After the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem, the Jews were exiled to Babylon. Not only was there no longer a physical place to pray, even the sacred Scriptures were becoming scarce. Many of the biblical scrolls were lost or destroyed during the exile. In an attempt to preserve the Scriptures, the Rabbis divided up the biblical texts into weekly reading portions and distributed them among the families of Israel. Each was responsible for memorizing their assigned passage and then reading it in the synagogue every Sabbath.
This system of reading is the basis for the story found in...