The Jewish prayer book containing rituals prescribed for holidays.
[Mishnaic Hebrew maḥăzôr, cycle, mahzor, from ḥāzar, to go around, return.]
mahzor
Dictionary:
mah·zor mach·zor (mäKH'zôr', -zər, mäKH-zōr')  |
also n., pl., -zor·im, also -zor·im (-zôr'ĭm, -zô-rēm'), or -zors, also -zors.
The Jewish prayer book containing rituals prescribed for holidays.
The Jewish prayer book containing rituals prescribed for holidays.
| Encyclopedia of Judaism: Maḥzor |
(pl. maḥzorim, "cycle"). Prayer book for Festivals. The maḥzor has undergone fundamental changes since the term was first used in the Middle Ages. As its Hebrew meaning reveals, the word originally referred to the "cycle" of the liturgy chronologically arranged for the entire year and was therefore synonymous with the term siddur (Prayer Book). The Maḥzor Vitry, an 11th-century Ashkenazi prayer book from northern France, chronicles the accepted liturgical formulas for weekdays, Sabbaths, and festivals throughout the year. A Passover Haggadah, prayers for Simḥat Torah, and liturgical poems (Piyyutim) are appended to this comprehensive work, together with the relevant halakhic rulings and aggadic commentaries of the Talmud, the ge'onim, and Rashi. Laws regarding the Sabbath, marriage, and ritual slaughter were also included. Another early festival prayer book was the Maḥzor Romania containing the festival prayers as recited in the sphere of influence of the Byzantine Empire.
In the 13th century, Ashkenazi Jews began to make the distinction between the siddur as the prayer book of daily and Sabbath devotion and the maḥzor which contained the communal prayers for the festivals and the seven special Sabbaths of the year. Primarily intended for use by the ḥazzan (prayer leader), these maḥzorim, some of them beautifully illuminated, offered a variety of piyyutim from which to choose for each festival. Most of the examples from the 13th and 14th centuries begin in a first volume with prayers for the four special Sabbaths before Passover (see Sabbaths. Special) and continue with prayers for all the major holy days which follow, i.e., Passover, Shavu'Ot, the New Year (Rosh Ha-Shanah), the Day of Atonement, and Sukkot. Four of the "Scrolls" (Megillot) found in the biblical writings and read publicly in the synagogue during the festivals, namely, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes, are usually included as well. The second volume of the medieval Ashkenazi maḥzor contains the complete liturgies for the New Year and the Day of Atonement. The former is sometimes illustrated by the Binding of Isaac (Akedah) and the latter illuminated within full page-arches symbolic of the Gates of Mercy open to accept petitions for forgiveness. Although many of the illustrated maḥzorim are elaborately enhanced with depictions of biblical scenes appropriate to the festival, some are decorated merely with scrolls and geometric designs.
Two Ashkenazi maḥzorim of this period are of particular interest. The Leipzig maḥzor is the most richly and extensively illuminated of all the south German examples. The Worms maḥzor, the first volume of which was completed in 1272, is one of the earliest dated Hebrew manuscripts illustrated from this time.
Following the resettlement of many Ashkenazim in Italy, the 15th century witnessed a major change in the development of the maḥzor as the large illuminated form came to be replaced by a smaller-sized, personal volume. The indigenous Italian rite, however, retained the older, traditional definition of the maḥzor as the daily, Sabbath, and festival prayer book for the entire year, and usually contained a Haggadah for home use. This rite is preserved in the first printed maḥzor of 1485-1486, Maḥzor Roma, which marks the beginning of the prayer book's general accessibility to the individual Jew.
In contrast to the Ashkenazi tradition which produced Ha-Maḥzor ha-Gadol with Sabbath and festival prayers for the year and another Maḥzor for the festival prayers only, Sephardim refer to their prayer book for the three Pilgrim Festivals as Mo'adim, and provide separate volumes for the New Year and the Day of Atonement. The Ḥasidim modified their Ashkenazi maḥzor to include Sephardi piyyutim following their adoption of Isaac Luria's version of the liturgy. The Arabic-speaking Jews of Yemen worship from their all-inclusive Tikhlal, which remained handwritten until published in Jerusalem at the end of the 19th century.
As a result of the Emancipation, prayer book reform in Europe and subsequently in the United States transformed the maḥzor. The Union Prayer Book II (1925, 1945, and 1962) represents one of the earliest attempts by American Reform Judaism to revise traditional High Holiday liturgical texts. It was replaced in 1978 with Sha'aré Teshuvah: The Gates of Repentance, which anthologizes material from Jewish and non-Jewish sources and speaks in a modern idiom of the social, moral, and spiritual issues facing Reform Jews in the second half of the 20th century. This maḥzor also appeared in a gender-neutral edition in the 1990s.
Conservative Judaism also departed from the traditional maḥzor, although adhering more faithfully to the classical structure. Its first publication in 1927, Maḥzor le-Shalosh Regalim: The Festival Prayer Book, reveals a marked kinship with the enlightened Orthodoxy of its day. The volume currently in use in most Conservative congregations is the Maḥzor le-Yamim Nora'im: Maḥzor for Roshh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (1972) which preserves much of the traditional liturgy in interpretive translation with evocative readings and a decidedly Zionist emphasis.
