This view is now accepted widely, but not universally, among scholars of Jewish liturgy. Whatever the origin of the haftarah, it became, as Professor Michael Fishbane notes in the introduction to his Haftarot commentary volume Jewish Publication Society, , one of the three components of the public recitation of scripture in the ancient synagogue. This public reading reflected three sources of authority: the Torah, which is the ultimate source of law; the haftarah, which presents the words of the Prophets, who provided moral instruction and uplift; and the sermon or homily, which drew on the authority of the Rabbis to interpret and legislate.
It may be that haftarah passages were originally selected arbitrarily, by randomly opening a scroll of one of the prophetic books and reading whatever one happened to find, or at least the choice was not predetermined by tradition. So it would appear from a story in the Gospel of Luke ff. Jesus is reading a haftarah, it seems, and some scholars interpret the verses to mean that the place at which the reader was to begin and end was not indicated to him. Later, traditions developed of reading a particular passage with each weekly Torah portion.
The haftarah is, in fact, usually linked to a theme or genre from the Torah reading. The Talmud emphasizes that the haftarah should be, in some way, similar to the sidrah. During Talmudic times there were no fixed haftarot for each sidrah.
The only fixed haftarah texts found in the Talmud are for special Shabbatot, e. These analogous words and phrases not only reminded one of the respective Torah portion but also created a textual as well as thematic substitute for the banned sidrah. My hope is that these insights will serve to make the practice of reading the haftarah a more meaningful experience. Rabbi Dr. See The Haptoroth:. Translated and Explained by Dr.
By Samuel N. Hoenig After the required aliyot are read, Kaddish is recited and the maftir is called up to the Torah. These halachot include: The haftarah reading must contain a minimum of 21 verses, corresponding to the three-verse minimum for each of the seven Torah aliyot. Adler, Seder haNesuim keHilchatam Jerusalem, , vol. Rema, Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah D Eisenstein, op.
Megillah 24a and comment of Rabbi Nissim Ran. Ibid, 23a. However, see Tosafot, Megillah 23a, s. As already noted, the more correct form is haftarah.
Mishnah, Pesachim See also Levush, Orach Chaim Sefer Tisbi. The earliest reference in talmudic literature to the specific selection of a haftarah is in Tosefta , Megillah , 4 3 : 1, which gives the haftarot for the Four Special Sabbaths. A baraita in Megillah 31a, which has later additions by the Babylonian amoraim who add the haftarot for the second days of the festivals and who sometimes change the order of the haftarot as a result — gives the haftarot for every one of the festivals, including their intermediate Sabbaths, as well as a Sabbath which is also Rosh Chodesh, the Sabbath which immediately precedes Rosh Chodesh, and Chanukah.
However, nowhere in the Talmud are the haftarot given for ordinary Sabbaths, which were not fixed until after the talmudic period. The only other mention of the matter in tannaitic literature is the prohibition against the reading of certain prophetic passages: the haftarah on the Merkavah Ezekiel 1 according to the anonymous Mishnah but permitted by R.
Judah, and in fact it is at present the haftarah for Shavuot; cf. Eliezer Meg. The same Mishnah Meg. These passages would seem to indicate that in mishnaic times the choice of the haftarah was generally not determined, and as late as geonic times different haftarot were in vogue in different localities. Even some of the haftarot mentioned in the Talmud are not those established at the present time, and to this day there are certain variations of choice, mostly between Sephardim and Ashkenazim , but also between different Ashkenazi rites particularly that of Frankfurt on the Main.
The most interesting is the haftarah for Simhat Torah. When the Triennial cycle was in vogue in Eretz Israel , there was naturally a haftarah to each portion, and the number must therefore have been about They are, to some extent, reflected in the Pesikta Midrashim. Similarly, there are haftarot for the second day of each festival in the Diaspora which are not read in Eretz Israel, where the second day is not observed.
Various suggestions have been made as to the connotation of the word haftarah. One opinion is that it corresponds to the Latin word demissio , since in Temple times the service ended with the haftarah.
Abudarham regards it as meaning taking leave of, i. The person who reads the haftarah is called the maftir since he is also called to the reading of the last part of the weekly portion from the Torah. As he is not included in the minimum obligatory number of seven persons who have to be called up on the Sabbath Meg. On festivals, Rosh Chodesh, and the Four Special Sabbaths, however, the maftir is called to the reading of the special additional portion for those days from the second scroll.
With the completion of that reading, the Sefer Torah is raised and rolled up see Hagbahah and Gelilah and only then the maftir reads the haftarah , preceding it with two blessings and concluding the reading with three blessings, to which, on Sabbaths and festivals, a fourth blessing is added, the formula of which is changed according to the nature of the day. The text is given in Soferim —14, with slight variations from the text as established today.
The haftarah is sung with a special cantillation, and the custom has developed for the introductory blessings to be chanted with the same cantillation. The Sabbath haftarah has to consist of a minimum of 21 verses Meg. It is not obligatory for the haftarah to be read from a manuscript scroll, but may be read from a printed book.
If we look at these seven Haftorahs of consolation, they all are taken from the last part of Isaiah, but none of them follow directly any other one. Also the third week is the only one out of numerical order. The missionaries make the claim that between the fourth and fifth week, Isaiah 53 is purposely left out. But there are a few problems with this proposition.
First, we see many of the chapters in this part of Isaiah are skipped. For example all of chapters and are left out. Second an examination of these passages we see that they give messages of comfort for the Jewish people in exile. However, no matter what the interpretation of Isaiah 53 one takes, there are no words of comfort for the Jewish people. There appears to be support for the view of the Rabbis, from the Dead Sea Scrolls, that Isaiah 53 does not relate to any consolations for the Jewish People.
This is from the documents 4Q, which is referred to as 4QTanhumin [5]. Scholars see this fragment as a collection of verses consoling Israel. What is interesting is to notice what passages from Isaiah are included and the order of these passages.
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