Weekly Torah portion

The full name, Parashat HaShavua (Hebrew: פָּרָשַׁת הַשָּׁבוּעַ), is popularly abbreviated to parashah (also parshah /pɑːrʃə/ or parsha), and is also known as a Sidra or Sedra /sɛdrə/.

Torah reading mostly follows an annual cycle beginning and ending on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, with the divisions corresponding to the lunisolar Hebrew calendar, which contains up to 55 weeks, the exact number varying between leap years and regular years.

If Shemini Atzeret falls on a Sabbath, in the Diaspora a special 'out of cycle' Torah reading is inserted for that day.

The custom of dividing the Torah readings dates to the time of the Babylonian captivity (6th century BCE).

[4] The origin of the first public Torah readings is found in the Book of Nehemiah, where Ezra the scribe writes about wanting to find a way to ensure the Israelites would not go astray again.

[6] In the 19th and 20th centuries, many congregations in the Reform and Conservative Jewish movements implemented an alternative triennial cycle in which only one-third of each weekly parashah was read in a given year; and this pattern continues.

[11] In Provence and [[History of the Jews Tunisia|Tunisia]], Mishpatim and Im Kesef Talveh were occasionally divided so that Matot and Masei would always be read together.