Haftara
The haftara or haftorah "parting," "taking leave", is a series of selections from the books of Nevi'im of the Hebrew Bible that is publicly read in synagogue as part of Jewish religious practice. The haftara reading follows the Torah reading on each Sabbath and on Jewish festivals and fast days. Typically, the haftara is thematically linked to the parashah that precedes it. The haftara is sung in a chant. Related blessings precede and follow the haftara reading.
The origin of haftara reading is lost to history, and several theories have been proposed to explain its role in Jewish practice, suggesting it arose in response to the persecution of the Jews under Antiochus IV Epiphanes which preceded the Maccabean Revolt, wherein Torah reading was prohibited, or that it was "instituted against the Samaritans, who denied the canonicity of the Prophets, and later against the Sadducees." Another theory is that it was instituted after some act of persecution or other disaster in which the synagogue Torah scrolls were destroyed or ruined, as it was forbidden to read the Torah portion from any but a ritually fit parchment scroll, but there was no such requirement about a reading from Prophets, which was then "substituted as a temporary expedient and then remained." The Talmud mentions that a haftara was read in the presence of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurcanus, who lived c. 70 CE, and that by the time of Rabbah bar Nahmani there was a "Scroll of Haftarot", which is not further described. Several references in the Christian New Testament suggest this Jewish custom was in place during that era.
History
No one knows for certain the origins of reading the haftara, but several theories have been put forth. The most common explanation, accepted by some traditional Jewish authorities is that in 168 BCE, when the Jews were under the rule of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, they were forbidden to read the Torah and made do with a substitute. When they were again able to read the Torah, they kept reading the haftara as well. However, this theory was not articulated before the 14th century, when it was suggested by Rabbi David Abudirham, and has several weaknesses.An alternative explanation, offered by Rabbis Reuven Margolies and Samson Raphael Hirsch, is that the haftara reading was instituted to fight the influence of those sects in Judaism that viewed the Hebrew Bible as consisting only of the Torah.
However, all offered explanations for the origin of reading the haftara have unanswered difficulties.
Certainly the haftara was read — perhaps not obligatorily nor in all communities nor on every Sabbath — as far back as circa 70 CE: The Talmud mentions that a haftara was read in the presence of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, who lived at that time. The Christian Bible indicates that readings from the Prophets - but not necessarily a fixed schedule - was a common part of the Sabbath service in Jerusalem synagogues even earlier than 70 CE.
Who reads the ''haftara''
Only one person reads the haftara portion. This differs from the procedure in Torah reading, wherein the text is divided into anywhere from three to seven portions, which may be read by one person or divided amongst several.The haftara is traditionally read by the maftir, or the last person to be called up to the Torah scroll.
Traditions varied or evolved with regard to which person could read the haftara. As an indication that, perhaps to make clear that the haftara reading was not the same status as the Torah reading, a minor was permitted to chant the haftara, and there were even communities where the haftara reading was reserved exclusively for minor boys. In recent centuries, Ashkenazi bar mitzvah boys, will read at least the maftir portion and the haftara. In some other communities, the haftara could only be read by one who had participated in the Torah reading, or even the whole congregation would read the haftara to themselves from the available humashim - this evidently to avoid embarrassing a reader who might make a mistake.
Rabbi Yosef Karo reported that for many years there were no set haftarot: the maftir chose an appropriate passage from the Nevi'im. Over time, certain choices became established in certain communities; in contemporary Jewish observance one may not choose his own haftara, explained Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, as that would run against accepted custom. Rabbi Karo's explanation, however, helps to explain why communities have varying customs regarding what to read as haftara.
What form of the text is read
Unlike the Torah portion, the haftara is, nowadays, normally read from a printed book. This may be either a Tanakh, a Chumash ) or, in the case of the festivals, the prayer book; there are also books containing the haftarot alone in large print. Even when a scroll of haftara readings is used, that scroll - unlike the Torah scroll - is occasionally made of paper and may include such embellishments as the vowel points and trope.However, according to most halakhic decisors, it is preferable to read the haftara out of a parchment scroll, and according to a small minority of posqim, such a parchment scroll is an absolute requirement. This may take various forms.
- According to some older traditions, the haftarot were read out of a special scroll containing just the selections of the Prophetic Books which were used in actual haftarot; this was known as a Sifra De'aftarta, and can still be found in a few communities today, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic; in some communities the scroll is made of paper. These scrolls sometimes contain vowel points and te`amim, and sometimes do not.
