הלכות קריאת התורה

The Rav suggested that to fully capture the Sinaitic flavor of keriat Ha-Torah, the attendance of an entire nation would be necessary. Har Sinai is repeatedly referred to (Devarim 9:10, 10:4, 18:16) as “yom ha-kahal” – the day of assembly, in which the entire nation (according to midrashic sources, even future unborn Jews) convened to receive the word of God. Reinstating that experience would demand a similar kahal or population of Jews. Obviously, unable to convene a national audience, we allocate three aliyot to capture symbolically that which we cannot achieve through actual expression. By designating three aliyot, we achieve a representative sampling of an entire nation and capture the full flavor of yom ha-kahal, thereby lending to keriat ha-Torah its Sinaitic quality. (Torah Reading and Mount Sinai - Rav Taragin)

An additional halakhic consequence of this aligning keriat ha-Torah to Sinai emerges from the Rambam’s ruling (Hilkhot Tefilla 12:6) that requires the reader to correct basically any mistake in the reading - even phonetic mistakes which may not alter the actual meaning. Interestingly, the Rema does not adopt this stringency, forcing correction only for instances in which the content was affected by the misreading. The Rav explained the Rambam’s stringency about keriat ha-Torah as an enactment of Har Sinai. To fully capture the moment at Sinai, it is not enough for the “stage” to resemble the original delivery (standing, intermediaries and an assembly). The rendered text must exhibit fidelity to the original rendering. Even if no cognitive differences emerge, if the text is rendered differently the experience of Sinai may be compromised. In fact, the Rav reported, that Rav Chayim of Brisk would typically correct the reader (and encourage repetition) even for misread cantillation (trup), which does not affect meaning. Evidently, he felt that the accurate cadences could also help capture the sense of Har Sinai