On Condition I'm A Reader (article preview)

Kiddushin 49a discusses conditional betrothal. If I betroth on condition that I’m a kohen, but I am really a Levi, there’s no betrothal. The same if the condition is that I’m a Levi but really I’m a kohen. A condition mentioned in a brayta is: that I’m a קַרְיָינָא, a reader. What makes a person literate (as the Koren translation has it), or a Reader of Scripture (as Artscroll)? He must be capable of reading three verses in the synagogue. [So says Rabbi Meir¹.] Rabbi Yehuda says he must both read and translate. The Talmudic Narrator interjects, for elsewhere Rabbi Yehuda says that one who translates verses literally is a liar. Rather, to be a Reader, he must also recite the traditional Targum of the verses. The Talmudic Narrator adds: this is to be a קַרְיָינָא. However, to be a קָרָא, he needs to read Tanach with precision.

Girsologically speaking, it’s unlikely that the brayta had the Aramaic קַרְיָינָא. Printed texts have it, but manuscripts have קוֹרֵא, thus “that I can read” or “that I’m a reader”. Presumably the קַרְיָינָא was transferred from the Talmudic Narrator’s later use of the term as a synonym. So, the distinction is Korei / Karyana against Kara / Kara`a. 

Vatican 110 manuscript, Kiddushin 49

Rambam (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Ishut 8:4) may have had a different Talmudic girsa, because he describes the former as שֶׁאֲנִי יוֹדֵעַ לִקְרוֹת and the latter as שֶׁאֲנִי קוֹרֵא. The Tur (Even HaEzer 38) has our Korei / Kara’a distinction.