A newly-acquired 14th-century machzor (prayer e book for the Jewish holidays) contains beforehand unknown liturgical poems for the competition of Yom Kippur, the Nationwide Library of Israel introduced on Thursday.
The invention marks a uncommon prevalence, in keeping with Dr. Chaim Neria, curator of NLI’s Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica Assortment, that provides a glimpse right into a time earlier than the prayers have been largely standardized by the invention of the printing press.
The manuscript displays the Kaffa ceremony (“nusach Kaffa”), a liturgical custom that emerged within the Black Sea port metropolis of Kaffa on the Crimean Peninsula. In that period, the area was a vibrant crossroads of Jewish life, dwelling to numerous communities together with Krimchaks (“Crimeans”), Karaites, Khazarians, Genoese, Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews.
The Kaffa ceremony exhibits notable affinities with the Judeo-Greek Romaniote custom, practiced by Romaniote Jews who lived throughout a lot of the Greek mainland and islands.
“We have been already acquainted with the Kaffa ceremony, however this machzor appears to have been written down previous to when the custom was codified,” Neria informed The Occasions of Israel over the telephone.
“What actually stunned us is that the machzor accommodates a number of piyyutim [liturgical poems] utterly unknown from some other supply, together with others beforehand attested solely in paperwork recovered from the Cairo Genizah,” he added, referring to a treasure trove of Jewish communal paperwork saved in an ancient synagogue within the Egyptian capital over centuries.
The Neilah prayers, the ultimate plea for atonement on the finish of the Yom Kippur service, at Hostages Sq. in Tel Aviv, on October 12, 2024. (Paulina Patimer/Professional-Democracy Protest Motion)
In keeping with custom, on Yom Kippur, which in 2025 falls on October 1-2 — Jews quick from sundown to sundown, devoting the day to prayer and atonement.
Piyyutim kind a central ingredient of the prayers recited all through the holy day.
The machzor was not too long ago acquired from non-public collector Avigdor Klagsbald. Although not at the moment on public show, it has been absolutely digitized and is accessible online.
“We look ahead to having specialised students study it and shed extra gentle on the piyyutim,” Neria mentioned.
Neria famous that the machzor dates again to a time earlier than the invention of the printing press, which rapidly standardized traditions from completely different communities, leaving much less standard elements of the liturgy out.
Dr. Chaim Neria, Curator of the Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica Assortment on the Nationwide Library of Israel. (Nationwide Library of Israel)
“We now have one thing very distinctive as these pyyutim survived solely on this machzor,” Neria mentioned.
On its last leaf, the machzor additionally features a beforehand unknown model of a blessing for mourners.
“Blessed are You… Who understands each creature… Resuscitator of the lifeless. Might You quickly have mercy on Your folks and luxury the guts of mourners… Comforter of Zion and the guts of mourners. And should everybody who does kindness to a different be recompensed… Who pays goodly reward to doers of kindness. Might You withhold Your anger… Who stops pestilence, sword, destruction and plague from us…,” reads the blessing in keeping with the interpretation shared by the NLI in an announcement.
Neria mentioned he felt the phrases may very well be particularly related for in the present day’s troubled occasions.
“It may very well be a method to ask God to finish the battle,” he famous.
The scholar famous that documenting and preserving such traditions is a core mission of the NLI.
“We see ourselves as custodians of the Jewish folks’s heritage, particularly traditions now not practiced in the present day,” Neria mentioned. “They continue to be a part of our collective story, and it’s very important to safeguard them and provides them a voice. Maybe sooner or later, a neighborhood will rediscover one in all these forgotten piyyutim and convey it again to life.”