- However, the Vilna Gaon instituted that haftarot be read only from scrolls which contained the full text of a Prophetic Book, just as a Torah scroll contains the full text of the Pentateuch. These scrolls are written in accordance with the laws of writing Torah scrolls, and thus - in the opinion of the Vilna Gaon - do not contain vowel points or cantillation signs. Such scrolls are used for the reading of the haftarot in many, perhaps most, Lithuanian-style yeshivot, and in a number of Ashkenazic synagogues, especially in Israel. Some say that if such a scroll is unavailable the entire congregation must read the haftara for themselves, silently or in a murmur, from books rather than the maftir reciting aloud from something other than a scroll.
Blessings
Blessings both precede and follow the haftara reading. One reason the reading of the haftara is a special honor is because of the voluminous blessings that accompany the reading. These blessings are derived from the minor Talmudic tractate Massekhet Soferim - also called, simply, Soferim, which dates back to the 7th or 8th century CE. But it is possible that these blessings, or at least some of them, date from before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. At least some haftara blessings were in use by the second century. The blessings are read by the person designated to read the haftara portion; the blessing before the haftara is read in the tune of the haftara. The Sephardic practice is to recite, immediately after the text of the haftara and before the concluding blessings, the verse of Isaiah 47:4. The blessings following the haftara are standard on all occasions the haftara is read, except for the final blessing, which varies by date and is omitted on some days.There are five blessings, one before, and the others after, the haftara reading. These blessings may go back as far as the haftara ritual itself. It will be immediately noticed that the haftara has more, and longer, blessings than the reading of the Torah itself; it is plausible that the reading from the Prophets was given this distinction in order to emphasize the sacred nature of the Prophetic books in the face of Samaritan rejection. If the haftara is read by the maftir, then he had already recited two blessings for the Torah reading and the five haftara blessings means he has recited a total of the significant number of seven blessings. The first blessing is not recited until the Torah scroll has been rolled shut, so that the roller may listen without distraction. And, similarly, the haftara text itself - whether a book or a scroll - remains open on the lectern until after the final haftara blessing is concluded. The blessings have changed but only a little over the centuries, the current text apparently coming from the late 11th century Machzor Vitry, with slight differences from the texts perpetuated in the tractate Massekhet Soferim, and the writings of Maimonides, dating back to the 12th century.
The first blessing, chanted before the haftara portion read, uses the same melody as the haftara chant itself, also in minor mode. For this reason, many prayerbooks print this first blessing with the cantillation marks used in the Bible itself for the books of the Prophets, possibly the only instance of a non-biblical text to be equipped with such marks. This initial blessing is only two verses, but both begin with blessing God, yet are not interrupted by an intervening Amen.
The blessings are as follows: The first blessing precedes the reading:
Blessed are you, Lord , our God, King of the universe,
Who has chosen good prophets,
And was pleased with their words spoken in truth.
Blessed are you, Lord, who has chosen the Torah, and his servant Moses,
And his people Israel,
And the prophets of truth and righteousness.
This is a somewhat free translation from the poetic Hebrew text which is roughly the same in both Ashkenazic and Sephardic prayerbooks. The blessing is printed in one paragraph and read continuously by the cantillist with only an etnachta between sentences. The first blessing is straight from the minor tractate Massekhet Soferim, chapter 13, paragraph 7. The first verse praises God, "who has chosen good prophets", the second verse is one of the few places in the Sabbath liturgy that mentions Moses, also chosen by God as were the prophets. "Pleased with their words" because, while Moses wrote the Torah of words dictated verbatim by God, the prophets were each speaking their own words, which won Divine approval after they were spoken. In this context, 'Israel' means world Jewry wherever they may be.
Immediately after the last word of the haftara has been read, many Sefardic, Mizrahi, and Italic congregations traditionally recite two Bible verses, which are then repeated by the maftir:
Our Redeemer - the Lord of Hosts is his name - the holy one of Israel.
Blessed be the Lord forever. Amen and Amen.
The blessings that follow the reading of the haftara are chanted in the pentatonic scale.
The second blessing follows the end of the Prophetic reading:
Blessed are you, Lord, our God, King of the universe,
Rock of all the worlds, righteous through all eras,
The trustworthy God, who says and does, who speaks and fulfills,
For all his words are true and just.
Trustworthy are you, Lord, and trustworthy are your words,
And not a single one of your words is recalled as unfulfilled,
Because you are God, king, trustworthy.
Blessed are you Lord, the God who is trustworthy in all his words.
