Draft. This siddur is waiting for a rav's review. For a halachic question, ask your rav.
Hebrew, then English. Open "What it means" under any line for the explanation.
After the reading, as the Torah is lifted, look at the writing, bow, and say this facing the writing:
וְזֹאת הַתּוֹרָה אֲשֶׁר שָׂם מֹשֶׁה לִפְנֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל עַל פִּי יְיָ בְּיַד מֹשֶׁה.
And this is the Torah that Moshe set before the people of Israel at Hashem's command through Moshe
The first eight words are Devarim 4:44. The last five also end Bamidbar 9:23, where they describe how the people camped and traveled only at Hashem's word. Where the whole line comes from is a hard question in the Story section.
Devarim 4:44; Bamidbar 9:23עֵץ חַיִּים הִיא לַמַּחֲזִיקִים בָּהּ וְתוֹמְכֶיהָ מְאֻשָּׁר.
It is a tree of life for those who hold on to it and those who support it are fortunate
In Mishlei (the book of Proverbs) this verse is about wisdom. The Gemara (the Talmud, the main record of the early rabbis' teaching) says that "tree" here means Torah. The Story section tells why it compares Torah to a tree.
Mishlei 3:13; Arakhin 15bדְּרָכֶיהָ דַרְכֵי נֹעַם וְכָל נְתִיבוֹתֶיהָ שָׁלוֹם.
Its ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace
אֹרֶךְ יָמִים בִּימִינָהּ בִּשְׂמֹאלָהּ עשֶׁר וְכָבוֹד.
Long life is in its right in its left are riches and honor
Long life is in its right, and in its left are riches and honor.
The Gemara asks: if long life is in its right, is there no wealth and honor there? Its answer: those who "go right" with the Torah get long life, and surely wealth and honor too. Those who "go left" with it get wealth and honor, but not long life. Rashi (France, 1000s): going right means learning Torah for its own sake, and going left, for other reasons.
Shabbat 63a; Rashi on Mishlei 3:16יְיָ חָפֵץ לְמַעַן צִדְקוֹ יַגְדִּיל תּוֹרָה וְיַאְדִּיר.
Hashem wanted for the sake of His righteousness to make the Torah great and to glorify it
Rabbi Chananya ben Akashya (a sage of the Mishnah) reads it this way: God wanted to give Israel merit, so He gave them a lot of Torah and mitzvot. The Bartenura (the standard commentator on the Mishnah, around 1500) gives an example: the laws against eating crawling creatures. People would not eat them anyway, but now staying away from them earns a reward.
Mishnah Makkot 3:16, with BartenuraFace the writing as you say it. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) says it is a mitzvah for men and women alike to see the writing, bow, and say this verse. The Mishnah Berurah (a commentary on it, around 1900) adds that it is good to look until you could read the letters.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 134:2; Mishnah Berurah 134:11-12The note printed in this siddur says the Ari (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the great Kabbalist of Tzfat in the 1500s) looked closely at the letters of the scroll until he could recognize them well enough to read. He taught that looking at the Torah from close up draws a great light onto a person.
Siddur Sefard, note before Vezot HaTorahTractate Soferim (an early book of rules for writing and reading the Torah) spells out the move. Roll the scroll open to three columns and lift it. Show the writing to the people on the right and on the left, then turn it to the front and to the back. The Mishnah Berurah (a standard commentary on daily Jewish law, written around 1900) adds that the number three may depend on the lifter's strength: it should be a width you can really hold up.
Tractate Soferim 14:14; Mishnah Berurah 134:8Tractate Soferim, in the same passage, says what the "pure-minded people of Jerusalem" did. When the Torah was taken out and when it was brought back, they walked behind it, out of respect for it.
Tractate Soferim 14:14The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, whose notes add Ashkenazi customs to the Shulchan Aruch) says the Torah should be held in the right hand. He says it about carrying the scroll out of the ark, not about the lift itself. The Mishnah Berurah gives two reasons. One is a verse in Shir HaShirim, "His right hand embraces me." The other is that the Torah itself was given with the right hand.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 134:2 (Rema); Mishnah Berurah 134:14; Shir HaShirim 2:6After the sentence comes "It is a tree of life for those who hold on to it." In the Gemara (the Talmud), Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak asks why words of Torah are compared to a tree. His answer: a small piece of wood can set a big log on fire, and in the same way students who know less sharpen great scholars. The Gemara backs this up with Rabbi Chanina, who said he learned much from his teachers, more from his friends, and most of all from his students.
