page_title: Parashah
section_title: Songs with special layout
hierarchical_section_title: Parashah / Songs with special layout
caption_attribution_description: An engraving of a scroll of the Penteteuch in Hebrew characters, British Library Add. MS. 4,707. The scroll is open to the column showing Exodus 15:1-19.
context_page_description: The term parashah formally means a section of a biblical book in the masoretic text of the Tanakh. In common usage today the word often refers to the Weekly Torah portion. In the Masoretic Text, parashah sections are designated by various types of spacing between them, as found in Torah scrolls, scrolls of the books of Nevi'im or Ketuvim, masoretic codices from the Middle Ages and printed editions of the masoretic text.
  The division of the text into parashot for the biblical books is independent of chapter and verse numbers, which are not part of the masoretic tradition. Parashot are not numbered, but some have special names.
  The division of parashot found in the modern-day Torah scrolls of all Jewish communities is based upon the systematic list provided by Maimonides in Mishneh Torah, Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah and Torah Scrolls, chapter 8. Maimonides based his division of the parashot for the Torah on the Aleppo Codex. The division of parashot for the books of Nevi'im and Ketuvim was never completely standardized in printed Hebrew bibles and handwritten scrolls, though important attempts were made to document it and create fixed rules.
context_section_description: In addition to the common "open" and "closed" parashot, the masoretic scribal layout employs spaces in an elaborate way for prominent songs found within narrative books, as well as for certain lists. Each such "song" is formatted in its own exact way, though there are similarities between them. These sections include:
  Torah
  Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:1–19)
  Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32)
  Nevi'im
  Canaanite Kings (Joshua 12:9–24)
  Song of Deborah (Judges 5)
  Song of David (II Samuel 22)
  Ketuvim
  Song of the Seasons (Ecclesiastes 3:2–8)
  Haman's Sons (Esther 9:7–9)
  David's Champions (I Chronicles 11:26–47)
  Song of Assaf (I Chronicles 16:8–36)
  The following sections discuss the layout and formatting of each of these songs in detail.
caption: Image of a modern Torah scroll open to the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:1–19) with special layout visible.
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