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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 November 2021
In the early custom of Ashkenaz, on the Shabbat preceding the beginning of the month, the coming of the new month (Rosh Ḥodesh) would be announced after the reading from the Torah and before the Torah scroll was returned to the synagogue's Holy Ark. The ritual included reciting the paragraph beginning with the words mi she-‘asah nissim (may He who performed miracles) and continuing with an announcement of the timing of Rosh Ḥodesh. In the second half of the eighteenth century, an addition to the liturgy appeared before the Mi She-‘asah Nissim section: a passage beginning yehi raẓon (may it be Your will) that the Babylonian Talmud relates was recited daily by the sage Rav following the Amidah prayer. This article suggests some reasons for the addition of the passage, traces the spread of the practice of its recitation among Ashkenazic communities, and concludes with an examination and explanation of two apparently erroneous additions to the Yehi Raẓon formula.
My thanks to Dr. Eliezer Brodt, Prof. Moshe Halamish, and Prof. Yosef Tabory for their comments.
1. See, e.g., Reif, Stefan C., Judaism and Hebrew Prayer: New Perspectives on Jewish Liturgical History (Tel Aviv: Dvir, 2009/10), 235–64Google Scholar [in Hebrew]; Langer, Ruth, Cursing the Christians? A History of the Birkat Ha-Minim (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 102–38Google Scholar.
2. See, e.g., Maḥzor Vitry, ed. Aryeh Goldshmidt (Jerusalem: ʾOẓar Ha-poskim, 2009), 287; R. Eleazar b. Isaac of Worms (1165–1230), Perushei siddur ha-tefillah le-Rokeaḥ, ed. Moshe and Yehudah Hershler (Jerusalem: Mekhon Ha-Rav Hershler, 1981/2), 561–62.
3. Soncino 1884. There are differences in the manuscripts of the Talmud in this passage, but these are not presented here since this article concerns a custom that began when the printed text already spread around the world.
4. R. Eliyahu David Rabinovitz-Teomim (ADeReT) thought it was inappropriate to say החודש הזה on the Shabbat preceding Rosh Ḥodesh because the new month had not yet arrived, and so he instituted החודש הבא. See his statement quoted in Yeḥiel Mikhel Tokachinsky, Luaḥ le-ʾEreẓ Yisraʾel on the Shabbat before the month of Marḥeshvan. There were few prayer books that changed the wording. For example, Dov Natan Brinker, in Luaḥ Yerushalayim (Jerusalem, 1940/1) decided on החודש הבא while Daniel Goldschmidt in Siddur tefillat Yisraʾel (Ramat Gan: Masada, 1968/9) chose: “הזה [different version, הבא].” I would suggest that there is no need for revision, because the word הזה identifies not only something that is close at hand but occasionally also something more remote.
5. The Ashkenazic practice is to say: יחדשהו … לחיים ולשלום לששון ולשמחה לישועה ולנחמה ונאמר אמן. This is the custom of some Ashkenazic communities in Israel, such as the Belz Hasidim and those who follow the Ḥatam Sofer and Ḥazon Ish. Most Ashkenazim in Israel adopted the longer formula of the Sephardim, as can be seen in the most popular prayer books in use.
6. Following is a selection of siddurim (daily prayer books) and kuntresim (pamphlets) of Ashkenazic synagogues earlier than 1785/6 where the Yehi Raẓon does not appear in the prayer for the new month. Siddurim: Me-reshit ha-shanah ve-ʿad ʾaḥarit ha-shanah (Prague, 1756/7); Siddur siftei renanot (Fürth, 1763/4); Maḥzor ve-zeh shaʿar ha-shamayim (Altona, 1771/2); Seder tefillot ke-minhag ʾAshkenaz ve-Polin (Amsterdam, 1777/8); and Siddur tefillah ke-minhag k”k Amsterdam (Mantova, 1779/80). Synagogue kuntresim: Cologne, 1671/2; Prague, 1730/1; Goitein, 1739/40; Biehl, 1746/7; Heinsfarth, 1756/7; Kempne, 1764/5; Rekingen, 1772/3; Kittsee, 1775/6; and Meisel, 1780/1.
7. See Isaiah Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, vol. 2 (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1960/1), 618–21 [in Hebrew]; Shiloh Pakhter, “Shmirat Ha-brit: The History of the Prohibition of Wasting Seed” (PhD diss., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2007), 139–68 [in Hebrew].
8. See Meir Benayahu, Maʿamadot ve-moshavot (Jerusalem: Yad HaRav Nissim, 1985), 77–87; Moshe Halamish, Ha-kabbalah be-tefillah be-halakhah u-ve-minhag (Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University, 2000), 571–75; Pakhter, “Shmirat Ha-brit,” 172–207.
9. On the reading of the first Torah portions of Exodus and the “restoration of the covenant” (tikkun ha-brit) see Ḥalamish, Maʿamadot, 571–75, 580–81, 589. For more on the eve of Rosh Ḥodesh and tikkun ha-brit, see 549, 563–64. On Tu bi-Shevat and tikkun ha-brit, see Boaz Huss, “The Sabbatean Origins of Seder Tu bi-Shevat” [in Hebrew], in Meir Benayahu Memorial Volume, ed. Moshe Bar-Asher et al. (Jerusalem: Carmel, 2019), 914–15.
10. The word חב"ו is formed from seventy-two words composed of three letters, each word composed of one letter from each of three verses in the book of Exodus 14, 19–21, each of these comprised of seventy-two letters. See Rashi, Sukkah 45a, s.v. ʾani ve-huʾ. The phrase is created according to a fixed order: the first and last verse are read normally while the middle verse is read backwards. The word חב"ו is formed from the sixty-eighth letters of the verses: the first (the ח from מאחריהם), the second (the ב from ןיב—reversed), and the third (the last ו of ויבקעו). The word חב"ו is found in the three letters before the last letters in the words יחד מארבע כנפות.