Mishlei 3:18; Taanit 7aA scroll has no vowels and no punctuation, and many in the room could not read it. Yet the rule in Tractate Soferim says it is a mitzvah for all men and women to see the writing, to bow, and to say the line. The rule is about seeing the writing.
The Ramban (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, a leading medieval Torah commentator) links this to a verse in Devarim: "Cursed is the one who does not uphold the words of this Torah." The Yerushalmi (the Jerusalem Talmud, the Gemara of the Land of Israel) plays on the word "uphold" and asks whether a Torah can fall. One rabbi there says it is about the chazzan, the synagogue official who handled the scrolls. Ramban reads this as a chazzan who does not stand the scrolls up properly, so they fall.
Then Ramban gives his own thought: "It seems to me" the verse also means a chazzan who does not lift the scroll to show its writing, as Soferim describes. That is a possibility he offers. His main reading is about people who deny that the Torah's commands are true, not people who break one.
Later books say what the looking is for. The Mishnah Berurah says it is good to look at the letters until you could read them, because the Kabbalists (teachers of Jewish mysticism) wrote that this draws a great light onto a person. The Arukh HaShulchan (a code of Jewish law from around 1900) says the same and adds "if he is worthy of it."
So the sources agree on what to do and are less direct about why seeing matters. The reasons they give are respect for the scroll and the idea that the sight of the letters does something to a person. That second reason is a claim from mystics, and whether it speaks to you is up to you.
Tractate Soferim 14:14,Ramban on Devarim 27:26,Mishnah Berurah 134:11,Arukh HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 134:3Both orders are old, and the books say so openly. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) describes the lifting before it gets to the laws of the Torah reading. The Mishnah Berurah (a standard commentary on it, written around 1900) explains why: that is the Sephardic custom, to lift before the reading. Then it points to the Rema, whose notes add Ashkenazi customs: our custom is to lift after the reading.
The Arukh HaShulchan (a code of Jewish law from around 1900) says the same. In his words, we lift after the reading and the Sephardim lift before it, and he adds that the Sephardic order is what Tractate Soferim implies.
The Kaf HaChaim (a long commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, written in Jerusalem and printed from 1910 to 1933) gives a reason for the Ashkenazi order, which he takes from earlier books. He calls it a proper custom, because ordinary people think that seeing the Torah matters more than reading it. So that they will stay, the reading comes first and the showing of the writing comes after.
The note printed in this siddur places the lifting after the reading, so that is the order this page follows.
The Kaf HaChaim also quotes a book called Shaarei Yerushalayim, which says that in the Land of Israel even Ashkenazim lifted the Torah before the reading, and not as the Rema describes. So the split is not only Ashkenazi against Sephardi. It follows the place and the community.
Neither order is a mistake. Both are written down, with reasons. The mitzvah to see the writing is the same either way.
Mishnah Berurah 134:8,Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 134:2 (Rema),Arukh HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 134:3,Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 134:17Look at the first line again: "And this is the Torah that Moshe set before the people of Israel, at Hashem's command, through Moshe." It sounds like a verse. It is not one.
The Arukh HaShulchan (a code of Jewish law from around 1900) points this out. He calls it a wonder that we say it and that siddurim print it, and then he gives problems. First, it is not a verse anywhere. "And this is the Torah" is in Devarim 4:44. "At Hashem's command, through Moshe" is the end of a verse in Bamidbar, in the passage about when the Jews camped and when they traveled in the desert.
Second, he says Tractate Soferim does not have it this way either. Soferim gives the line as it is in Devarim, and it stops at "before the people of Israel."
There is another difference. Rashi (the main commentator on the Torah) says that in Devarim 4:44, "this Torah" means what Moshe is about to set out after this passage. In the verse, "this" points forward, to what he is about to teach. In shul, it points at the scroll in front of you.
None of these sources says who joined the two pieces together or why. What they do show is that the longer wording is printed in siddurim, while Soferim stops at the end of the Devarim sentence and then gives a line from Tehillim, "The Torah of Hashem is perfect."
Arukh HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 134:3,Devarim 4:44,Bamidbar 9:23,Tractate Soferim 14:14,Rashi on Devarim 4:44Short ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.
