On Shavuot Jews around the world will spend the night learning - remembering and reliving - the experience of receiving the Torah on Har Sinai. Interestingly there is a much more common occurrence in our lives, the public Torah reading, which happens each week on Mondays, Thursday and Shabbat which also serves to reenact that central national experience of revelation. By examining some of the technical laws surrounding the Torah reading we can gain insight into the meta – ideas the Rabbis wanted to create with this fundamental ritual. The minimum required structure to perform a public Torah reading is that ten verses must be read in total and there should be three aliyot, in which a minimum of three verses are read in each. The facts of these laws are very confusing at first glance. Did the Rabbis not know basic math? If one requires three aliyot of three verses why not rule that the minimum total required is nine verses and not ten? However, when one unpacks the reasons behind these laws a deeper idea emerges.