Again, this is straight from Massekhet Soferim, paragraphs 8 and 10; Paragraph 9 set out a congregational response which seems not to have been adopted; after the first verse the congregation would rise and say "Faithful are you Lord our God, and trustworthy are your words. O faithful, living, and enduring, may you constantly rule over us forever and ever." This response apparently was in use in antiquity - the Jews of the eastern diaspora would recite this while seated, the Jews of Eretz Yisrael would stand. This practice appears to have ceased during the Middle Ages: it is not in Amram's prayerbook of the 9th century although a phrase of it is in the Mahzor Vitry ,, but in the 18th century Rabbi Jacob Emden criticized its omission. The second half of the blessing echoes Isaiah 45:23 and 55:11.
The third blessing follows immediately:Be merciful to Zion, because it is the home of our life,
And save the downtrodden soon, in our own days.
Blessed are you Lord, who makes glad the children of Zion .
Very similar to Massekhet Soferim, paragraph 11, which begins "Comfort , Lord our God, Zion your city..." and ends "who comforts the children of Zion." Zion means Mount Zion, the hill in Jerusalem on which the Temple stood, although it had been destroyed centuries before this blessing was composed. It is possible that Mount Zion is mentioned formerly to deliberately refute the Samaritans, who centered their devotion to Mount Gerizim instead of Mount Zion. Instead of "save" the downtrodden, Massekhet Soferim has "avenge", which is used in the Yemenite version of the blessing. By the time of Amram Gaon and Saadiah Gaon, as well as Mahzor Vitry , 'be merciful' had replaced 'comfort' - but 'avenge' was still part of the text—and into the last century was still part of both Romaniot and Yemenite versions. It has been suggested that "save" replaced "avenge" in so many communities because of Christian and Moslem censorship or intimidation.
The fourth blessing follows immediately:Make us glad, Lord our God,
with the Prophet Elijah, your servant,
and with the kingdom of the house of David, your anointed,
May he arrive soon and bring joy to our hearts.
Let no stranger sit upon his throne,
Nor let others continue to usurp his glory.
For you swore by your holy name that through all eternity his lamp will never go dark.
Blessed are you Lord, shield of David.
This is virtually identical to the text in Massekhet Soferim, paragraph 12, until the last line. Before the second "Blessed are you", Soferim contains the line: "And in his days may Judah be made safe, and Israel to dwell securely, and he shall be called, ' is our vindicator'." This line remained in Romaniot liturgy. Instead of "Shield of David", Soferim has "who brings to fruition the mighty salvation of his people Israel." But by the 3rd century, "shield of David" was the text in use, predating Soferim. "He" and "his" refer to the Messiah, a descendant of King David. The lines "let no stranger sit on his throne" and "others continue to usurp his glory" might date back to the earliest Talmudic times, when the Hasmoneans and Herodians, rather than true descendants of the royal house of David, were rulers of the Holy Land.
The fifth blessing follows immediately:For the Torah reading, and for the worship service, and for the Prophets,
And for this Sabbath day , which you have given us, Lord our God,
For holiness and for respite, for honor and for splendor,
For all of this, Lord our God,
We gratefully thank you, and bless you.
May your name be blessed by every living mouth,
Always and forever.
Blessed are you Lord, who sanctifies the Sabbath.
This is from paragraph 13 of Soferim, which does not contain the phrase "by every living mouth", and which concludes with "who sanctifies Israel and the Day of ." Amram Gaon and Maimonides concluded with "who rebuilds Jerusalem," but this appears to have been discarded by all factions. This final blessing is modified for the various festivals and holidays. In all traditions that last phrase, "who sanctifies the Sabbath", is replaced by the appropriate substitute when the occasion is something other than an ordinary Sabbath, if a holiday falling on a Sabbath the phrasing is "And for this Sabbath day and for this day of this...." ; e.g. "Festival of Matzos", "Festival of Shavuos", "Festival of Succos, "Festival of the Assembly", "Day of Remembrance", "Day of Atonement", - but it appears from Kol Bo that Yom Kippur is the only fast day with a name and therefore this final blessing is not recited at all on other fast days, such as Gedaliah or Esther or Tisha B'Av, since they have no such names that can be inserted into the blessing - and then the festival version of the blessing concludes:
"... which you have given us, Lord our God,
for gladness and joy ,
for honor and splendor.
For all this Lord our God we thank you and praise you.
May your name be blessed by every living mouth, always and forever.
Blessed are you Lord, who sanctifies Israel and the Festivals."
And on Yom Kippur, replace the last line with :
Blessed are you Lord,
the King who pardons and forgives our sins and the sins of his people, the family of Israel,
and who removes our iniquities year after year,
King over all the earth, who sanctifies Israel, and the Day of Atonement.