Five-Day Seder Cycle
The Torah in five days a week, one ʾEreṣ Yisraʾel triennial seder each week. A day is about 114 words, or 8 pĕsuqim, and ends on a pĕthuḥa or sĕthuma wherever the length allows, otherwise on an ‘ăliyya. The other two days of the week are free for review and catching up. It’s a good fit for families and beginners who want a steady daily portion of Torah with review built in.
How the plan was made
Each seder is split on its own into five days. The split minimizes squared deviation from an even share (the seder’s words ÷ 5) plus a cost for each kind of break: nothing for a pĕthuḥa or sĕthuma, a little for an ‘ăliyya boundary from the triennial table, more for a chapter end, and most for any other verse, so mid-paragraph breaks are rare (29 of 705 days). No day crosses into the next seder.
The sĕdharim themselves are not evened out, so a long seder makes for a heavier week: they run from 270 to 1,134 words. Within a week, half the days are within 15% of that week’s even share.
After the automatic split, 44 sĕdharim with a mid-paragraph break or a lopsided week were checked by hand. When the plan moved to Miqra according to the Masorah, the splits accepted as automatic were redone on that text, and the three sĕdharim it newly flagged were checked again. Changes of topic aren’t marked separately; chapter ends stand in for them where no section or ‘ăliyya break falls nearby. Seder boundaries and ʿăliyyoth follow the triennial table; Wayyiqraʾ sĕdharim 11 and 12 are chapters 15 and 16 in full.
Text, word counts, verse numbers and section marks follow Miqra according to the Masorah (as on Sefaria), which records the pĕthuḥoth and sĕthumoth of the Aleppo tradition the Rambam follows. Words are counted as written (kĕthiv), with words joined by a maqaf counted separately, and a pĕthuḥa or sĕthuma in the middle of a verse counts as a break after that verse.
The opening and closing words come from the same text, with niqqud but no te’amim, the qere in place of the kĕthiv, and the Divine Name written יְיָ as elsewhere in this siddur. Each day shows its first four and last three words, as Machon Shiloh’s calendar does, so you can find the place in any Ḥumash; phones show only the opening words.
The plan counts sĕdharim, not calendar weeks, so start whenever you like. Straight through, 141 weeks is about two years and nine months. If you take festival weeks off for review, you have about 45 study weeks a year and a full pass takes just over three years.