When a community gathers to hear scripture, someone has to know which passage to read and how to read it. A Jewish congregation following the annual Torah cycle can know the scheduled portion before the scroll is taken out. A Sikh congregation taking hukam receives a reading from the Guru Granth Sahib according to a different rule. The two examples show how a text and the way it is read shape a religious gathering.
The scheduled Torah portion
In the Shabbat morning service described by Chabad, a handwritten Hebrew Torah scroll is brought from the ark to the reading platform, or bimah. The reading advances through the Five Books of Moses over the year. People are called up to say blessings at points in the reading. The passage assigned to a week is called a parashah. For example, the portion known as Noach begins at Genesis 6:9 and ends at Genesis 11:32. It includes the account of the flood and the later story of the Tower of Babel. The boundaries of the reading give listeners a sequence of narratives that they can also study during the week. The annual cycle is the pattern illustrated here. Chabad’s guide to a Shabbat morning service · Weekly Torah portion list
A hymn received as hukam
The Sikh Rehat Maryada, the code of conduct published by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, gives directions for taking hukam, or receiving a command from the Guru Granth Sahib. Article VII says to read the hymn that continues at the top of the left-hand page. If it starts on the preceding page, the reader turns back and reads the complete hymn. The code also gives a rule for a passage that is part of a var, or ode. A page edge locates the selection, while the boundaries of the composition determine how much the congregation hears. The code calls for taking hukam at the end of a congregational session or after ardas, a prayer of supplication. Sikh Rehat Maryada, Articles V and VII–IX
How the occasion changes the reading
Both examples involve a text made audible to an assembly. Their different selection rules suit different occasions. In the annual Torah cycle, a congregation progresses through a text from week to week. In the Sikh example, a passage is received for the present gathering. The same Sikh code also describes both intermittent and uninterrupted ways of reading the whole Guru Granth Sahib. That distinction within one tradition shows why it is useful to name the particular ceremony when describing what people do with scripture. Chabad’s guide to a Shabbat morning service · Sikh Rehat Maryada, Articles V and VII–IX
Conclusion
The calendar establishes the bounds of the weekly Torah reading in the first example. In the second, opening the Guru Granth Sahib locates a hymn that is read as a whole. In each case a rule about selection helps put scriptural authority into practice. Reading together also gives the community a text it can hear and consider in common. How scripture shapes worship and daily life
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