11. See Siddur ha-ReMeZ (Bitḥa: Mekhon Kol Bitḥa, 2016), 206.
12. On intentions in prayer regarding this subject, see Benayahu, Maʿamadot, 92, 95–104; Pakhter, “Shmirat Ha-brit,” 223–25. Benayahu, Maʿamadot, 95–96, copied the formula of the Yehi Raẓon of R. Yisraʾel Saruk and a longer version by R. Yisraʾel Yeshayahu Norẓi.
13. R. Meir Paprash, ʾOr ẓaddikim (Krotoschin, 1639/40), tikkun ha-tefillah, section 41. Following that section, the publisher, R. Yehudah Leib, wrote a commentary on the connection between the blessing of Kibbuẓ Galuyot and the wasting of seed. See also R. Meir Paprash, ʾOr ha-yashar, ed. R. Zvi Hirsch Ḥazan (Amsterdam, 1708/9), before Kibbuẓ Galuyot.
14. The word חב"ו is formed by the initial letters of the words חיל בלע ויקיאנו.
15. Such as in Tefillah mi-kol ha-shanah (Amsterdam, 1764/5); Tikkun Shlomo (Amsterdam, 1774/5); Tefillah mi-kol ha-shanah (Zoltzbach, 1778/9); and Seder tefillah (Zalkava, 1780/1). This is also mentioned by R. Yeḥiel Mikhel Epstein, Kiẓur shnei luḥot ha-brit (Fiorde, 1692/3), Ḥullin, laws of the Amidah prayer.
16. Such as the prayer books Shaʿarei raḥamim (Salonica, 1740/1); Seder tefillah mi-kol ha-shanah ke-minhag Polin (Amsterdam, 1778/9); Siddur kol Yaʿakov (Slavita, 1803/4); Tefillah yesharah (Radvil, 1819/20); and Seder tefillah mi-kol ha-shanah (Lemburg, 1865/6). In the prayer book Shaʿarei raḥamim, near Mi She-‘asah Nissim was written: “And my teacher once instructed a newly repentant Jew to rectify the sin of wasted seed … to direct his intentions as they bless the new month, when the cantor says Mi she-‘asah nissim the first letters of מי שעשה ניסים are שמן and using the א"ת ב"ש reversed alphabet, forms the word בי"ט, the holy name which can eject the sparks of holiness from the shells, and this is derived from the verse בי חשק ואפלטהו [Psalms 91:14] and later he should say Yehi Raẓon … that every drop of wasted seed spilled in vain. … Do this for the Holy Name בי"ט and with the Holy Name חב"ו and banish the shell and restore them to the place of holiness, and fulfill in us the verse ‘the Lord your God will restore your captivity … and return and gather you’ [Deut 30:3].”
17. See Seder tefillah mi-kol ha-shanah ki-minhag Polin (Amsterdam, 1768/9); Tefillah yesharah (Radvil, 1819/20); and Siddur tefillat Yisraʾel (Ostrog, 1832/3). In Seder maḥzor mi-kol ha-shanah (Dyhernfurth, 1771/2) there is no Birkat ha-Ḥodesh and prayer for weekdays, but this prayer appears on the reverse side of the title page, and there, too, the decision was to say it on holidays when the cantor reads U-mipnei Ḥata'einu. See Benayahu, Maʿamadot, 96.
18. See, e.g., R. Meir Paprash cited above. The word נידח was used frequently by the kabbalists when they cited the verse לבלתי ידח ממנו נדח (that none of us be banished) (2 Samuel 14:14) as an allusion to the transmigration of souls. See Gershom Scholem, Elements of the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1981), 317 [in Hebrew]. Another way to rectify the sin of wasted seed related to Mi She-‘asah was suggested by R. Eliyahu Saliman Mani, Karnot ẓaddik (Baghdad: Raḥamim Ḥakham Reuven Press, 1866/7), 70a, in the name of the kabbalists: “When saying Mi She-‘asah Nissim, he should mention the hour of the first appearance of the new moon [mulad], which day, which hour, which part of the hour it will be.”
19. Thus, for example, in Maḥzor le-kol ha-shanah (Prague, 1781/2), where we found Rav's prayer in the Birkat ha-Ḥodesh for the first time.
20. On restricting the prohibition on wasting seed, see Pakhter, “Shmirat Ha-brit,” 244–75. There was a similar trend in Hasidism of minimizing stringencies in relation to the Ari's strict observance of cleanliness of the body. See Iris Brown (Hoizman), “Between ‘Rectification of Evil’ and ‘Plain Nonsense’: The Strict Requirement of ‘A Clean Body’ as a Case Study of the Relationship between Hasidism and Halakhah” [in Hebrew], Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 24 (2014/5): 255–72.
21. In Tefillah yesharah (Radvil, 1820), the Yehi Raẓon about wasted seed was also printed in Birkat ha-Ḥodesh, as well as Rav's prayer. It appears that the printers wished to show worshippers both customs, as was a common practice. But if the background for incorporating Rav's prayer was to serve as a replacement for the Yehi Raẓon on wasting seed, then there is no reason to say both.
22. See Zeev Gries, The Hebrew Book: An Outline of Its History (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 2015/6), 54–56 [in Hebrew].
23. On the struggle against Sabbatianism in Prague, see Maoz Kahana, From the Noda beYehudah to the Chatam Sofer: Halakhah and Thought in Their Historical Moment (Jerusalem: Merkaz Zalman Shazar, 2016), 104–10 [in Hebrew]. On Landau's opposition to kabbalistic prayers, see 67–68, 89–91, 119–22. On his opposition to praying using the intentions of the Ari, see 85–86. On the importance of the Talmud, see, e.g., 103. It should be noted that Landau did not eschew composing prayers himself when there was a need. It is known that in 1756, he composed a prayer for the welfare of Queen of Austria, Maria Theresa, and another prayer in 1787 for the success of her son, Joseph II, the emperor of Germany and the king of Hungary, before the emperor's journey, which was printed and distributed in the synagogues of Prague and the state of Böhmen, to be recited every day. See Aaron Ahrend, Israel's Independence Day—Research Studies (Jerusalem: Office of the Campus Rabbi of Bar-Ilan University, 1997/8), 188 [in Hebrew].
