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At the time when the Four Parashiyot were read as independent lections--rather than as additions to the weekly scriptural lection - they were required to contain a number of verses that would suffice for seven readers (i.e., at least 21 verses per parasha). The length of the parashiyot Zakhor, Para and ha-Hodesh has been documented in the Genizah, in siddurim, as well as in fragments of targumim of the relevant parashiyot. This evidence indicates that their extent was greater than that which is found in current usage. However, the original length of Parashat Sheqalim has not yet been documented. This article presents early, unrhymed piyyutim for Parashat Sheqalim that versify the entire lection of the parasha. The information provided by these piyyutim is highly significant, since they antedate by many hundreds of years the evidence that may be gleaned from Genizah fragments. On the basis of the piyyutim it becomes clear that in its early form, Parashat Sheqalim began, as it still does, with Exodus 30:11 and terminated at 31:17. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sa'adya Gaon's anti-Karaite polemical work, known by its incipit as ..., was discovered in the Cairo Genizah. However, many parts of it are still missing. In the present article I publish two Genizah fragments stemming from one leaf, which contain important additional material from a missing section in the first and second chapters of the book. The new composite leaf is badly damaged, but we may distinguish Sa'adya's peculiar idiom in it. Along with the use of biblical hapax legomena characteristic of Sa'adya's writing, these fragments also use a number of biblical words in a unique manner that agrees with his biblical translations. Some of the expressions in the fragment were also employed by the Karaite Solomon ben Yeruhim in his rebuttal of Sa'adya's claims, in the book .... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their article, the authors announce the discovery of a new fragment of the Hebrew Book of Ben Sira in the Cairo Genizah, in the Taylor-Schechter collection of the Cambridge University Library: T-S AS 118.78. The fragment is a part of ms. D. After a brief introduction, a critical edition of the text of the fragment is presented, including variant readings from parallel sources and notes to the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The famous competition between the Palestinian and Babylonian traditions, which continued over the course of the Talmudic and the Geonic periods, ended, as is well-known, in the complete victory of Babylon - with the exception of one extensive area: piyyut. The recitation of piyyutim, rooted in the liturgical traditions of Palestine, spread to all Diaspora Jewish communities. Whereas in the case of Italy and Germany this phenomenon may be explained as a function of a shared ancient Palestinian heritage, it is quite surprising to find that it also obtains in the case of Spain, as the latter is known for its deep connections specifically to the traditions of Babylon. In the first portion of the present article it is suggested that piyyut became naturalized in Spain, not as the result of Palestinian influence, but rather through the influence of the liturgical rites of the Babylonian synagogues of the tenth century, as these are attested in the poetic productions of R. Yosef al-Baradani. An investigation of the actual distribution of the main liturgical genres in Spain - the yotzer and the qedushta - reveals a close connection, even in detail, to that found in the corpus of Yosef al-Baradani. This fact strengthens the notion that Babylon served as a middleman between the Palestinian birth-place of piyyut and the Hebrew liturgical poetry of Spain. In the second portion of the article stress is laid on the place occupied by the seliḥa in the corpus of Babylonian piyyut. Indeed, seliḥiot are almost entirely lacking in the corpus of Yosef al-Baradani. However, almost all of the piyyutim of R. David ha-Nasi, which have lately been published, belong to the seliḥa genre in its various manifestations, and from the beginning of piyyut production in Babylon (in the corpus of R. Nisi al-Nahruʿani) a significant place is reserved for seliḥot. At the same time, there are no seliḥot in the heritage bequeathed by the classical Palestinian payyetanim. For this reason it is proposed here that the seliḥa be seen as a Babylonian piyyut genre. If this is indeed the case, it follows that Babylonian influence on piyyut production throughout the ages is much more decisive than has been thought up till the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the slightly revised English translation of the first edition, originally published in 2007 in Hebrew, of two new leaves of the Geniza manuscript C of the Hebrew version of Ben Sira. With those two new leaves, from a nonconsecutive bifolio, we now have eight leaves from four continuous bifolios of the manuscript. The second new leaf contains the first Hebrew evidence for verses ranging between Sir 20:30 and 25:7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central to this article is the riddle of the chain of verses that follow the magen, mehaye, and meshalesh in the qedushta, suggesting that they derive an ancient version of the amidah benedictions. We show that when chains of verses are included in hymns, they are derived from parallel chains of verses in prayers. Hence, the benedictions of the amidah probably also contained verses in an earlier period of its formation, and we find traces of these. Several ancient rabbinical sources indicate that a longer and more complex version of the amidah was once recited, and it included biblical verses. We suggest that they were included in order to distinguish between blessings, which were newly composed, and Scripture. This practice contrasts with the prayers (mainly the sectarian ones) from the Second Temple Era and other writings of that time, whose authors sought to imitate the language of the Bible and resemble it, sometimes even striving to have their works included in the canon. The amidah prayer evidently underwent processes of change and abbreviation, and it probably developed from an alternative version, 'an abstract of Eighteen Benedictions', shorter and less complex than the original prayer. The possibility that the cantor was called upon to recite the long prayer in its entirety, whereas the congregation tended to be satisfied with the short version, can explain the flourishing of hymns that embroider on the prayers. Chains of verses disappear from hymns when they are abbreviated. Toward the end of the article, we focus