaths in the current year. Thus the whole Pentateuch is read through every year. The first of these weekly sections is read on the first Sabbath after the Feast of Tabernacles, which is in the month of Tishri, and begins the civil y-ear, and the last is read on the concluding day of this festival, Tishri 23, which is called The Rejoicing of the Law (rrilil nroov), a day of rejoicing, because on it the law is read through [TABERNACLES, FEAST oF]. According to the triennial division, the read ing of the law seems to have been as follows :— Gen. i. r-Exod. xiii. 16, comprising history from the creation of the world to the Exodus, was read in the first year ; Exod. xiii. t7-Nurn. vi. 27, em bracing the laws of both Sinai and the Tabernacle, formed the lessons for the Sabbaths of the second year ; and Num. vii. r-Deut. xxxiv. 12, contain ing both hishny (i.e., the history of thirty-nine years' wanderings in the wilderness) and law (i.e., the repetition of the Mosaic law), constituted the Sabbatic lessons for the third year (comp. iNlegilla, 29, b, and Volkslehrer, p. 209).