24. R. Shabtai Lifshitz, Shaʿarei raḥamim ʿal sefer shaʿarei Efraim (New York: Ḥevra Mefiẓei Torah, 1975), X, 49, wrote that in the Yehi Raẓon, the word ḥayim (life) appears eleven times, corresponding to eleven times a year that the new month is blessed on Shabbat, since on the Shabbat before Rosh Ḥodesh Tishrei, the blessing is not recited. This idea might have been influenced by the words of Baʿal ha-Rokeaḥ, who wrote that in the word יחדשהו there are twelve letters, corresponding to the twelve months; see Perushei siddur ha-tefillah le-Rokeaḥ, 562. Lifshitz's explanation is an allusion only, because Rav's prayer had never been associated with Rosh Ḥodesh.
25. See Maḥzor Vitry, 101; siddurim following French custom: MS Oxford, Corpus Christi College, 133 (1189); MS Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Heb. 632 (thirteenth century); MS Paris, BnF Heb. 642 (fifteenth century).
26. See the prayer book of R. Shabtai Sofer, ed. Isaac Setz and David Yitzhaki, part 2 (Baltimore: Ner Yisrael Yeshiva, 1995), 170.
27. R. Isaiah Horowitz, Shnei luḥot ha-brit (Amsterdam, 1648/9), on the Torah scroll and on the synagogue, 251a.
28. See Siddur tefillah yesharah (Radvil, 1829/30); Siddur beis Yaʿakov (Zhitomir, 1881); and Siddur tefillas yesharim (Warsaw, 1897/8).
29. For example, Siddur tefillas ha-ḥodesh ke-minhag kehilat kodesh Sephardim (Vienna, 1892). R. Ḥayim Yosef David Azulay (Ḥida) also incorporated Rav's prayer when saying Tashlikh on Rosh ha-Shanah; see ʿAvodat ha-kodesh (Warsaw, 1873/4), Ẓiporan Shamir, par. 12. R. Yosef Ḥayim also incorporated Rav's prayer in several prayers that he composed, see his work Leshon ḥakhamim (Jerusalem, 1904/5), par. 57, 77.
30. On Shelah's influence on Hasidism, see references in Yaakov Elboim, Repentance and Self-Flagellation in the Writings of the Sages of Germany and Poland, 1348–1648 (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1992/3), 190n37 [in Hebrew].
31. See Ruth Langer, “Shelavim kedumim be-hitpatḥutah shel hoẓa'at sefer ha-torah ve-hakhnasatah be-beit ha-knesset bimei ha-beinayim,” Kenista 2 (2002/3): 102. On the Ashkenazic custom of reciting verses when taking out and returning the Torah scroll, see Langer, “Sinai, Zion, and God in the Synagogue: Celebrating Torah in Ashkenaz,” in Liturgy and the Life of the Synagogue, ed. Steven Fine and Ruth Langer (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2005), 121–59.
32. Seder Rav Amram Gaon bar Sheshna, ed. Yizḥak Akiva Satz (Jerusalem: Mekhon Jerusalem, 2012/3), s.v. tefillat ḥol, 226. These passages appear in three manuscripts of the treatise. This is the wording of the Mi She-berakh: “May He who blessed Abraham, Isaac, and Israel our forefathers bless all our brothers and sisters of Israel who come to the places of worship and study for prayer and charity. May the Holy One blessed be He hear their prayer and do their will and fulfill their wishes for good, and let us say Amen.”
33. Regarding its mention on Rosh Ḥodesh in Seder Rav Amram Gaon, ed. Daniel Goldschmidt (Jerusalem: Mosad ha-Rav Kook, 1971/2), 88, the editor wrote there that this was a later addition influenced by the Sephardim.
34. Thus, in Sefer kolbo, ed. David Abraham, part 2 (Jerusalem: n.p., 1989/90), 217. Also R. David Abudharam, Abudharam ha-shalem (Jerusalem: Usha, 1959), 193; R. Israel Alnekaveh, Menorat ha-maʾor (New York: Bloch, 1929/30), 187. Also the following Sephardic prayer books: Parma-Platina 1780, from the fourteenth century; Parma-Platina 1911, from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (without the ʾAḥeinu); Parma-Platina 1791, from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (without the ʾAḥeinu). Also later, but without ʾAḥeinu, such as in the Seder tefillot ke-minhag kehilot kodesh Sephardim (Amsterdam, 1647/8); Seder tefillot ke-minhag kehilot kodesh Sephardim (Livorno, 1740); Siddur shaʿarei raḥamim (Salonica, 1741); and Siddur beit menuḥah (Livorno, 1843). The custom of Yemen to announce the new month on the preceding Shabbat only began in the seventeenth century, and entailed saying four Yehi Raẓon passages only on Shabbat Mevarkhin, and was influenced by the arrival in Yemen of Sephardic prayer books. See Moshe Gavra, Meḥkarim be-siddurei teiman (Bnei Brak: Makhon le-ḥeker ḥakhme Teiman ve-Khitvehem, 1999/2000), 471–73.
