Completing Missed Parshiyot

April 24, 2020 – Eretz Hemdah

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Question: Catching up on missed parshiyot. Follow the gra and if missed more than one cannot catch them all up? Or the Aruch hashulchan and one can? Assuming multiple parshiyot are missed, what would be the method to catch up?

Answer: A congregation in which the Torah was not read on one Shabbat or on a few Shabbatot, should read all the missed parshiyot on the first Shabbat they are able to read the Torah, whether the parshiyot are from one chumash or from more than one chumash, and even if that would entail reading numerous parshiyot on one Shabbat. There is no difference whether they gathered for a minyan and did not read the Torah for some reason, or if they did not gather for a minyan at all.If they did not read the Torah in shul, but minyanim took place elsewhere, such as in other shuls or in outdoor minyanim, if the majority of the congregation members heard the Torah reading, there is no need to make up the missed parshiyot. If the majority of the congregation members didnot hear the Torah reading, they do need to make up the missed parshiyot. Congregation members in this context are defined as the people who regularly attend the shul.Only the missed weekly Shabbat parshiyot readings need to be completed. There is no need to make up the missed readings of Mondays and Thursdays, of the holidays, and of the four parshiyot read around the month of Adar.When making up the missed parshiyot, they should be read in order. Ideally, one should attempt to divide up the first sevenaliyot equally between all the parshiyot one is reading on that Shabbat, and to read continuously from one parasha to the next without breaking for an aliyah at the end of a parasha (as is done on Shabbatot when we read two parshiyot). However, although this is the ideal way, one need not be overly precise regarding the allocation of the aliyot between the parshiyot. If one needs to read parshiyot from more than one Chumash, one should break for an aliyah at the end of the Chumash. Also, one should be careful that there be at least seven aliyot from one of the Chumashim, either from the first Chumash or from the second.One reads the Haftorah of the scheduled weekly reading for that Shabbat, which is the last parasha read.