Vayehi Binsoa and Brich Shmei

Two backward letters

In a Chumash, look at Bamidbar 10:35-36. A backward nun stands before the first verse and another after the second. The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) never says "nun." It says only that God put "signs" above and below this passage. Rav Hai, one of the Geonim (heads of the Babylonian academies, about 1,000 years ago), explained such signs as marks that are not real letters, like the backward nuns here. The Gemara then gives two reasons for the signs.

Exactly 85 letters

Write out the two verses with God's Name spelled in full and count the letters: 85. That number matters. The Gemara says a worn Torah scroll is still holy, and is rescued from a fire on Shabbat, if 85 letters can still be gathered from it, as in this passage. Rashi (the classic Torah commentator, France, 1000s) says this passage has 85 letters. The Rambam (Maimonides, who died in 1204) also counts a scroll with only 85 letters left as holy scripture.

Where Brich Shmei comes from

It comes from the Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah). There, Rabbi Shimon says that when a Torah scroll is taken out in public, the gates of heaven's mercy open, and a person should say these words. The Zohar presents itself as the teaching of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, a sage of the 100s. Its authorship has been debated since it first appeared in 13th-century Spain.

A line the siddur leaves out

In the Zohar, this prayer has one more request, right after "open my heart to Your Torah." It asks God to "grant me sons who do Your will." Siddur Sefard leaves that line out, and so does the Ashkenaz siddur on Sefaria. They go straight on to "fulfill the wishes of my heart." We found no source that says who dropped the line or why.

Stand as if you are at Sinai

Just before Brich Shmei, the Zohar describes the scroll being brought up to the reading table. Everyone below should arrange themselves in awe and trembling, it says, as if they were standing at Mount Sinai right now, receiving the Torah. No one should open their mouth, even to speak words of Torah. All should be like someone who has no mouth. It backs this with a verse from Nehemiah (a book of Tanach): "When he opened it, all the people stood."

כמה דהשתא קיימין על טורא דסיני לקבלא אורייתא

Every trip is a step into the unknown

The Mei HaShiloach (teachings of Rabbi Mordechai Yosef of Izhbitz, a Chassidic leader in Poland who died in 1854) notices what travel is. A person goes out on the road and does not know what will happen to him. Then he has to cry out to God. That is why a blast was sounded before every move in the desert. Moshe's "Rise, Hashem" is that cry: a prayer that this trip would end in peace, safe from anything bad on the way.

נסיעה הוא שהאדם יוצא לדרך ולא יודע מה יולד לו צריך להרעים ולצעוק לה׳

Who actually hates God?

The verse asks that "those who hate You" run away. The Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter of Ger, a Chassidic leader who died in 1905) asks: who hates the Creator? His answer is that it is only the "other side" (the Kabbalah name for what hides holiness). It hides God's kindness, which fills the whole world. Nature hides holiness, he says, and on the weekdays a Jew has to push through that and testify that all of nature comes from God alone.

וכי מי שונא לבורא עולם רק שהסט"א מסתיר ומעלים שלא לראות חסדי ה׳ וטובו אשר הם מלאים בכל העולם

The reader is a messenger, so prepare

A few lines later in the same passage, the Zohar speaks about the person who reads from the Torah. He should keep in mind that he is his Master's messenger, delivering these words to everyone listening. So whoever goes up to read should first go over the words at home. If he has not, he should not read. If you have ever practiced something before reading it out loud to a room, this is the idea.

איהו שליחא דמאריה... מאן דסליק למקרי באורייתא, יסדר אינון מלין בקדמיתא בביתיה, ואי לאו, לא יקרי באורייתא

Do I have to stand when the Torah is carried past me?

Yes. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) rules that anyone who sees a Torah scroll being carried must stand until the person carrying it puts it in its place or it is out of sight. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, written around 1900) adds that leaning on something counts as sitting. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi custom to the Shulchan Aruch) says you stand even if you only hear it carried. A printed Chumash does not need this.

Do I have to stand while the Torah is being read?

No. The Shulchan Aruch says you need not stand for the reading. The Rema adds that some stand, as the Maharam (Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg) did. The Mishnah Berurah follows the first view; those who stand do it as if receiving the Torah at Sinai. It says all agree you stand for the Barchu of the person called up, and its answer. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law book, early 1900s) reports that the Arizal (the Kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, died 1572) stayed seated, it seems even then, and many now do the same.

What if the Torah is already out when I get there?

The Mishnah Berurah writes that the custom is to say Brich Shmei when the Torah is taken out, on weekdays and on Shabbat. If you did not say it then, you may say it until the moment they open the scroll to read. The Arukh HaShulchan (a code of law by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, from around 1900) also lists Vayehi Binsoa and Brich Shmei among what is said when the Torah is taken out.

Is Brich Shmei only for Shabbat?

Not in this siddur, which prints it in the weekday service. The Peri Megadim (an 18th-century Shulchan Aruch commentary) says the custom is to say it on weekdays as well. The Kaf HaChaim notes that the Zohar seems to place it on Shabbat, and that the Arizal said it every Shabbat morning. But since saying it on weekdays is not forbidden, he concludes, each place keeps its custom. His own community said it at Shabbat morning and afternoon prayers, and on the mornings of festivals, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Can I talk once the Torah is out?

No. The note in this siddur says to treat the Torah with great respect from the moment it leaves the ark until it is put back: look at it and do not talk, because idle talk shows disrespect for the Torah. The Shulchan Aruch forbids even Torah talk once the reader begins. The Mishnah Berurah adds that the Magen Avraham (a 1600s commentary on the Shulchan Aruch) leans toward starting the ban as soon as the scroll is opened.

Can I step out for a minute?

Not while the scroll is open. The Shulchan Aruch forbids leaving while the Torah is open, but allows it between one person's aliyah and the next. The Mishnah Berurah limits that: ten men must stay, you already heard the reading or will return right away, and even then only for a great need. The congregation may not leave until the Torah is put away, though the Rema says one person leaving is fine, and the Mishnah Berurah says even two or three.

I am waiting outside. Should I come in for this?

The Mishnah Berurah says yes: even if you were standing outside, it is a mitzvah to go into the synagogue to see the Torah taken out and returned. The reason it gives is a verse from Mishlei (Proverbs): "In a multitude of people is the king's glory."