The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) says the Torah is built like a person. Its stories are the clothing. Its commandments are the body. Under them is a soul. Foolish people look only at the clothing, the way you see someone well dressed and look no further. Wiser people look at the body. The wise, who stood at Mount Sinai, look only at the soul. Now look at the open scroll again.
אוֹרַיְיתָא, אִית לָהּ גּוּפָא, וְאִינּוּן פִּקּוּדֵי אוֹרַיְיתָא, דְּאִקְרוּן גּוּפֵי תּוֹרָה... טִפְּשִׁין דְּעָלְמָא, לָא מִסְתַּכְּלֵי אֶלָּא בְּהַהוּא לְבוּשָׁא
Zohar, Parashat Beha'alotchaRabbi Chaim of Volozhin (the founder of the famous Volozhin yeshiva, who died in 1821) asks you to picture a scene. You are being swept down a rushing river and you see a strong tree in the water. You would grab it with all your strength and not loosen your hands for even a moment, because your life depends on it. That, he says, is how to read "a tree of life for those who hold on to it." He says a person lives the higher life only while holding on to the Torah like this. Now read "hold on to it" again.
כי אלו היה טובע בנחל שוטף ורואה לפניו בנהר אילן חזק. ודאי יאמץ כח להתאחז ולהתדבק עצמו בו בכל כחו ולא ירפה ידיו הימנו אפילו רגע אחד.
Nefesh HaChaim, Gate 4, chapter 33Rav Amiel (a Chief Rabbi of Antwerp and later of Tel Aviv, who died in 1946) notices one small word. The verse says the Torah is a tree of life "for those who hold on to it," not "for those who hold it." He calls the Jews the people of the Book, and says it is not the people who hold the Book in their hands. It is the Book that holds the people, the way the sages said the Ark carries those who carry it. Only through it, he writes, do we stay on our feet and not fall for good. Now look at the scroll in someone's arms and ask who is holding whom.
לא העם מחזיק בידו את הספר, אך להיפך, הספר מחזיק את העם
Rav Amiel, Darkah shel Torah, chapter 6Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl (an early Chassidic master, 1730 to 1797) points at the wooden poles of a Torah scroll. They are called Etz Chaim, "tree of life," he says, after this verse, because we hold the letters by them. A scribe also starts with something physical, parchment from an animal's skin, because we are physical. He says a person's ordinary necessary work is like that: it is the handle. "Without flour there is no Torah." The condition is that it be for serving God, not for yourself.
עמודים לס״ת הנקרא עץ חיים על שם עץ חיים היא למחזיקים בה ע״ש שבעבורו אנו מחזיקין את האותיות
Me'or Einayim, Parashat ChukatThe practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.
Yes to both, says the Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law): it is a mitzvah for men and women to see the writing, bow, and say the verse. Peninei Halakhah (a modern guide to Jewish law by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed) notes that many Ashkenazi communities did not bow, but says it is better to bow when you see the writing.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 134:2; Peninei Halakhah, Prayer 22:4Peninei Halakhah describes two customs. Some people point at the scroll while saying Vezot HaTorah, then kiss the finger. Others hold their tzitzit (the fringes of a tallit), point with them at the scroll, then kiss the tzitzit. It calls both of them things that some people do. The Shulchan Aruch itself mentions only seeing the writing, bowing, and saying the words.
Peninei Halakhah, Prayer 22:4; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 134:2Open the scroll so three columns of writing show. Then show it to the people on the right and left, in front and behind (Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, a short guide to daily law from the 1860s). Peninei Halakhah says to turn slowly all the way around, since people near the ark often cannot see. The Mishnah Berurah adds: do not hold the parchment itself bare-handed, only through a tallit or cloth. The poles are fine to hold.
Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 23:25; Mishnah Berurah 147:2; Peninei Halakhah, Prayer 22:4The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) says that when ten people read, the one who rolls the scroll gets a reward equal to all of them. The Mishnah Berurah says what we now call lifting is the main part of that rolling. So Peninei Halakhah says the best custom is to give it to a respected person, never to someone who might drop the scroll. The Mishnah Berurah adds: not someone whose hands shake badly, or a weak elder who will sit right down. Rolling closed may go to a child who understands.