35. In the Maḥzor minhag Roma, MS Parma-Platina 3008 (fourteenth century), there are four Yehi Raẓon passages only at Minḥah on Shabbat. In Maḥzor Roma MS Parma-Platina 3132 (1403) there are four Yehi Raẓon passages only in Mondays and Thursdays. The Rome maḥzor, MS Oxford, Or. 27, Bodleian (1481) does not have four Yehi Raẓons and ʾAḥeinu on Monday and Thursday and Shabbat at Minḥah. Later, the four Yehi Raẓons and ʾAḥeinu were said on Monday and Thursday and on Shabbat at Minḥah, as well, see the Maḥzor Roma, MS Parma-Platina 2738 (1489); Maḥzor ke-minhag Roma (Soncino-Casal Maggiore) (1485–1486) (Jerusalem: Magnes, 2011/2) (photocopy); Maḥzor ke-minhag kehillat kodesh Roma (Bologna, 1540/1); Maḥzor kol ha-shanah ke-fi minhag kehillat kodesh ʾitaliani (Livorno, 1855/6).
36. As in the following prayer books: MS London, Add. 27556, British Library (thirteenth and fourteenth centuries); MS London, 27086, British Library (fourteenth century); MS London, Add. 27208, British Library (fourteenth century); MS Jerusalem National Library, Heb. 804199 (fourteenth to fifteenth centuries); MS Cincinnati 436, Hebrew Union College (1435); MS Parma-Platina 3144 (1449); MS Parma-Platina 2895 (1449–53); MS Budapest 369, Kaufmann (1456). Jonah Frankel, “The Study of the Ashkenaz Siddur: 200 Years after the Heidenheim Siddur” [in Hebrew], Jewish Studies 41 (2001/2): 32, stated that they are not in the western Ashkenazic prayer books of the thirteenth century. His son, Abraham Frankel, told me that his father's investigation showed that they do not appear in the prayer books of Ashkenaz in the Middle Ages.
37. They do not appear in Sefer MaHRiL and in Sefer ha-minhagim of Worms. Following are a few of the prayer books where they are not found: Seder tefillot ke-minhag ha-ʾashkenazim (Venice, 1547/8); Siddur Rav Herẓ Shaẓ (Tihingen, 1559/60); Seder tefillot me-kol ha-shanah ke-fi minhag kehillat kodesh ha-ʾashkenazim (Venice, 1586/7); Tefillot me-kol ha-shanah (Krakow, 1596/7); Siddur tefillot ke-minhag ha-ʾashkenazim ve-Polin (Hanover, 1615/6); Seder tefillot (Frankfurt-on-Oder, 1749/50); Seder tefillot me-kol ha-shanah (Amsterdam, 1750/1); Siddur tefillot ke-minhag kehillot kodesh ʾashkenazim (Mantova, 1779/80); Seder tefillot (Amsterdam, 1779/80); Maḥzor le-kol ha-shanah (Prague, 1781/2); and Tefillah mesudarah, mehudarah, u-meʿutarah (Piorda, 1805/6). R. Josef Josefa Segal, Noheg ka-ẓon Yosef, ed. Amiḥai Kinarti (Sha'alvim: Mekhon Shlomo Oman, 2018), 56, attests that they were not said in Frankfurt. Yiẓḥak Ber, ʿAvodat Yisraʾel (Redelheim, 1867/8), 124, also attests regarding the four Yehi Raẓons and ʾAḥeinu on weekdays: “In some communities, they are not said.” R. Eliezer ben Samuel Ẓvi, Siaḥ ha-sadeh (Lublin, 1644/5), 3a, proposed when rolling the Torah scroll to say another Yehi Raẓon: ‘שיגולו רחמיך על מידותיך ויכבשו רחמיך את כעסך וכו. His words were cited by R. Judah Leib Poḥvitsher, Divrei ḥakhamim, vol. 2 (Hamburg, 1692/3), par. 147.
38. On Mi She-berakh for synagogue attenders: it is mentioned as being said at Minḥah on Shabbat only in some versions of the treatise: in the ancient MS Paris 535, Kalgsblad Sassoon (twelfth century) and in MS Moscow 841, Russian State Library, Ginzberg Collection. But it does not appear in MS London 655, British Museum Margaliot, MS Parma-Platina 2574, and MS New York 8092, Jewish Theological Seminary. See Maḥzor Vitry, 2:299. It may have been deleted from some of the manuscripts because it was superfluous, since beginning in the twelfth century, a Mi She-berakh would be said for the congregation on Shabbat morning. See Avraham Yaʿari, “Tefillot mi she-berakh: Hishtalshelutan, minhageihen, ve-nusḥaoteihen,” Kiryat sefer 33 (1958/9): 119–20. Later it was no longer said.
39. There are a few earlier accounts. R. Menaḥem ben R. Josef, Seder Troyes (Frankfurt, 1904/5), par. 6, noted that one should say Yehi Raẓon (without specifying which) on Mondays and Thursdays and Shabbat at Minḥah when rolling up the Torah. And Abraham Frankel told me that in some French manuscripts which are not early the Yehi Raẓon and Mi She-berakh appear for Mondays and Thursdays (personal communication, May 6, 2019).
40. A gloss dated to ca. the sixteenth-seventeenth century, on Sefer ha-minhagim of R. Eisik Tirna [Isaac Tyrnau], ed. Shlomo Spitzer (Jerusalem: Mekhon Jerusalem, 1978/9), 32, mentions that the Yehi Raẓon is said after the Torah reading, but does not specify which Torah reading is meant.
41. Below are examples of prayer books where they appear: Tefillot me-kol ha-shanah (Lublin, 1647/8); Shaʿar ha-shamayim (Amsterdam, 1741/2); ʿAmudei shamayim (Altona, 1744/5); Siddur siftei renanot (Piorda, 1764); Tefillah me-kol ha-shanah (Amsterdam, 1805/6); Seder tefillah me-kol ha-shanah (Amsterdam, 1768/9); Maḥzor le-kol ha-shanah (Prague, 1781/2); Seder ha-tefillah (Offenbach, 1805/6); Tefillah mesudarah, mehudarah, u-meʿutarah (Piorda, 1806/7); Seder ha-tefillot me-kol ha-shanah (Amsterdam, 1818/9); and Siddur tefillot Yisraʾel (Piorda, 1822/3).
