Parashah

The term parashah, parasha or parashat formally means a section of a biblical book in the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh. In common usage today the word often refers to the weekly Torah portion. This article deals with the first, formal meaning of the word. In the Masoretic Text, parashah sections are designated by various types of spacing between them, as found in Torah scrolls, scrolls of the books of Nevi'im or Ketuvim, masoretic codices from the Middle Ages and printed editions of the Masoretic Text.
The division of the text into parashot for the biblical books is independent of chapter and verse numbers, which are not part of the masoretic tradition. Parashot are not numbered, but some have special names.
The division of parashot found in the modern-day Torah scrolls of all Jewish communities is based upon the systematic list provided by Maimonides in Mishneh Torah, Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah and Torah Scrolls, chapter 8. Maimonides based his division of the parashot for the Torah on the Aleppo Codex. The division of parashot for the books of Nevi'im and Ketuvim was never completely standardized in printed Hebrew bibles and handwritten scrolls, though important attempts were made to document it and create fixed rules.
Incorrect division of the text into parashot, either by indicating a parashah in the wrong place or by using the wrong spacing technique, halakhically invalidates a Torah scroll according to Maimonides.

Purpose

A parashah break creates a textual pause, roughly analogous to a modern paragraph break. Such a pause usually has one of the following purposes:

In most cases, a new parashah begins where a new topic or a new thought is clearly indicated in the biblical text.
In many places, however, the parashah divisions are used even in places where it is clear that no new topic begins, in order to highlight a special verse by creating a textual pause before it or after it.
A special example of #2 is for lists: The individual elements in many biblical lists are separated by parashah spacing of one type or another.

To decide exactly where a new topic or thought begins within a biblical text involves a degree of subjectivity on the part of the reader. This subjective element may help explain differences amongst the various masoretic codices in some details of the section divisions. It may also explain why certain verses which might seem like introductions to a new topic lack a section division, or why such divisions sometimes appear in places where no new topic seems indicated. For this reason, the parashah divisions may at times contribute to biblical exegesis.

History

Parashot appear in manuscripts as early as the Dead Sea Scrolls, in which the division is generally similar to that found in the masoretic text. The idea of spacing between portions, including the idea of "open" and "closed" portions, is mentioned in early midrashic literature and in the Talmud. Early masoretic lists detailing the Babylonian tradition include systematic and detailed discussion of exactly where portions begin and which type they are.
As a group, Tiberian Masoretic codices share similar but not identical parashah divisions throughout the Bible. Unlike the Babylonian mesorah, however, Tiberian masoretic notes never mention the parashah divisions or attempt to systematize them. This is related to the fact that the Babylonian lists are independent compositions, while the Tiberian notes are in the margins of the biblical text itself, which shows the parashot in a highly visible way.
In the centuries following the Tiberian Masoretic Text, there were ever-increasing efforts to document and standardize the details of the parashah divisions, especially for the Torah, and even for Nevi'im and Ketuvim as time went on.

Spacing techniques

In most modern Torah scrolls and Jewish editions of the Bible, there are two types of parashot, an "open portion" and a "closed portion". An "open portion" is roughly similar to a modern paragraph: The text of the previous portion ends before the end of the column, and the new "open" portion starts at the beginning of the next line. A "closed portion", on the other hand, leaves a space in the middle of the line of text, where the previous portion ends before the space, and the next portion starts after it, towards the end of the line of text.
In some manuscripts and in many printed editions, an "open portion" is abbreviated with the Hebrew letter "פ", and a "closed portion" with the Hebrew letter "ס", often in place of the visual gap in the line. Rough English equivalents are "P" and "S" respectively.
In masoretic codices and in medieval scrolls, these two spacing techniques allowed for a larger range of options:

An "open portion" always started at the beginning of a new line. This could happen the way described above, but also by leaving a blank line between the two portions, thus allowing the previous portion to sometimes entirely fill its last line of text.
A "closed portion" never began at the beginning of a line. This could happen as in modern scrolls, but also by the previous portion ending before the end of the line, and the new portion beginning on the next line after an indentation.

