Talmud for Megillah 62:5

HALAKHAH: “One does not interrupt curses.” Rebbi Ḥiyya bar Gamda said, do not be repelled by his reproach¹²⁸Prov. 3:11. Babli 31b. The entire paragraph is more or less reproduced in Soferim 12:1–6., do not split it into many thorns¹²⁹An untranslatable pun, identifying the roots קוּץ “to be repelled” (Accadic קצצ “to be enraged”) and קוֹץ “thorn” (without obvious cognate).. Rebbi Levi said, the Holy One, praise to Him, said that it is not logical that My children be cursed and I praised. Rebbi Yose ben Rebbi Abun said, not because of that reason¹³⁰He rejects the homiletic reason given by preachers (accepted in the Babli 31b) and points to a simple technicality which makes stopping during the reading of the curses impossible. but because one who stands up to read in the Torah needs to start with something good and conclude with something good. Levi bar Paṭi asked Rav Ḥuna: these curses¹³¹The curse formulas Deut. 27:15–26. which we read as one, should one recite a benediction before and after? He said to him, nothing needs a benediction before and after except the curses in Leviticus and the curses in Deuteronomy¹²⁵Either Lev. 26:3–46 or Deut. Chapter 28.. Rebbi Jonathan the scribe of Gufta came down here¹³²To Tiberias.; he saw Bar Abuna reading the Song of the Well¹³³Num. 21:17–20. and recite a benediction before and after. He said to him, does one do this? He answered him, you still are about this? All songs need a benediction before and after. Rebbi Simon was asked. Rebbi Simon told them in the name of Rebbi Joshua ben Levi, only the Song on the Sea¹³⁴Ex. 15:1–19., and the Ten Commandments, and the curses [in Leviticus and the curses]¹³⁵The addition by the corrector is questionable since the Babli requires benedictions only for the text of Lev. and excludes that of Deut. in Deuteronomy need a benediction before and after. Rebbi Abbahu said, I did not hear¹³⁶The topic never came up in his studies.. It seems reasonable for the Ten Commandments¹³⁷The special treatment accorded here to the Song on the Sea and the Ten Commandments may be the reason for the Ashkenazic custom to stand during the recitation of these texts; a custom otherwise unexplained.. Rebbi Yose ben Rebbi Abun: the eight verses in Deuteronomy¹³⁸The last 8 verses, Deut. 34:5–12, about Moses’s death and its aftermath, which are ascribed either to Joshua or to Moses who wrote them by Divine command without separation of words. Babli Bava batra 15a. need a benediction before and after. Without this do not the one who starts and the one who finishes recite the benediction before and after¹³⁹The original Palestinian usage was that a benediction was recited before the start of the Torah reading (“Who choose us from all peoples and gave us His Torah”) and after the end (“Who gave us His Torah”) recited, respectively, by the first reader before and the last reader after his reading. Separate benedictions for every reader, which make all the preceding discussion unnecessary, are Babylonian usage. It follows that the benedictions mentioned here for the Song on the Sea, the Ten Commandments, and Blessings and Curses, must be different from the beginning and ending benedictions.? But it is needed for a New Moon which falls on a Sabbath¹⁴⁰Since the reading has only 5 verses (Note 123) it cannot be split; the text has to be recited seven times. Since starting and finishing readers read the same text, it remains questionable why they should differ in their benedictions..

“But they may not count it in the series.” There are Tannaim who state, “they may count it in the series¹⁵⁸In Babli 31b and Tosephta 3:10, the Mishnah is attributed to R. Jehudah, who holds that at the place where one stops the reading on Sabbath morning there one starts the reading on the next Sabbath. Rebbi Meïr holds that where one stops Sabbath morning there one reads Sabbath afternoon; where one stops Sabbath afternoon there one reads on Monday, where one stops on Monday there one reads on Thursday; where one stops on Thursday there one reads on the next Sabbath morning..” Rebbi Ze`ira, Abba bar Jeremiah, Rav Mattanah in the name of Samuel: Practice follows him whom said, they may not count it in the series; as the Mishnah.