42. Such as the following synagogue kuntresim: Prague, 1730/1; Goitein, 1739/40; Reckingen, 1772/3; Kittsee, 1775/6; Meisel, 1780/1; Człuchów, 1792/3; Nottingen, 1799/1800; Walsdorf, 1809/10; and Świnoujście, 1824/5. The short prayers that were not printed in the prayer book, or were said from the bima, include, e.g., Kabbalat Shabbat, Yakum Purkan, Birkat ha-Ḥodesh, Mi She-berakh, Yizkor, and yahrzeit dates. In the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts at the National Library of Israel there are photocopies of some 130 kuntresim, some from the seventeenth century and most from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
43. Four Yehi Raẓons and ʾAḥeinu were added to be said when the Torah scroll was taken out of the Ark, apparently because of the desire to take advantage of the presence of the Torah to express requests. The Ashkenazim, whose custom it was to say these passages when rolling up the Torah scroll, also wished to add content to the time spent waiting for the Torah to be rolled up and reclad in its mantle. See Ismar Elbogen, Jewish Liturgy: A Comprehensive History (Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1987/8), 150–51 [in Hebrew], who explains the difference between Ashkenazic and Sephardic custom in this matter.
44. See Leopold Zunz, Rites of Synagogue Liturgy (Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 2015/6), 150 [in Hebrew]; Reif, Judaism and Hebrew Prayer, 235–64; Josef Tabory, “Hashpaʿat geirush Sefarad ʿal nusaḥ ha-tefillah,” in Tiferet le-Yisraʾel: Jubilee Volume in Honor of Israel Francus, ed. Joel Roth, Menahem Schmelzer, and Yaacov Francus (New York: The Jewish Theological Seminary, 2009/10), 289–307.
45. For more on this custom, see Yaakov Shmuel Spiegel, Chapters in the History of the Jewish Book: Hadar ha-meḥaber (Jerusalem: n.p., 2017/18), 446–47 [in Hebrew]; Simcha Emanuel, Hidden Treasures from Europe, vol. 2 (Jerusalem: Mekiẓei Nirdamim, 2019), 318 [in Hebrew].
46. Thus, for example, on page 23 they added to the Monday and Thursday Torah readings, Ve-yehi Bi-neo'a, Brikh Shmei, and Le-David Mizmor, and reduced the size of the letters in other passages on pages 23–24 so they could use the next page (24) of the maḥzor printed in 1756/7.
47. On the circulation of this book in eastern Europe and Poland, see Meir Raffeld, “Prayer Customs between Poland and Ashkenaz: Initial Considerations of the Influence of the Customs of Rabbi Isaac Tyrnau” [in Hebrew], in The Paths of Daniel: Studies in Judaism and Jewish Culture in Honor of Rabbi Professor Daniel Sperber, ed. Adam S. Ferziger (Jerusalem: Bar-Ilan University, 2006/7), 337–56.
48. Such as the following kuntresim: Zalatow [Jastrowo], 1805/6; Pinḥas in Prague, 1821/2; Breznitz, 1824/5. And later, such as: Bialitz, 1867/8; Nikolsberg, 1876/7. In addition, a fragment of parchment was preserved with only this Yehi Raẓon handwritten on it, see MS Heb. 3357.4, Jerusalem, HNL (eighteenth–nineteenth centuries). See also below about the writing on the synagogue in Zidichov.
49. For that reason, Idelsohn's statement is a bit premature that this prayer entered the Polish prayer formula in the first half of the eighteenth century (and according to him, reached Ashkenaz ca. 1830). See Abraham Ẓvi Idelsohn, Jewish Liturgy and Its Development (New York: Schocken, 1960), 141. This process whereby a new prayer is first read from a page or a kuntres and later included in the prayer book also occurred with the Prayer for the State of Israel and the Prayer for the Welfare of IDF Soldiers. See Aaron Ahrend, “Prayers for the Welfare of Soldiers in the Modern Era” [in Hebrew], ʿAlei sefer 24–25 (2014/5): 303–4, 309–10.
50. Tamar Shadmi, “Wall Inscriptions in East European Synagogues: Their Sources, Meanings, and Role in Shaping the Concept of Space and Worship” (PhD diss., Bar-Ilan University, 2010/11) [in Hebrew], describes twenty-six synagogues in Poland, four in Moravia, and four in southern Germany from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. She found in three of them Mi She-‘asah and Yeḥadshehu, and in seven, only Yeḥadshehu; see 70–71. The synagogue in Traenheim in Alsace was also decorated with Mi She-‘asah and Yeḥadshehu. See Zvi Orgad, “Eliezer-Zusman: An Eighteenth-Century Synagogue Painter at Work” (PhD diss. Bar-Ilan University, 2007/8), 521 [in Hebrew].
51. See Shadmi, “Wall Inscriptions,” 156–57. A photocopy of the section is brought at the end of the work. In this synagogue, only the Yehi Raẓon was copied from Birkat ha-Ḥodesh. The section was dated according to Alois Breyer, “Die holzernen Synagogen in Galizien und Russisch-Polen aus dem 16., 17. und 18. Jahrhundert” (Wien, 1913), S. 28. Some dated it earlier, to 1792–1809; see Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka, Heaven's Gates: Wooden Synagogues in the Territories of the Former Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Krupski i S-ka, 2004), 381. The wall of the synagogue in Łańcut, Poland, has the three sections: Yehi Raẓon, Mi She-ʿasah, and Yeḥadshehu, but the inscription is from 1910, as attested by Michael Waltzer, “The Synagogue—Reality and Legend,” in Łańcut: The Life and Destruction of a Jewish Community, ed. Michael Waltzer and Nathan Kudish (Tel Aviv: Association of Former Residents of Łańcut in Israel and the USA, 1963), 33.
