Concepts of Scripture in the Synagogue Service 19the narratives of the Pentateuch are intensely theological. Th e relationship
between God and Israel is the primary factor that determines the fate of
the people.
Th e latter prophets are also represented disproportionately. Of the clas-
sical prophets, Isaiah, especially Deutero-Isaiah, is the most heavily rep-
resented. Th e lectionary does include selected Jeremiads and prophecies
of rebuke and doom. However, the rabbinic and medieval framers of the
various lectionary traditions gave more air time to depictions of YHWH as
a loving, comforting, and compassionate God than they did to depictions
of the deity as an angry and punishing God. Th is tendency is underscored
by the addition of fi nal verses of consolation to haft arot of rebuke or doom.
Even in cases where the body of the haft arah articulates a harsh theology,
the fi nal verse always underscores the loving and compassionate nature of
God and God’s plans for the people of Israel.
Last, and perhaps most important, is the pride of place granted to the
Torah, in its entirety. Whereas Christian lectionaries largely bypass the le-
gal codes of the Pentateuch, the Jewish lectionary mandates the reading of
the entire canonical Torah, including those cultic laws which had become
obsolete before the sequential reading of the Torah was institutionalized.8
By putting the recitation of the Pentateuch, cultic laws and all, at the cen-
ter of the lectionary, the rabbinic framers of the synagogue Bible asserted
the ongoing relevance of the functionally obsolete laws. Th is choice set the
stage for the ongoing process of seeking contemporary relevance in the le-
gal material that is one of the hallmarks of Jewish interpretive practice to
this day.
Th e diff erence in content between the canonical Tanakh and the syna-
gogue Bible, then, undergirds three thematic trends that distinguish the
two corpora. Th ese thematic trends are also central pillars of rabbinic the-
ology and ideology. Th e inclusion of the entire Pentateuch coupled with
the relative lack of attention paid to the history found in Joshua – Kings
enables the elevation of the portrait of Israel as a people who lack sover-
eignty but have a distinct national identity. Th is Israel’s identity and des-
tiny are defi ned by its relationship with God rather than by the vicissitudes
of domestic and international politics. Th is national portrait resonates
strongly with the communal self-portrait asserted throughout the rab-
binic literature.
Like the canonical corpus of prophetic texts, the haft arot include texts
of rebuke and punishment along with texts of consolation and redemp-
tion. Both corpora, in their entirety, portray God as an agent of both