Misplaced Pages

#334665

33-790: Nusach Ashkenaz may be subdivided into the German or Western branch - Minhag Ashkenaz - used in Western and Central Europe , and the Polish/Lithuanian or Eastern branch - Minhag Polin - used in Eastern Europe, the United States and by some Israeli Ashkenazim, particularly those who identify as Litvaks ("Lithuanian"). In strictness, the term Minhag Ashkenaz (the Western Ashkenazic rite) applied only to

66-609: A list of differences preserved from the time of the Geonim , most of the usages recorded as from Eretz Yisrael are now obsolete. Medieval Ashkenazi scholars stated that the Ashkenazi rite is largely derived from the Siddur Rab Amram and minor Talmudic tractate Massechet Soferim . This may be true, but in itself this does not support a claim of Babylonian origin as argued by Gaster: as pointed out by Louis Ginzberg

99-758: A number of minor differences between the Israeli and American Ashkenazi practice in that the Israel follows some practices of the Vilna Gaon (see Perushim § Influence ) as well as some Sephardic practices. For example, the practice of most Ashkenazic communities in Israel to recite Ein Keloheinu during the week, as is the Sephardic practice. The ritual of the United Kingdom - Minhag Anglia -

132-570: A question from Tunisia. Some of the responsa that have survived are in their original form, while others are extant only as quotations in later works. Many have been found in the Cairo Genizah . Examples of responsa collections are: Individual Geonim often composed treatises and commentaries. Three handbooks on Jewish law are: The most notable author among the Geonim was Saadia Gaon , who wrote Biblical commentaries and many other works: he

165-612: A title of a Babylonian college president it meant something like "His Excellency". The Geonim played a prominent and decisive role in the transmission and teaching of Torah and Jewish law . They taught Talmud and decided on issues on which no ruling had been rendered during the period of the Talmud. The period of the Geonim began in 589 CE ( Hebrew date : 4349), after the period of the Sevora'im , and ended in 1038 (Hebrew date: 4798). The first gaon of Sura, according to Sherira Gaon ,

198-456: Is based on those of both Germany and Poland Hamburg; see Authorised Daily Prayer Book . " Minhag Anglia " does also have wider connotations re the structure, and hashkafa , of English-Judaism more generally; see United Synagogue , London Beth Din , Jews College . Leopold Zunz claimed that the Ashkenazi rite is descended from the ancient Eretz Israel minhag , while the Sephardi rite

231-512: Is best known for the philosophical work Emunoth ve-Deoth . Two months of the year were denoted as yarchei kallah , or "months of the bride" (referring to the Talmud ) – the Hebrew months of Adar and Elul . During this time, foreign students assembled in the academy for common study. During the first three weeks of the yarchei kallah the scholars seated in the first row reported on

264-528: Is descended from Babylonia . Hakham Moses Gaster , in his introduction to the prayer book of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews , made exactly the opposite claim. To put the matter into perspective it must be emphasized that all Jewish liturgies in use in the world today are in substance Babylonian, with a small number of usages from the Land of Israel ( Eretz Yisrael ) surviving the process of standardization: in

297-480: Is of course not implied here: that did not exist in Babylonia, only a solemn nomination taking place.) Gaon Ẓemaḥ refers in a responsum to "the ancient scholars of the first row, who take the place of the great sanhedrin". The seven masters, or "allufim" and the "ḥaberim", the three most prominent among the other members of the college, sat in the first of the seven rows. Nine sanhedrists were subordinated to each of

330-635: The Siddur Rashi of a century later, records the Old French rite rather than the Ashkenazi (German) rite proper, though the differences are small. The Old French rite mostly died out after the expulsion of Jews from France in 1394, but certain usages survived on the High holidays only in the Appam community of Northwest Italy until shortly after WWII, and has since become extinct. Both the Old French and

363-792: The Abbasid Caliphate . They were generally accepted as the spiritual leaders of the Jewish community worldwide in the early medieval era, in contrast to the Resh Galuta ( exilarch ) who wielded secular authority over the Jews in Islamic lands. Geonim is the plural of גאון ‎ ( Ga'on ) [ɡaˈ(ʔ)on] , which means "pride" or "splendor" in Biblical Hebrew and since the 19th century "genius" as in modern Hebrew . As