52. The word “begins” also seems inappropriate if the Yehi Raẓon comes first. These two instructions in similar language are also found in later prayer books, even though the custom of saying the Yehi Raẓon had already been accepted. This indicates the phenomenon prevalent among printers to copy from an older prayer book without making any change. Incidentally, a list of customs appearing at the end of the maḥzor includes that on the Shabbat before Rosh Ḥodesh “the month is blessed by saying Mi She-‘asah Nissim.” There, too, the printers did not update it to note that the Yehi Raẓon is also said.
53. Such as Seder tefillot (Offenbach, 1805/6); Tefillah mesudarah, mehudarah, u-meʿutarah (Piorda, 1806/7); Siddur tikkun Shlomo (Amsterdam, 1808/9); Siddur safah berurah (Rödelheim, 1819/20); Siddur tefillot Yisraʾel ke-minhag ʾAshkenaz ve-Polin (Piorda, 1822/3); Siddur tefillat yesharim (Vienna, 1831/2); and Siddur tefillat Yisraʾel (Ostrog, 1822/3).
54. Thus, for example, Siddur tefillah yesharah (Radvil, 1819/20); Siddur higayon lev (Koenigsberg, 1845); and Siddur ʾor ha-yashar shel ḥasidei Koidinov (Vilna, 1927/8). Similar language is found in a book which had a strong influence concerning the laws of reading the Torah, see R. Efraim Zalman Margaliot, Shaʿarei Efraim (Dubna, 1819/29), 10, 36.
55. In a synagogue kuntres from Amsterdam (1846/7), there is no Yehi Raẓon before Mi She-‘asah. It is possible that later, they did say it there.
56. The quote is from Yehudah Brillman, Sefer minhagei Amsterdam (Jerusalem: Mekhon Yerushalayim, 2001/2), 29. This is the custom in Amsterdam to this day, in order to avoid uttering supplications on Shabbat; see below. Also the Karlin Hasidim would say the Yehi Raẓon in a whisper; see Joshua Heschel Shor, “Minhagei Karlin rabbeini ha-kadosh me-Stolin Karlin be-‘inyanei ha-ḥodesh u-moʿadav,” Koveẓ beit Aharon ve-Yisrael 88 (1999/2000): 117. On saying it in a whisper as a compromise, see Daniel Sperber, Minhagei Yisraʾel, vol. 2 (Jerusalem: Mosad HaRav Kook, 1990/1), 37–38, 162, 167. On its gradual acceptance in London in the mid-nineteenth century, see Yiẓḥak Shabtai Lerner, Torat ha-minhagim: The Minhag of the United Synagogue London (Gateshead, UK: G.J.B.S., 1993/4), 14 [in Hebrew].
57. Such as Siddur ve-yeʿatar Yiẓḥak (Berlin, 1784/5); Seder tefillah derekh yesharah (Offenbach, 1792/3); Seder maḥzor (Zoltzbach, 1793/4); Seder he-tefillot ke-minhag ʾAshkenaz (Amsterdam, 1818/9); and Seder tefillot ke-fi-minhag ʾAshkenaz (Verona, 1825/6). Also, it does not appear in many synagogue kuntresim that were copied by hand, e.g., Człuchów, 1792/3; Walsdorf, 1809/10; Świnoujście, 1824/5.
58. Such as Kol Yaʿakov (Slavita, 1803/4); Seder tefillot me-kol ha-shanah (Kapost, 1815/6; based on R. Shlomo Zalman of Liady); Seder tefillah me-kol ha-shanah (Lemberg, 1865/6); Siddur tehillat ha-Shem (Brooklyn: Merkos Le-ʿInyonei Chinuch, 1985/6); Siddur ha-Ari (Bnei Brak, 2010/11).
59. See R. Solomon Zalman Geiger, Divrei kehillot (Frankfurt am Main: J. Kaufmann, 1865/6), 89–90; Mordekhai Halevi Horowitz, SHUT mateh Levi, vol. 2 (Frankfurt, 1932/3), par. 24; Shlomo Katanka, ed. Makom she-nahagu: Minhag Bechofen (London: Mekhon Moreshet Ashkenaz, 2010/11), 10. Also R. Moshe Ḥatam Sofer did not say it, see Akiva Menaḥem Sofer, Minhagei Ḥatam Sofer (Jerusalem: Mekhon Ḥatam Sofer, 2015/6), 83.
60. There is no musical arrangement for this segment in Louis Lewandowski, Kol rinah u-tefillah (Berlin: Bote und Bock, 1882). In Baer's important work there is a musical composition but it is a relatively simple chant and does not involve cantorial singing or a choir, and the prayer formula is a local one (Alte Weise). See Abraham Baer, Baal T'fillah oder der practische Vorbeter (Gothenburg: the author, 1877), 142. Baer also notes that some of the communities do not recite this passage. In the twentieth century, cantorial renditions were composed for this prayer. My thanks to Dr. Amalia Kedem for her assistance.
61. See also R. Moshe Ḥayim Litsch-Rosenbaum, Matah de-Yerushalayim (Pressburg, 1874/5), on Y. Shabbat 15:3, who recommends not saying Yehi Raẓon because it is forbidden to make a request for one's livelihood on Shabbat. R. Solomon Ẓvi Shick, SHUT Rashban (Munkacs, 1899/1900), ʾoraḥ ḥayim, par. 175, was opposed for this reason to saying the passage, “a life of sustenance.” See R. Ḥayim of Brisk, quoted in R. Moshe Sternbuch, SHUT teshuvot ve-hanhagot, vol. 3 (Jerusalem, 1996/7), 95. On saying supplications on Shabbat, see Gedalyah Oberlander, “ʾIssur ʾamirat teḥinot u-bakashat ẓerakhav be-Shabbat lefi shitat ʾadmor ha-zaken be-sidduro,” in Ha-siddur: Mivneh ve-nusaḥ sidduro shel ʾadmor ha-zaken baʿal ha-tanya, ed. Gedlayah Oberlander (Monsey, NY: Heikhal Menaḥem, 2002/3), 396–426; Binyamin Shlomo Hamburger, “Mi she-beirakh le-ḥoleh be-Shabbat,” Ḥiẓei giborim 7 (2003/4): 167–229.
