Machzor Kephi Minhag Chalaph (Haleb) [festival prayers]. According to the rite of Aleppo (Aram Tzovah)

(LITURGY).

Giovanni Griffio

Venice

1560

Second edition. Two volumes

Vinograd, Venice 480; Mehlman 363; not in Adams

The Property of the Late David Frankel, Bookseller and Bibliographer, Husiatyn-Vienna-New York (1876-1948). NO COMPLETE COPY RECORDED. JNUL, JTS, HUC AND SASSOON ALL EXIST IN FRAGMENTS ONLY. First issued in Venice in 1527, the present Machzor represents the second printed appearance of this particular rite. The city Haleb, called by the Jews Aram -Tzovah, is one of the most ancient centers of Jewish scholarship with an uninterrupted Jewish presence since Roman times. According to the 12th century traveler Petachia of Regensburg, its name is derived from the tradition that Abraham pastured his sheep on the mountains of Aleppo and distributed their milk (Chalav) to the poor and indigent. Prayers according to the ancient rite of Aleppo retained a strong liturgical influence from Palestine, prior to the Mesopotamian centers of Talmudic study dictated further progression of liturgical rituals. The characteristic components of the Palestinian rite can be readily detected in the present Machzor. Poems composed by Palestinian paytanim appear here in large numbers. Text that elsewhere is more prosaic is here versified. There are numerous Psalm collections and individual verses; Biblical verses are often employed to introduce and conclude sections of prayers. There is a varied use of kedusha texts that clearly predate any serious attempt at standardization. There are also examples of futuristic prayer, a genre that had its origin in tannaic times and constitutes an appeal to God to actively affect the future. See C. Reif, Judaism and Hebrew Prayer (1993) pp.161-3; E. D. Goldschmidt, On Jewish Liturgy: Essays on Prayer and Religious Poetry (1978) pp.122-52 (originally published in Sefunot Vol. VIII (1964) pp.205-36. This machzor was one of the few books printed in Venice during the dark years following the Papal edict of 1553 which began a nine year period of intensified censorship, confiscation and burning of Hebrew books. As the Church Inquisitors had no jurisdiction over the Orient, and the Republic had increasing trade interests with the Silk and Spice Routes, the Jews of Aleppo enjoyed preferential treatment and this machzor was printed with limited restrictions for their exclusive use. On the censorial variances between the first edition (Venice, 1527) and this second edition, see M. Benayahu, Haskamoth Ve’reshuth (1971), pp.177-81. On the restriction of printing of Hebrew books in Venice in the years 1555-63, see Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy pp.263-73