Megillah 32a; Mishnah Berurah 147:5 and 147:7; Peninei Halakhah, Prayer 22:4The Arukh HaShulchan (a code of law by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, from around 1900) says it is a mitzvah to watch the lifting and the rolling closed, because "in a multitude of people is the king's glory" (Mishlei 14:28). He says not to leave the shul before they are done, unless you are going to do another mitzvah.
Arukh HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 147:15; Mishlei 14:28The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary from the early 1900s) quotes an earlier ruling that allowed saying Vezot HaTorah even in Emet Veyatziv, the blessing right after the Shema. But for those who, like him, do not stop during those blessings even to answer Amen, he rules to look at the scroll and say nothing. He adds that Siddur Beit Oved (an older prayer book with laws) says not to stop to say it even during Pesukei DeZimra, the psalms near the start of the morning prayer.
Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 134:20מיד גולל ספר תורה עד שלשה דפין ומגביהו ומראה פני כתיבתו לעם העומדים לימינו ולשמאלו ומחזירו לפניו ולאחריו שמצוה לכל האנשים ולנשים לראות הכתב ולכרוע ולומר וזאת התורה אשר שם משה לפני בני ישראל
Right away he rolls the Torah open to three columns, lifts it, and shows the writing to the people standing on his right and left, then turns it to the front and the back. It is a mitzvah for all men and women to see the writing, to bow, and to say: "And this is the Torah that Moshe set before the people of Israel."
וְזֹאת הַתּוֹרָה אֲשֶׁר שָׂם מֹשֶׁה לִפְנֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
And this is the Torah that Moshe set before the people of Israel.
עַל פִּי ה׳ בְּיַד מֹשֶׁה
At Hashem's command, through Moshe. (The end of the verse about the Jews camping and traveling in the desert.)
וזהו שאנו קורין הגבה, ואצלינו עושין ההגבה אחר הקריאה. והספרדים עושין קודם הקריאה... ופלא שאנו אומרים וזאת התורה... על פי ה' ביד משה... חדא דאין זה פסוק בשום מקום
This is what we call hagbah. With us, the lifting is done after the reading. The Sephardim do it before the reading. It is a wonder that we say "Vezot HaTorah... at Hashem's command, through Moshe." The first problem is that this is not a verse anywhere.
המחבר כתב דין זה קודם הלכות קה"ת שכן מנהג הספרדים להגביה קודם הקריאה ועיין לקמיה בהג"ה שמנהגנו לעשות ההגבה אחר הקריאה
The author of the Shulchan Aruch wrote this law before the laws of the Torah reading, because the Sephardic custom is to lift before the reading. See the Rema's note later: our custom is to lift after the reading.
והאשכנזים נוהגים להראות הכתיבה אחר הקריאה... מפני שהמון העם חושבין שראיית ס"ת עדיפא מקריאה, ולכן כדי שיתעכבו שם לראות ס"ת יקראו תחלה ואח"כ מראין הכתיבה לעם
The Ashkenazim show the writing after the reading... because ordinary people think that seeing the Torah matters more than reading it. So that they will stay to see the Torah, they read first and afterward show the writing to the people.
וטוב שיראה האותיות עד שיהיה יכול לקרותם כי כתבו המקובלים שעי"ז נמשך אור גדול על האדם
It is good to look at the letters until he could read them, because the Kabbalists wrote that this draws a great light onto a person.
ולי נראה על החזן שאינו מקים ספר תורה על הצבור להראות פני כתיבתו לכל כמו שמפורש במסכת סופרים
It seems to me it refers to the chazzan (the synagogue official) who does not raise the Torah scroll up over the congregation to show the face of its writing to everyone, as is explained in Tractate Soferim.
למה נמשלו דברי תורה כעץ שנאמר עץ חיים היא למחזיקים בה לומר לך מה עץ קטן מדליק את הגדול אף תלמידי חכמים קטנים מחדדים את הגדולים
Why are the words of Torah compared to a tree? As it says, "It is a tree of life for those who hold on to it." To tell you: just as a small piece of wood sets a big one on fire, so scholars who know less sharpen the great ones.
רבי חנניה בן עקשיא אומר רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצות שנאמר ה' חפץ למען צדקו יגדיל תורה ויאדיר
Rabbi Chananya ben Akashya says: the Holy One wanted to give the Jewish people merit, so He gave them a lot of Torah and mitzvot, as it says: "Hashem wanted, for the sake of His righteousness, to make the Torah great and to glorify it."
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