SECTION 10

#1732773019335

396-952: The Byzantine Jewish , especially the piyyutim (hymns), found their way through Italy to Ashkenaz and are preserved to this day in most Ashkenazi mahzorim . Minhag Ashkenaz Minhag Ashkenaz is the minhag of the Ashkenazi German Jews . Minhag Ashkenaz was common in Germany, Austria, the Czech lands, and elsewhere in Western Europe, in contrast to the Minhag Polin of the Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews. The term "Minhag Ashkenaz", strictly applied, refers only to

429-567: The Siddur Rab Amram had itself been heavily edited to reflect the Old Spanish rite. The Ashkenazi rite also contains a quantity of early liturgical poetry from Eretz Yisrael that has been eliminated from other rites, and this fact was the main support for Zunz's theory. The earliest recorded form of the Ashkenazi rite, in the broadest sense, may be found in an early medieval prayer book called Machzor Vitry . This however, like

462-399: The Talmud treatise assigned for study during the preceding months; in the fourth week the other scholars and also some of the pupils were called upon. Discussions followed, and difficult passages were laid before the gaon, who also took a prominent part in the debates, and freely reproved any member of the college who was not up to the standard of scholarship. At the end of the yarchei kallah

495-595: The Talmud , and while the Saboraim definitively edited it, the Geonim's task was to interpret it; for them it became the subject of study and instruction, and they gave religio-legal decisions in agreement with its teachings. During the geonic period the Babylonian schools were the chief centers of Jewish learning; the Geonim, the heads of these schools, were recognized as the highest authorities in Jewish law . Despite

528-713: The Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, where they still have a synagogue, Khal Adath Jeshurun (KAJ), which punctiliously adheres to the Yekkish liturgical text, rituals, and melodies. Unlike most Ashkenazic synagogues in the United States, which follow the Eastern Ashkenazic ( Poilisher ) liturgical rite , KAJ follows the Western Ashkenazic rite (Minhag Ashkenaz), in its liturgical text, practices, and melodies . They use

561-400: The "small sanhedrin". In front of the presiding gaon and facing him were seated seventy members of the academy in seven rows of ten persons each, each person in the seat assigned to him, and the whole forming, with the gaon, the so-called "great sanhedrin". Gaon Amram calls them in a responsum the "ordained scholars who take the place of the great sanhedrin". (A regular ordination (" semichah ")

594-528: The Ashkenazi rites have a loose family resemblance to other ancient European rites such as the Italian , Romaniote and Provençal rites, and to a lesser extent to the Catalan and Old Spanish rites: the current Sephardic rite has since been standardized to conform with the rulings of the Geonim , thereby showing some degree of convergence with the Babylonian and North African rites. The liturgical writings of

627-526: The Rödelheim Siddur Sfas Emes (see: Wolf Heidenheim ), though the congregation's nusach varies in some places from Rödelheim . List of communities, synagogues, and minyanim following Minhag Ashkenaz: Geonim Geonim ( Hebrew : גאונים ; Hebrew: [ɡe(ʔ)oˈnim] ; also transliterated Gaonim , singular Gaon ) were the presidents of the two great Babylonian Talmudic Academies of Sura and Pumbedita , in

660-485: The Talmud, and who could on occasion visit the Jewish academies in Babylon. A literature of questions and answers developed, known as the responsa literature. The questions were usually limited to one or more specific cases, while the responsum to such a query gave a ruling, a concise reason for it, together with supporting citations from the Talmud, and often a refutation of any possible objection. More discursive were

693-472: The difficulties which hampered the irregular communications of the period, Jews who lived even in most distant countries sent their inquiries concerning religion and law to these officials in Babylonia. In the latter centuries of the geonic period, from the middle of the tenth to the middle of the eleventh, their supremacy lessened, as the study of the Talmud received care in other lands. The inhabitants of these regions gradually began to submit their questions to

SECTION 20

#1732773019335

726-469: The gaon designated the Talmudic treatise which the members of the assembly were obliged to study in the months intervening until the next gathering took place. The students who were not given seats were exempt from this task, being free to choose a subject for study according to their needs. During the yarchei kallah , the gaon laid before the assembly a number of the questions that had been sent in during

