Although a Sephardi Machzor was published in 1766 in colonial New York by Isaac Pinto, the first Jewish book printed in the newly formed United States that I am aware of was a calendar published by Moses Lopez of Newport, in 1806. Lopez born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1740 with the given name Duarte to a “New Christian” family, arrived with that family in Newport in 1767 on a ship sent by his uncle Aaron where he was circumcised together…
Many communities in Europe and beyond had the practice of reciting a special haftarah from Isaiah 61–62 in honor of a groom on the Shabbat following the wedding. Ashkenazi communities began the haftarah with 61:10 and read until 63:9, which is also the 7th of the haftarot of consolation, which is which was read in most communities on the Sabbath before Rosh Hashanah, and in some others on the Shabbat between Yom Kippur and Sukkot in the event that there…
There had been one practice throughout the Jewish world concerning the Haftara of Vayishlach until the print revolution. The book of Ovadia is the Haftara listed in every Haftara list, including the one in the Rambam’s Seder HaTefillos in the Mishneh Torah, MS Ginsburg Moscow of the Machzor Vitry, Etz Chaim (written in London on the eve of the Edict of Expulsion), Abudarham, and the list of Rabbi Shmuel Hanagid, cited in the Sefer HaEshkol. It is also the Haftara…
The Babylonian haftarah for Parashat Shemot was from Ezekiel 16: “Hoda’ et yerushalayim.” The haftarah appears in at least six fragments from the Cairo Geniza, is the haftarah used in the “Emet” piyyut of R’ Shemuel Hashelishi and in the “Zulat” piyyut of R’ Yehuda Beirabbi Binyamin, and is listed in the Seder Hatefillot in Rambam’s Yad Hahazakah as well as in the Siddur of R Shlomo Beirabbi Natan. This haftarah, an extremely graphic and difficult prophecy, was chosen because…
The old Babylonian practice was to read Jeremiah 16:19 as the haftara for Parashat Behar and Ezekiel 34 for Parashat Behukkotai, and this is attested to in most of the relevant Cairo Geniza fragments. One of them, Cambridge T-S B15.4, aside from also indicating this, is written in the Oriental Hebrew script and vocalized with the Babylonian supralinear system, indicating its antiquity. Moreover, these haftarot are listed by R’ Shlomo ben Natan, and their verses are the basis for the…