on the qedushta again and discuss the appearance of concluding rhymes that divide it between the chain of verses and the conclusion of the benediction. After a short conclusion, an appendix is presented, presenting a very ancient qerovah, every part of which is no more than a passage of poetry and a chain of verses, without any concluding rhymes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genre o f selihot, current amongst Jewish congregations for a thousand years now, is not attested at all in Classical piyyut in Eretz-Israel. The present article investigates the liturgical locus in which the selihot first appeared, and the reasons for their appearance. The liturgical framework within which the selihot are embedded in the various Jewish communities manifests a basic nucleus, which is always present: the formula at the head o f the recitation o f the Thirteen Attributes, n n x D ” s x i n x [ V x ] , the Thirteen Attributes themselves, which are repeated after each seliha, and the fixed presence o f verses from the Prayer o f Moses, ntnaynfiyVxjnVo... (Num 14:19-20), as well as Daniel's prayer (Dan 9:18-19). All o f these elements evidently stem from the early, alphabetic, unrhymed inm ing-piyyut ~ p x D'am n b y i / n n x □” s x , which appears in Seadya’s Siddur and serves as a frame for selihot in numerous Genizah fragments. The structure o f the piyyut, which consists o f short pieces of poetry, each one followed by Scriptural verses (in one case, a confessional formula appears instead o f verses), is an exact parallel o f one o f the components o f the early qedushta for Yom Kippur: the s e d e r p e s u q im that comes at the end o f the ‘benediction o f the (special) sanctity o f the day'. There is also a similarity in the choice o f verses: specifically the verses from the Thirteen Attributes, the Prayer o f Moses, and Daniel's Prayer are found with almost complete consistency in the early sid r e i p e s u q im . And just as the framing-p iy y u l is cut off by the s e lih o t close to the verses o f the Thirteen Attributes, the s e lih o t also cut o ff the sid r e i p e s u q im at the same point. Thus I suggest that the s e d e r p e s u q im , in particular the verses o f the Thirteen Attributes that are found in it, is the locus o f origin o f the se lih o t. The congregation, which joined the h a zz a n in the recitation o f the Thirteen Attributes, did not find a single recitation sufficient, and the function o f the se lih o t was to make it possible to recite them several times. This process is not attested in Eretz-Israel in the period o f the Classical p iy y u t, and it is likely that it emerged in Babylon; in the generation o f Seadya Gaon it is already an established custom. The framing-p;){yw/ nnx D” SX "px does not appear originally to have been a s e d e r p e s u q im , but rather a text that was already composed as a frame for the se lih o t, the confessional formula, and the fixed verses that are recited alongside them. The tendency to repeat central elements embedded within the framing -p iy y u t for the se lih o t did not stop at the Thirteen Attributes: there were those who also sought to repeat the verses o f the Prayer o f Moses and o f Daniel's Prayer over and over again, and especially to repeat the confessional formula many times. For this puipose the c o n fe ssio n a U p iy y u tim were created. These are also embedded in the framing-p/yyjrf and serve as an introduction either to other verses found in it or to the confessional formula itself. However, these customs remained marginal, unlike the recitation o f se lih o t and the repetition o f the Thirteen Attributes, which were developed and expanded. Seadya’s S id d u r describes an additional development: the framing -p iy y u t was transferred from the Yom Kippur liturgy to that o f the other fast days, where it was incorporated in the 1* nVo benediction, and s e lih o t were also embedded in it in the ia m id o t o f the fast days. This custom survived even when the framing -p iy y u t was no longer employed and all that remained o f it were embedded fragments (such as the opening strophe o f nnx D” DX -px Vx). With the passage o f time, se lih o t also came to be recited on those liturgical occasions when people gathered for nightly vigils to recite ra h a m in , around the High Holy Days. This transfer frequently resulted in the obscuring o f the original framework and the intermixing o f se lih o t and ra h a m in -texts. However, in the s e lih o t liturgy for fast days the close relationship to the early framing -p iy y u t and the point o f origin o f the s e lih o t is still evident in most Jewish communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several years ago I published part of a fine Qerovah for the afternoon prayer of Tish'a Be'Av (S. Elizur, 'From Mourning to Comfort: On an Ancient Custom in the Afternoon Prayer of Tisha B'Av', Tarbiẕ, 73 [2003], pp. 125-138). I recently discovered the missing parts, which comprise three stanzas, and I am publishing them here. This section also deals with the `spiritual' nature of the Sabbath as conceived in various Jewish sources, especially Jewish Hellenistic writers of the Second Temple period, but also in rabbinic and Samaritan writings, and the metamorphosis this conception underwent in Christianity. The second section deals with the evidence provided by some of the prayers in AC VII regarding the history of the Hebrew benedictions of the Amidah as well as other Jewish prayers. The main Jewish benedictions studied in detail are: the benediction of Jerusalem embedded in AC VII, 31; the Sabbath benediction; the benediction of Thanksgiving (Modim); as well as Selihot, Nishmat, and Al ha-Nissim. It is demonstrated that liturgical formulations of these benedictions that occur in late and less reliable liturgical sources existed as early as the third century CE., if not earlier, for they are included in AC VII. The examination of AC VII sheds new light on one of the most important methodological problems in the study of Jewish liturgy, namely, whether one can differentiate the earlier from the later strata, and the extent to which we may rely on medieval versions of benedictions and sporadic references to them in rabbinic literature to map the development of ancient Jewish liturgy. The prayers in AC VII are much longer and more elaborate than the Amidah benedictions. A long Hebrew benediction on food occurs in a liturgical papyrus from Dura Europus dated to the third century CE, It is therefore conceivable that longer benedictions in Hebrew had existed in ancient times alongside shorter ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]