62. E.g.: Siddur tikkun Shlomo (Metz, 1819/20); Siddur tefillat Yisraʾel (Metz, 1826/7); Siddur tikkun Shabbat (Amsterdam, 1827/8); Siddur tefillah le-kol ha-shanah (Paris, 1877); and Siddur tefillot Yisraʾel (Frankfurt, 1895).
63. In the Lieser synagogue kuntres of 1836/7, there are mistakes, some of which were corrected in notes. Following is part of the prayer formula with corrections:
יהי רצון מלפניך י'י אלהי ואלוהי אבותי שתתחדש עלינו את החודש הזה ... ותתן לנו חיים ארוכים [חיים של שלום] חיים של טובה ... חיים שיש בהם יראת שמים [ויראת חטא] חיים שאין [בהן] בושה וכלימה ... חיים שיש בו משאלות לבנו לטובה [בזכות תפילת הרבים] אמן סלה
Also in MS Jerusalem, Heb. 3357.4, from the eighteenth–nineteenth century, a parchment with only this Yehi Raẓon contains errors, as follows: (1) אלהי ואלהי אבותי in the singular form while the following instance of the phrase is in the plural; (2) a life with יראת שמים and no mention of חיים שימלא משאלות (3) ;יראת חטא without specifying who is the agent; (4) the garbled phrasing: משאלות לבנו לטובה רב בזכות תפילת רבים.
64. Some prayer books have another error, which reads: חיים שיש בהם יראת שמים (life which has fear of Heaven) without יראת חטא (fear of sin). This mistake may have been caused when a copyist mistakenly wrote “fear of Heaven” according to what he saw later in the prayer and did not correct his error.
See also in the Lieser synagogue kuntres of 1836/7 and in MS Jerusalem, Heb. 3357.4; prayer book with commentary of Ra'aven (R. Eliezer ben Nathan) (Ostrog, 1826/7); and Siddur ʾor la-yesharim (Zhitomir, 1863/4).
65. Like the first possibility in Siddur beit Yaʿakov (Warsaw, 1880/1) and in Siddur tefillat Yisraʾel (Ramat Gan: Masada, 1963/4); like the second possibility in Siddur David ha-melekh (Jerusalem: Kollel Tiferet Binyamin, 2011/12), and Siddur kimḥa de-Avishuna (Toronto: Mekhon Yerushalayim, 2013/14).
66. That is the reason for it in Siddur rinat Yisraʾel. See R. Shlomo Tal, Ha-siddur be-hishtalsheluto (Jerusalem: Natan Tal, 1984/5), 77.
67. R. Aryeh Yehudah Leib Steinman, Yemalei pi tehillatekha (Bnei Brak, 2014/15), 355. See more in this direction in R. Baruch Epstein, Barukh she-ʾamar (Tel Aviv: ʿAm ʿOlam, 1967/8), 266. For additional commentaries, see R. Moses Sternbuch, Taʿam ve-daʿat, Breishit (Jerusalem, 1961/2), 200; R. Ẓvi Elimelekh Waxman, Tiferet Elimelekh (Monsey, NY: Ḥad ve-Ḥalak, 1993/4), 210; R. Yaʿakov Goldberg, Dvir kodsho—Moʿadim I (Jerusalem: Ha-mishpaḥah, 2007/8), 536.
68. It appears in Siddur kol Yaʿakov (Jerusalem, 1934/5).
69. Synagogue kuntres in Nikolsburg, 1877; Siddur beit Yehudah (New York: Der Morgen Journal, 1914). That was also the Berlin custom, see Ḥayim Biberfeld, Minhagei beit ha-midrash ha-yashan de-kehilat kodesh Berlin (Berlin, 1936), 2. Also in Bobov Hasidism, see Siddur ẓeloteh di-Shlomoh (Brooklyn, NY: Makhon Ḥen David, 2001). Further, on the Vizhnitz custom, see Mordekhai Genut, Luaḥ davar be-ʿito, 5771 (Kiryat Arba, [2011]), 263. The variant forms תפילת/תפילות could have been caused by the fact that תפילות was printed without the ו. And in Siddur Ḥemdat Yisraʿel (Munkacs, 1901), the words were enclosed in parentheses: (בזכות תפילת רב).
70. Synagogue kuntres from Zalatow [Jastrowo], 1805/6; Seder ha-tefillah (Offenbach, 1805/6); Tefillah mesudarah, mehudarah, u-meʿutarah (Piorda, 1806/7); Tefillah yesharah (Radvil, 1819/20); ʿAvodas Yisraʾel (Vienna, 1855). The same is true of the synagogue wall in Zidichov. R. Tzvi Elimelekh Shapira of Dinov, who died in 1841, reported such wording in his book Magid taʿalumah (Premishla, 1875/6), see on B. Berakhot 16b. This was the practice of the Rebbe of Spinka, see Minhaegi Spinka (Bnei Brak: Spinka Hasidic Association, 1981), 36, and R. Shimshon Altman, Naḥal sorek (Bnei Brak, 2015/6), 103. And so, too, the custom of the Boyan Hasidism, see Avraham Schreiber, Luaḥ halikhot yom: Bayan (Brooklyn, NY: Halikhot Yom Institute, 2017), 327.
