Triennial cycle

The reading of the Law in the synagogue can be traced to at least about the second century B.C., when the grandson of Sirach refers to it in his preface as an Egyptian practise; it must, therefore, have existed even earlier in Judea.

The annual reading cycle as practiced by the Jewish exile community in Babylonia was known by them to be different from the custom of the remaining Jews of the Land of Israel.

The Babylonian Talmud refers only once to the triennial cycle: "...The people of the west (i.e. the Land of Israel) who complete the Torah in three years.

[8] Joseph Jacobs notes the transition from the triennial to the annual reading of the Law and the transference of the beginning of the cycle to the month of Tishri are attributed by Adolph Büchler to the influence of Rav (175–247 CE), a Babylonian Talmudist who established at Sura the systematic study of the rabbinic traditions, which, using the Mishnah as text, led to the compilation of the Talmud: "This may have been due to the smallness of the sedarim under the old system, and to the fact that people were thus reminded of the chief festivals only once in three years.

However, since the 19th century, many congregations in the Conservative, Reform, and (more recently) Reconstructionist and Renewal movements adopted a triennial cycle distinct from the ancient practice, by reading roughly a third of the annual cycle's sedra during the appropriate week of the year, in a manner that covers the entire Torah over the course of three years.

In a 1987 responsum,[10] the Conservative Movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards published a triennal calendar for congregations choosing to read Torah in that way.

[11] The Reconstructionist movement's prayer book, Siddur Kol Haneshamah, similarly contains a triennal Torah reading calendar.