This is a Torah reading (divided into three aliyot) and a Haftarah reading to be recited for days commemorating genocides such as (but not limited to) the Holocaust. The aliyot are from the opening of Exodus, and one of the earliest recorded attempted genocides. The first describes Pharaoh’s paranoid accusations of dual loyalty as a motivating factor for enforcing labor camps. The second features Pharaoh’s orders to murder all the men and thereby destroy the people’s line, along with the righteous midwives who opposed his labor. The third shows the midwives carefully using animalistic language to convince Pharaoh to let them off, and ends with a moment of hope as a yet-unnamed child is placed in a basket of reeds to be watched over by his sister.

The haftarah, from the minor prophetic book of Joel, is a description of an invasion of a massive swarm — perhaps locusts, perhaps people, destroying everything and causing sheer utter calamity and starvation, read in Lamentations trōp. It skips to the end of chapter 2 to end on a note of positivity and the words “never again.”

These readings would be performed as in a normal Torah service on weekdays, with two exceptions. If the genocide commemoration day occurs on a regular Shabbat, then the second and third readings would be joined together as a special maftir and the haftarah would not be read. If it occurs on a special Shabbat (i.e. one with a distinct maftir) or on a festival, then the entire reading, including the haftarah, is moved to the next weekday.

Note: “The CAUSE” is used to translate the Divine Name YHVH, based on the philosophical idea of God as the Prime Mover and on the interpretation of the Name as a causative form of the copula – “causes to be.”

This is part five of an ongoing series of Torah and Haftarah readings for civic holidays: A reading for days of celebrating veterans, for days of memorial for warfare, for days of celebrating independence, and one for days of celebrating the worker.