Torah Portion Schedule 2026-2027 (5787): Every Parsha, Week by Week

The Torah reading cycle starts over this Shabbat. On Saturday, October 10, 2026 (29 Tishrei 5787), synagogues read Parashat Bereshit, Genesis 1:1 to 6:8, the first of the Torah's 54 weekly portions. The cycle runs a little over a year this time and ends on Simchat Torah, October 24, 2027, when the last verses of Deuteronomy are read and the scroll rolls back to the beginning.

If you have wanted to follow the parsha for a while, this is the easiest week of the year to start, because nobody is in the middle. Below is the full schedule for 5787 with every date, the few weeks that work differently this year, and a simple way to keep up. One note before we start: Bayit is our app, and this is its journal. It comes up near the end.

Why 5787 has only three double portions

The Jewish calendar follows the moon but has to stay in step with the seasons, so about seven years out of every nineteen get an extra month. 5787 is one of those years. It has two months of Adar (Adar I and Adar II), which means more Shabbatot between one Simchat Torah and the next.

There are seven pairs of portions that can be read together when the calendar runs short: Vayakhel-Pekudei, Tazria-Metzora, Acharei Mot-Kedoshim, Behar-Bechukotai, Chukat-Balak, Matot-Masei, and Nitzavim-Vayeilech. Last year (5786) had no extra month, and all seven pairs were read together outside Israel. This year the extra month leaves room for almost every portion to get its own week. In the Diaspora only three are doubled:

• Chukat-Balak on July 17, 2027 (Israel reads them separately)
• Matot-Masei on July 31, 2027
• Nitzavim-Vayeilech on September 25, 2027

Three Shabbatot have no weekly portion at all because a festival takes its place: April 24, 2027 (the Shabbat in the middle of Pesach), June 12, 2027 (the second day of Shavuot, outside Israel), and October 2, 2027 (Rosh Hashanah 5788).

Israel and the Diaspora, June 12 to July 17, 2027

For most of the year Israel and the rest of the world read the same portion on the same Shabbat. In 5787 they split once. Shavuot falls on Friday, June 11, 2027. Israel keeps one day of Shavuot, so on Shabbat, June 12, Israeli synagogues go back to the weekly cycle and read Nasso. Outside Israel, June 12 is the second day of Shavuot, so the Diaspora reads the holiday portion and gets to Nasso a week later.

Here is how the five weeks line up:

• June 12: Israel reads Nasso. Diaspora reads for Shavuot.
• June 19: Israel reads Beha'alotcha. Diaspora reads Nasso.
• June 26: Israel reads Shelach. Diaspora reads Beha'alotcha.
• July 3: Israel reads Korach. Diaspora reads Shelach.
• July 10: Israel reads Chukat. Diaspora reads Korach.
• July 17: Israel reads Balak. The Diaspora reads Chukat and Balak together, and from here on everyone is in sync again.

If you follow a podcast or a weekly email from Israel during those weeks, this is why it seems to be a week ahead of your shul.

Weeks worth knowing about

A few Shabbatot carry something extra, usually a special haftarah or an added reading:

• Bereshit (October 10) is also Shabbat Machar Chodesh, since Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan starts the next day. The haftarah is I Samuel 20:18-42, the story of David and Jonathan.
• Vayeshev and Miketz (December 5 and 12) both fall during Chanukah, so the Joseph story runs through the holiday. Our Chanukah 2026 guide has the candle dates.
• The four special Shabbatot before Pesach land on Vayakhel (Shekalim, March 6), Vayikra (Zachor, March 20, three days before Purim on March 23), Tzav (Parah, March 27), and Shemini (HaChodesh, April 3).
• Devarim (August 7) is Shabbat Chazon, the Shabbat before Tisha B'Av on Thursday, August 12, 2027. Vaetchanan the week after is Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of comfort.

For every holiday date in the year, see our Jewish holidays 2026 and 2027 calendar.

How to actually keep up

The tradition already splits each portion into seven sections called aliyot, one for each person called up to the Torah on Shabbat. That gives you a ready daily plan: read one aliyah each day from Sunday to Shabbat and you finish the portion right on time. Bereshit breaks down like this:

1. Sunday: Genesis 1:1-2:3, the seven days of creation
2. Monday: Genesis 2:4-19, the Garden of Eden
3. Tuesday: Genesis 2:20-3:21, Eve, the snake, and the fruit
4. Wednesday: Genesis 3:22-4:18, leaving Eden, Cain and Abel
5. Thursday: Genesis 4:19-22, just four verses
6. Friday: Genesis 4:23-5:24, the generations from Adam
7. Shabbat: Genesis 5:25-6:8, up to Noah

If you are reading this midweek, skip the guilt and start with today's section. Next Sunday you will be on Noach with everyone else. A translation with a short commentary is plenty for a first pass, and reading the Hebrew alongside it helps more than people expect (we wrote about why Hebrew alongside English helps). For a fuller routine, see how to start daily Torah study or daily Torah in 10 minutes.

Missed October? The cycle has a few natural restart points where a new book begins: Shemot on January 2, 2027 (which is also the first Shabbat of the secular year), Vayikra on March 20, Bamidbar on June 5, and Devarim on August 7. Pick whichever is next and start there.

One more thing that confuses newcomers: some Conservative and Reform congregations use a triennial cycle, reading about a third of each portion every year. The portion names and dates are the same, but the verses read in shul are shorter. Hebcal lists 5787 as year two of that cycle.

Tools that help

• Hebcal is free and has the full schedule, the aliyah breakdown, and a calendar feed you can add to your phone so the parsha name shows up every Saturday.
• Sefaria is free and has the complete text in Hebrew and English, with Rashi and many other commentaries one tap away.
• A printed chumash is still the best way to follow along in shul. If you need one, our guide to the best chumash for beginners compares the main editions.
• Bayit, our app for iPhone, builds a small Daily Plan around the week's parsha: a short teaching on the portion plus a tefilah for the day, in about five minutes. It is a habit tool, so it works next to a chumash or Sefaria, and it is a paid subscription.

New to the whole idea of a weekly portion? Start with what the parsha is, then come back to the table above.

Want the new cycle to come to you, a little each day, starting with Bereshit? Try Bayit on the App Store.