Reconstructionist Judaism (see Reconstructionism) published its Maḥzor le-Yamim Nora'im: High Holy Day Prayer Book in 1948 and a Festival Prayer Book in 1958 which made extensive use of auxiliary material to enhance the tradition-oriented Conservative-style service.
In the American Orthodox community, the Art Scroll maḥzor published in the 1980s has grown considerably in popularity, superseding P. Birnbaum's High Holiday Prayer Book (1951), based on S. Singer's work of the last century. Creative maḥzorim for individual congregations, camp and retreat settings, ḥavurot and schools are also found in abundance.
| Wikipedia: Mahzor |
The mahzor (alternately machzor, plural mahzorim, Hebrew מחזור, pronounced [maxˈzor] and [maxzoˈrim]) is the prayer book used by Jews on the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Many Jews also make use of specialized mahzorim on the three "pilgrimage festivals" of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. The prayer book is a specialized form of the siddur, which is generally intended for use in weekday and Shabbat services.
The word mahzor means "cycle" (the root Ħ-Z-R means "to return"). It is applied to the festival prayer book because the festivals recur annually.
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Origins and peculiarities of the mahzor
Some of the earliest formal Jewish prayerbooks date from the 10th century; they contain a set order of daily prayers. However, due to the many liturgical differences between the ordinary, day-to-day services and holiday services, the need for a specialized variation of the siddur was recognized by some of the earliest rabbinic authorities, and consequently, the first mahzorim were written incorporating these liturgical variations and additions.
The mahzor contains not only the basic liturgy, but also many piyyutim, which are liturgical poems specific to the holiday for which the mahzor is intended. Many of the prayers in the machzor, including those said daily or weekly on the Sabbath, have special melodies sung only on the holidays. Most mahzorim contain only text and no musical notation; the melodies, some of which are ancient, have been passed down orally.
Popular Mahzors
- Artscroll Machzor - Very popular mahzorim used both in the Haredi and Modern Orthodox Jewish community. The text has English translations, commentary, scriptural sources, and choreography (when to sit, stand, bow, etc.) Many versions are available.
- Machzor HaShalem: High Holiday Prayerbook - Edited by Philip Birnbaum. Still used in the Modern Orthodox Jewish community, and for a time in some Conservative Jewish and Masorti synagogues. The text has English translations, commentary, scriptural sources. This book is only now going out of print, after having been used for thelast 50 years. Many congregations still use it.
- Mahzor: High Holiday Prayerbook - Edited by Conservative Rabbi Morris Silverman, this mahzor became the defacto Conservative Jewish mahzor for 30 years. The text has explanatory notes, meditations, and supplementary readings. It is still in use in some congregations today. Published by the Prayer Book Press.
- Mahzor for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Ed. Jules Harlow, the official Mahzor of Conservative Judaism from the early 1970s until 2009. 816 pages. Unlike previous machzorim published in the 20th century , this text has much less commentary and instruction. The editors focused on the translation, feeling in most places it would be sufficient. It has somewhat fewer poems than other traditional and conservative machzorim. The translations are more poetic and less literal. In 2009 the Rabbinical Assembly and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism announced a new successor volume, Mahzor Lev Shalem intended to replace this edition.
- Mahzor Lev Shalem - The new official Mahzor of the Conservative movement in Judaism. This prayerbook presents a complete liturgy, restoring many traditional prayers that had not been included in the Silverman or Harlow editions of the mahzor, yet also offers options to use the creative liturgical developments presenting the theology and gender-equality of non-Orthodox Judaism. It contains a variety of commentaries from classical and modern-day rabbis, gender-sensitive translations, and choreography instructions (when to sit, stand, bow, etc.) It offers more literal translations of the prayers than previous non-Orthodox mahzorim. English transliterations are offered for all prayers and lines recited aloud by the congregation. The page layout surrounds prayers with a variety of English commentaries and readings, as one finds in classical rabbinic commentaries. This book was designed to be used by Conservative, non-denominational and Traditional-Egalitarian synagogues and chavurot, and by leaving out certain texts and choosing the included options, it also can be used in Orthodox or Reform congregations.
- Mahzor Hadash - A Mahzor edited by two Conservative rabbis, Sidney Greenberg and Jonathan D. Levine, using gender-neutral translations, used by Conservative, non-denominational and Traditional-Egalitarian synagogues and chavurot.
- Kol Haneshama: Prayerbook for the Days of Awe, published by the Reconstructionist Press. This is the official mahzor of the Reconstructionist movement in Judaism.
- Gates of Repentance: The New Union Prayerbook - the official prayerbook of the Reform movement in Judaism. While significantly smaller and less complete than any of the above books, this prayerbook features a wider range of excerpts and selections from the traditional mahzor than any other Reform work in the 20th century. It features a rich variety of English commentaries, readings and transliterations. The original version was published in 1978, and a gender-neutral edition was published in 1996. Published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
See also
- Jewish services
- Jewish holiday
- Mahzor Vitry
- Siddur
- Piyyut
- ArtScroll (publishers of a series of Orthodox mahzorim and other works)
External links
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| Nuremberg Mahzor |
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Encyclopedia of Judaism. The New Encyclopedia of Judaism. Copyright © 1989, 2002 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mahzor". Read more |
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