Open portions often seem to reflect the beginning of a new topic or a major subdivision within a biblical book, while closed portions seem to reflect smaller units or minor subdivisions.
Most printed Hebrew bibles today represent the parashot using the more limited techniques found in typical modern Torah scrolls: A space in the middle of a line for a closed portion, and beginning at the start of the next line for an open portion. A notable exception is The Jerusalem Crown, whose typography and layout is fashioned after the Aleppo Codex, and follows the medieval spacing techniques for parashah divisions by leaving an empty line for and starts on a new line with an indentation.
Medieval Ashkenazic sources beginning with the Mahzor Vitry also refer to a third spacing technique called a parashah sedurah. This involved starting a new parashah at the same point in the line where the previous parashah ended on the line above.

Halakhic significance

Validity of scrolls

According to the ruling of Maimonides, any error regarding a parashah completely invalidates a Torah scroll. This includes a parashah in the wrong place, of the wrong type, or a missing parashah.
However, there is also a responsum by Maimonides in which he ruled that one may recite a blessing over reading from an invalid scroll, based on the reasoning that the commandment is in the reading itself, not in the text being read from.
Maimonides' strict ruling that any error in the parashot completely invalidates a Torah scroll led to a major halakhic debate that continues to this day. Among those who ruled against Maimonides' stricture in practice were his son, Abraham Maimonides, Menachem Meiri, Moshe Chalava, Judah Minz, and Ovadia Yosef.
All of the above authorities rule that a scroll containing parashot based on alternative scribal traditions that disagree with Maimonides' list of parashot is nevertheless a valid scroll. However, even according to the lenient opinion, a blatant error with no source in any scribal tradition invalidates a Torah scroll.

Rules and customs for public reading

One basic halakhic rule for public reading of the Torah is that no fewer than three verses at a time be read. As a corollary to this, there is a specific rule regarding parashot: One may not leave off reading less than three verses before the end of a parashah, nor may one end off reading by starting a new parashah but leaving off less than three verses from its beginning.
When a Torah portion is read in public from a scroll as part of the synagogue service, it is divided into smaller sections among several people. The points at which the portion is subdivided often take the parashot into account, but there is no hard and fast rule for this.
The selections from Nevi'im that are read as haftarot are based on custom. At times, some of these customs choose the exact beginning or end of a haftarah because it coincides with a parashah division.

Torah

Due to the influence of Maimonides, parashah divisions in the Torah have become highly standardized, and there is close to exact agreement among Torah scrolls, printed Jewish bibles, and similar online texts. The following list thus presents the parashah divisions as found in modern Torah scrolls, Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, and the Aleppo Codex. Rare inconsistencies between these three sources are explained in footnotes.
The list is constructed as follows:

Only breaks two sections are listed: Any open or closed parashah break, or, must always appear two biblical sections. The symbols and always indicate the status of the following section. In Genesis, for instance, " 5:32–6:4 " indicates a closed section because it with. Therefore, no section break is indicated before the portion of a biblical book, or after its portion.
The five books of the Torah have been broken down into their weekly Torah readings for convenience. The weekly Torah readings always begin at a parashah break, with the single exception of Vayechi. The division into weekly readings is a prominent feature of the Tiberian masoretic codices along with the division into smaller parashot, and they are indicated with a special flourish in the margin parallel to the line in which each one begins.
Special series of parashot used for special types of text are indicated.
When a parashah ignores a chapter break, this is indicated for convenience by spelling out the exact verses from each chapter found in that parashah; for instance: 32:4–33; 33:1–17. This system allows for immediate calculation of the number verses in the parashah, and also facilitates easier comparison between the parashot and the chapter divisions.
Variations found in alternative masoretic traditions are provided separately at the end of each book.
Unusual data is underlined to draw special attention, followed by a parenthetical note identifying the contents of the parashah at hand.
The first words of a parashah are sometimes provided in Hebrew for clarity, especially for parashot that appear within a verse. A prominent example is for the Ten Commandments. The titles of prominent parashot mentioned in rabbinic literature are also sometimes given.
The verse numbering in this list is according to the system commonly found in most Hebrew editions. The numbers in translations may differ slightly.

Symbols:

= parashah petuhah, typically resembles a new paragraph
= parashah setumah, typically represented as a blank space in the middle of a line
= no parashah break indicated
= Special format for songs; details of the special layout will be described in separate sections.