759-450: The heads of the schools in their own countries. Eventually they virtually ceased sending their questions to Babylonian Geonim. The title gaon came to be applied to the heads of the two Babylonian academies of Sura and Pumbedita, although it did not displace the original title of Rosh Yeshivah Ge'on Ya'akov ( Hebrew , head of the academy, pride of Jacob). The Aramaic term used was Resh metivta. The title gaon properly designated

792-579: The later geonim were often essays on Talmudic themes, and since a single letter often answered many questions, it frequently became book-length in size. Two important examples of such books are the Siddur of Amram Gaon , addressed to the Jews of Spain in response to a question about the laws of prayer, and the Epistle of Sherira Gaon , which sets out the history of the Mishnah and the Talmud in response to

825-516: The minhag of German Jews south and west of the Elbe , most notably the community of Frankfurt am Main . Jews in Germany were historically divided into the "Bayers" of Bavaria and southern Germany, who followed the Minhag Ashkenaz, and the "Polanders" in northern Germany who followed Minhag Polin. Following Kristallnacht , a number of German Jews (Yekkes) escaped Frankfurt , relocating to

858-435: The office of head of the academy. The title became popular in use around the end of the 6th century. As the academies of Sura and Pumbedita were invested with judicial authority, the gaon officiated as supreme judge. The organization of the Babylonian academies recalled the ancient Sanhedrin . In many responsa of the Geonim, members of the schools are mentioned who belonged to the "great sanhedrin", and others who belonged to

891-402: The respective Geonim without consulting the kallah assemblies convened in the spring. Chananel Ben Chushiel (Rabbeinu Chananel) (990–1053) and Nissim Gaon (990–1062) of Kairouan , though not holders of the office of Gaon, are often ranked among the Geonim. Others, perhaps more logically, consider them as constituting the first generation of Rishonim . Maimonides (1135–1204) sometimes uses

924-563: The responsa of the later geonim after the first half of the 9th century, when questions began to be sent from more distant regions, where the inhabitants were less familiar with the Talmud, and were less able to visit the Babylonian academies, then the only seats of Talmudic learning. The later geonim did not restrict themselves to the Mishnah and Talmud, but used the decisions and responsa of their predecessors, whose sayings and traditions were generally regarded as authoritative. These responsa of

957-466: The seven allufim, who probably supervised the instruction given during the entire year by their subordinates. The members of the academy who were not ordained sat behind the seven rows of sanhedrists. Early in the Geonic era, the majority of the questions asked them were sent from Babylonia and the neighboring lands. Jewish communities in these regions had religious leaders who were somewhat acquainted with

990-477: The usages of southern German Jews (in recent centuries defined very roughly as those south and west of the Elbe ), most notably the community of Frankfurt am Main . North-Eastern German communities such as Hamburg and Berlin followed Minhag Polin , although their musical tradition and pronunciation of Hebrew, and some of the traditions about the prayers included, were more reminiscent of the western communities than of Poland proper or even Austria-Hungary. There are

1023-475: The year from all parts of the Diaspora. The requisite answers were discussed, and were finally recorded by the secretary of the academy according to the directions of the gaon. At the end of the yarchei kallah the questions, together with the answers, were read to the assembly, and the answers were signed by the gaon. A large number of the geonic responsa originated in this way; but many of them were written by

Nusach Ashkenaz - Misplaced Pages Continue

1056-557: Was Mar Rab Mar , who assumed office in 689. The last gaon of Sura was Samuel ben Ḥofni , who died in 1034 CE; the last gaon of Pumbedita was Hezekiah Gaon , who was tortured to death by zealots of the Buyid dynasty in 1040; hence the activity of the Geonim covers a period of nearly 450 years. There were two major Geonic academies, one in Sura and the other in Pumbedita. The Sura Academy

1089-630: Was originally dominant, but its authority waned towards the end of the Geonic period and the Pumbedita Gaonate gained ascendancy ( Louis Ginzberg in Geonica ). The Geonim officiated, in the last place, as directors of the academies , continuing as such the educational activity of the Amoraim and Saboraim . For while the Amoraim, through their interpretation of the Mishnah , gave rise to

#334665