R. Huna b. Judah says in the name of R. Ammi: A man should always complete his Parashiyos together with the congregation, [reading] twice the Hebrew text and once the [Aramaic] Targum, (Berakhos 8a)
Why do we read the Hebrew text twice and the Targum once?
Prof. Steven Fraade notes that the formulation, parashiyyot, his weekly readings, makes it clear that a person’s private reading, reviewing and translation of the reading is intended. By geonic times, however, there developed the custom in some places of fulfilling this requirement communally by reading the section twice in Hebrew and once in Aramaic in shul on Shabbos morning before kri’yas ha-Torah. (See ‘Otzar ha-Geonim, p. 19, responsa to Berakhos 8b.)
Many of the ancient targumim from Eretz Yisrael published from the Cairo Geniza contain not a continuous targum, as we find in the Dead Sea Scrolls, but each pasuk appears first in Hebrew, in its entirety, and then in Aramaic. Other Geniza texts, and later manuscripts of the other Targums, usually have simply the first word or words of the pasuk before the Aramaic translation. But they still suggest that, unlike the continuous Aramaic translations from Qumran, these were to be keyed to the reading or studying of the Torah text and not to substitute for it.
--“Rabbinic Views on the Practice of Targum”, in The Galilee in Late Antiquity, edited by Lee I. Levine, pp. 264-265.
Chazal could not see the study of Targum without the study of the Torah text, mikra.
The Taj, Kesser Torah or crown, of the ‘edot ha-mizrach contains the Torah text once, Targum Onkelos and Rav Sa’adia Gaon’s Arabic translation, in that order, for each pasuk.
The reason for repeating the Torah text twice is still not clear and requires further research.
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2 comments:
Perhaps because it's a good way of studying. One notices most details, and realizes their significance, only on the second reading (or a third and fourth).
Kishnevi,
Practical point. But, why stop at two?
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