71. Kuntres of the Pinḥas Synagogue (Prague, 1821/2); synagogue kuntres of Breznitz, 1824/5; Seder ʿiyyun tefillah (Prague: M. Landa, 1839/40); Siddur beit Yaʿakov (Petrikov, 1891/2).
72. Siddur tefillah yesharah (Radvil, 1829/30); Kos yeshuʿot (Prague, 1867); Siddur ‘atirat Yiẓḥak (Vienna, 1911/12); Tefillot yesharim (Vienna, 1935).
73. E.g., Tikkun Shlomoh (Metz, 1819/20); Tefillat Yisraʾel (Metz, 1826/7); Safah berurah (Rödelheim, 1834/5); Siddur tefillat Yisrael (Berlin, 1859); Siddur le-sivlonot (Hanover, 1839/40); and Seder ha-tefillot (Paris, 1885).
74. For example, when Siddur tikkun Shlomoh was printed in Amsterdam in 1808/9, the formula was fixed as: בזכות תפילת (רב). This means that the editor had a previous version: בזכות תפילת רב. When the prayer book was printed there in 1814/5, it was fixed as: בזכות תפלת רבים and when the prayer book was printed in Metz in 1819/20, these three words were omitted.
75. Siddur tefillah yesharah he-ḥadash (Jerusalem, 1990/1) is the prayer book of R. Levi Isaac Halevi Horowitz, the Bostoner Rebbe, which had this version: בזכות תפילת רב ותפילת רבים. A Belz custom is brought by Meir Weiss, Luaḥ temidim ke-sidram (Bnei Brak: Mekhon Halakhot u-Minhagim she-‘al yad Hasidei Belz Makhnovka, 2004/5), 407, and it includes a linguistically erroneous formula: בזכות תפילת רב רבים. But the Belzer Rebbe used to say בזכות תפילת רב, see R. Yiẓḥak Yeshayahu Weiss, “Me-rishumei mekhon Ẓefunot ʾodot kitvei yad,” Ẓefunot 1 (1988/9): 92. Siddur Maharal me-Prag (Jerusalem: Mekhon Yerushalayim, 2005/6), put in brackets [בזכות תפלת רב\רבים], and thus allowed the worshipper to choose a version. Siddur ha-Shelah ha-shalem shaʿar ha-shamayim (Jerusalem: ʾAhavat Shalom, 1987/8), added double parentheses ((בזכות תפילת רב (רבים); apparently the intention was to erase the two options.
76. This led to various explanations. For explanations of Rav's prayer, see: Shapiro, R. Ḥayim Elazar, Divrei Torah, 4th ed. (Jerusalem: ʾEmet-ʾOr Torah Muncacs, 2006/7)Google Scholar, par. 107; Dinar, R. Zev, Minhagei morenu ha-Rav Yosef Zvi Halevi (Bnei Brak: Mekhon Le-hoẓa'at Sifrei Masoret Ashkenaz, 2015–16), 3Google Scholar. For explanations on תפלת רבים, see Zilberstein, R. Yiẓḥak and Rothschild, R. Moshe, Torat ha-yoledet (Bnei Brak: Tefuẓah, 1985/6), 117Google Scholar; Ba-Gad, Yosef, Ba Gad le-fninei ha-gaon R. Avraham Krol, vol. 1 (Petaḥ Tikvah: Mekhon Ha-sugiyot Shas be-Shas she-le-yad Yeshivat Neḥalim, 2002/3), 143Google Scholar.
77. Magid taʿalumah. See also ʿArukh ha-shulḥan, ʿorah ḥayim 417:9; Barukh She-ʾamar, 269–70; R. Aryeh Leib Gordon, “Tikkun tefillah,” in Siddur ʾoẓar tefillot (New York: Sefer, 1945/6), for an explanation of Yehi Raẓon.
78. Siddur higayon lev, ed. Eliezer Landshot, notes by Hirsch Edelmann (Koenigsberg, 1845).
79. Shnei luḥot ha-brit (Amsterdam, 1649), 258a. Also in Shnei luḥot ha-brit (Frankfurt, 1716/7), but instead of תפילת, it is written as the plural תפילות.
80. On the differences in prayer formulae in the Reform Movement, see Elbogen, Jewish Liturgy, 292–327; Marx, Dalia Sarah, “Ha-tefillah ha-reformit le-doroteha u-le-merkazeha,” in Reform Judaism: Thought, Culture and Sociology, ed. Rosenak, Avinoam (Jerusalem: Van Leer Institute, 2014), 307–46Google Scholar; Nurit Eliyasaf, “The Intra-Lingual and Inter-Lingual Translation of the Siddur by the American Reform Movement as an Expression of the Movement's Ideological Changes and in Light of the Historical Events and Social Transformations That Took Place from the Middle of the Nineteenth Century until 2007” (master's thesis, Bar-Ilan University, 2016) [in Hebrew].
81. See Seder tefillah dvar yom be-yomo. Israelitisches Gebetbuch für den öeffentlichen Gottesdienst im ganzen Jahre, mit Einschluss der Sabbathe und säemmtlicher Feier-Und Festtage, ed. Abraham Geiger (Breslau: J. Hainauer, 1854); Seder tefillah dvar yom b-yomo: Israelitisches Gebetbuch für den öffentlichen Gottesdienst im ganzen Jahre, im Einverständnisse mit der Gemeinde-Verwaltung in Frankfurt a. M. bearb, ed. Abraham Geiger (Berlin: Gerschel, 1870).
82. Siddur ha-tefillot le-shabbat (Jerusalem: The Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, 1961/2).
83. Seder ha-tefillot: Forms of Prayer for Jewish Worship (Oxford: The Reform Synagogues of Great Britain, 1977).
84. Siddur tefillot harʾel (Jerusalem: The Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, 1974/5).