A ''seder'' (plural: ''sedarim'') is part of a biblical book in the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; ) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocaliz ...

of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

is divided into roughly 150 ''sedarim'' though sources disagree on the exact number. Differing texts record 141, 154 or 167 ''sedarim''. The division of the Torah into ''sedarim'' is a result of the ancient custom of a triennial cycle for

Torah reading Torah reading (; ') is a Jewish religious tradition that involves the public reading of a set of passages from a Torah scroll. The term often refers to the entire ceremony of removing the scroll (or scrolls) from the Torah ark, chanting the ap ...

. The

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

states that it was the custom of Jews in Israel to read the Torah in a three-year cycle.Tractate Megillah 29b

In other parts of the Bible

The books of

Nevi'im The (; ) is the second major division of the Hebrew Bible (the ''Tanakh''), lying between the () and (). The Nevi'im are divided into two groups. The Former Prophets ( ) consists of the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings ...

and

Ketuvim The (; ) is the third and final section of the Hebrew Bible, after the ("instruction") and the "Prophets". In English translations of the Hebrew Bible, this section is usually titled "Writings" or "Hagiographa". In the Ketuvim, 1–2 Books ...

are also divided into ''sedarim''. Unlike the '' parashot'' (another subdivision of the biblical books in the Masoretic Text that is indicated by various spacing techniques), which are thematic divisions of the text, the divisions indicated by the ''sedarim'' is mostly quantitative. In Tiberian masoretic manuscripts, it is noted in the margin. In this part there are 293 sedarim, which are the numbers of weekdays during the year, some people read that 293 Sedarim in addition to the parashah and complete the whole Bible every year.

Modern use

The ''sedarim'' are seldom used in modern times. The Babylonian tradition of completing the Torah in an

annual cycle Annual may refer to: *Annual publication, periodical publications appearing regularly once per year **Yearbook A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a type of Annual publication, a book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, an ...

became the dominant tradition, and eventually the Palestinian reading cycle ceased to be used altogether. This made the ''sedarim'' liturgically obsolete. Additionally, the use of the chapter divisions of the Bible has made the ''sedarim'' unnecessary as structural divisions in the text. Today few editions of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

mark the ''sedarim''. The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia note them in the margin, and the Koren Tanakh ascribes to them ascending

Hebrew numerals The system of Hebrew numerals is a quasi-decimal alphabetic numeral system using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The system was adapted from that of the Greek numerals sometime between 200 and 78 BCE, the latter being the date of the earlie ...

Other use

In its sense as part of cyclical public reading of a biblical book, the term is also used to designate the

Weekly Torah portion The weekly Torah portion refers to a lectionary custom in Judaism in which a portion of the Torah (or Pentateuch) is read during Jewish prayer services on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. The full name, ''Parashat HaShavua'' (), is popularly abbre ...

. In this sense it is often called ''sidra'' (plural ''sidrot'') from the same root.

References

Hebrew Bible Jews and Judaism in Palestine (region) Torah reading {{Hebrew-Bible-stub