Worms Machsor

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Oldest surviving testimony of a whole sentence in Yiddish , 1272

The Worms Machsor is the medieval manuscript of a Machsor that was owned by the Jewish community of Worms .

history

The second volume was written in 1271 and completed on January 2, 1272. The scribe was Simchah, son of Rabbi Judah. Rabbi Jehudah came from Nuremberg . The illustrator of the manuscript was called Schemajah. The first volume is not dated. The comparison of the fonts showed, however, that both volumes were written by the same hand. It is not known where the Machsor was written. On the basis of notes entered later, which record deviations from the prayer order of the Worms community, it can be assumed that it was not made in Worms. The possession of the Worms Machsor in the municipality of Worms has only been proven since 1578.

The city archivist of Worms , Friedrich Maria Illert succeeded after the pogrom of November 1938 , the two Machsor volumes, together with the Archive of the Jewish community Worms, ensure, and in one of the cathedral towers to save, store, along with other archives and from destruction. In 1957, based on an agreement between the city of Worms and the Jewish Trust Corporation (Branche Française) , the volumes were ultimately given to the Israeli National Library . There they received the signature Ms. Heb. 4 ° 781.1-2.

shape

The prayer book consists of two volumes, each with a different format: 39 × 44 cm and 39.5 × 30 cm. The first volume comprises 219 sheets, the second 226 sheets.

The prayer book is written on parchment . The first volume is only sparsely decorated and the number of illustrations is small. There is only one large illustration on f. 72v: With the words: "Blessed are you, King of the world, to whom you open the gates of mercy", the word "gates" is designed as a full-page portal, its arches and columns with Tendrils are filled. In contrast, the illustrations in Volume Two are numerous. The text is written with vowel marks. Schofar tones are represented with notes .

content

part 1

  • Liturgy for Rosh Hashanah (New Year Festival), p. 1 r –60 BC
  • Prayers on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Bl. 61r – 168v
  • Prayers for Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), Bl. 169r – 206v
  • Cant. Cantic., Bl. 206v – 209v
  • Ruth , Bl. 209v – 212v
  • Kohelet , Bl. 213r – 219v

Volume 2 The beginning of the volume has been lost and probably contained the liturgies for the New Year, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles, perhaps also Cant. Cantic. and Ruth.

  • Beginning of the daily morning blessing, leaf 1v, a later addendum
  • Kohelet, verse 10 to the end, fol. 2r – 6r, the beginning of Kohelet has also been lost.
  • Job , Bl. 6v – 20r
  • Parts of the Lamentations of Jeremiah , Bl. 21r – 34r
  • Parts from the book of Isaiah , Bl. 34r – 34v
  • Colophon : “I, Simchah, son of Rabbi Jehudah, scribe, wrote this machsor for my uncle Rabbi Baruk, son of Rabbi Jizchaq within 24 weeks […] and with the help of the Almighty I copied it on Tevet [50] 32 the small count completed ”, p. 34v
  • Texts for Purim , Bl. 39r – 78v
  • Texts for Passover (Easter), pp. 79r – 146v
  • Texts for Shavuot (Festival of Weeks), Bl. 149r – 197r
  • Texts for Tischa beAv (9th Av of the Jewish calendar , a day of fasting and mourning on which the destruction of the Jerusalem temple is commemorated), Bl. 179v – 226r

The second volume is presumably the remainder of a separate, much more extensive Machsor. The first volume was created subsequently to compensate for the loss of text in the second volume. This also explains the different formats of the two volumes. Various users of the book in the early modern period noted in the Machsor that they used it as a prayer leader.

The Machsor also contains the oldest extant complete sentence in Yiddish , a historical record dating back to 1272.

literature

facsimile

  • Malachi Beit-Arié: Ms. Jewish National and University Library. Heb. 4 781/1. Complete Facsimile in Original Size: Introductory Volume . Cyelar establishment, Vaduz 1985.

Secondary literature

  • Ernst D. Goldschmidt: The Worms Machzor. In: Kirjath Sepher . Vol. 34, No. 3, 1959, ZDB -ID 1497319-4 , p. 388 ff.
  • Friedrich Maria Illert : The two Machsor volumes from 1272. In: Ernst Róth (Hrsg.): Festschrift for the rededication of the old synagogue in Worms. Ner Tamid Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1961, p. 228.
  • Georg Illert: The Jewish antiquities in Worms in the years 1938–1961. In: Ernst Róth (Ed.): Festschrift for the rededication of the Old Synagogue in Worms. Ner Tamid Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1961, pp. 229-241.
  • Ernst Róth: The Worms Machsor. Written by Simcha ben Jehuda, illustrated by Schemaja ha-zajjar. In: Ernst Róth (Ed.): Festschrift for the rededication of the Old Synagogue in Worms. Ner Tamid Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1961, pp. 217-227.

Remarks

  1. ↑ January 2, 1272.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Róth, p. 223.
  2. ↑ Róth, p. 225.
  3. ↑ a b c d Róth, p. 217.
  4. ↑ Illert: The two Machsor volumes.
  5. ↑ Illert: The Jewish antiquities , p. 233.
  6. ↑ a b c Róth, p. 219.
  7. ^ Róth, p. 220.
  8. ↑ Róth, p. 220ff.
  9. ↑ Fritz Reuter : Wamaisa. 1000 years of Jews in Worms . Self-published, Worms, 3rd edition, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8391-0201-5 , p. 53.
  10. ↑ a b c Róth, p. 218.
  11. ^ General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): The ShUM-Cities on the Rhine . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7954-2661-3 , p. 21.