סדר קריאת התורה ומילה ביו"כ. ובו ו סעיפים:
מוציאין שני ספרים בראשונה קורים ששה בפרשת אחרי מות עד ויעש כאשר צוה ה' ואם חל בשב' קוראים שבעה ומפטיר קורא בשניה בפנחס ובעשור לחודש ומפטיר בישעיה ואמר סלו סלו פנו עד כי פי ה' דבר: “The order of the reading of the Torah and of circumcision on Yom Kippur” - Containing six paragraphs.
We take out (from the ark) two Torah scrolls.168Two Torah scrolls are taken out on the festivals because portions from two separate sections of the Torah are read. The Torahs can be set before hand so that they can be opened to the correct portion without the necessity of rolling the scroll from one portion to the next. In the first Torah six men read from the portion “אחרי מות”, (Leviticus 16:1-18:30) until “and he did as the Lord commanded (Moses)”, (Leviticus 16:34). But if (Yom Kippur) falls on Shabbat, seven (men read from the first Torah), and the Maftir169Maftir, מפטיר, means literally "one who concludes". It is the name given to the man who is the last to read in the Torah and he also usually reads the haftarah (see footnote 170), the section of the prophets that corresponds to the Torah reading. Maftir is also the name given to the three or more concluding verses of the regular weekly Torah portion as well as to the final verses read on festivals and public fast days.
Editorial Staff, E. J., v. 11, p. 685. (the last reader) reads from the second (Torah scroll) from the portion, Pinḥas, (Numbers 25:10-30:1), the section “and you shall have on the tenth day of this seventh month”, (Numbers 29:7-11). The Maftir (the Haftarah section from the Prophets170The Haftarah, הפטרה, is a portion from the Prophets section of the Bible read after the Torah is read on Sabbaths, festivals, and fast days. On Sabbaths and festivals the haftarah is read during the Morning, Shaḥarit Service (see footnote 17), but on fast days it is read only during the Afternoon, Minḥah Service (see footnote 40). The exception to this is Yom Kippur and Tishah be-Av (see footnote 102) where there is a haftarah after the Torah reading in both the Morning and the Afternoon Service.
The Torah in its regular portions is read straight through during the year but such is not the case on festivals and some special Sabbaths. The haftarot are selected in parts from both the Former and Latter Prophets. Only two prophetic books are read in their entirety as haftarot, the Book of Obadiah which has only twenty-one verses and is read after the Torah portion Va-Yishlaḥ (Genesis 32:4-36-43) according to the Sephardi rite, and the Book of Jonah which is the haftarah for the Minḥah Service on Yom Kippur (see the Shulḥan Arukh, Oraḥ Ḥayyim 622:2).
Haftarot were usually selected so there would be some similarity in content between the Pentateuchal and the Prophetic portions, but often this did not happen and haftarot were chosen because of historical events or because of some special date. Special haftarot are read on special Sabbaths and the haftarah for each festival is based on the nature of the festival.
When the custom of reading the haftarah got started is not known for sure, but it is thought that it began during the persecutions of the Antiochus Epiphanes which preceded the Hasmonean revolt. The Torah was not permitted to be read by the Jews during the persecution for it was felt that the reading of it kept the Jews together and gave them a special strength. As a substitute for the Torah reading, sections form the Prophets were chosen that would remind the Jews of the corresponding Torah portion. Appearantly when the ban against reading the Torah was lifted, the practice of reading the haftarah continued. The first mention of the practice of the reading of the haftarah is found in the New Testament. Acts 13:15 states, "after the reading of the law and the prophets". Haftarot are also discussed in the Talmud as to which are to be read at specific times and festivals. In Mishnaic times different communities read different haftarot, and a set order was probably not established until talmudic times. Some haftarot today differ from those recorded in the Talmud, and there are differences in the Sephardi and Ashkenazi rites.
The maftir, the one who reads the haftarah also reads the last part of the weekly portion, (i.e., the Torah reader reads it for him). On the Sabbath, after the seventh reader from the Torah, the maftir usually rereads the last three verses of the weekly portion. On festivals and the four special Sabbaths, the maftir reads the special section from the second scroll which is usually a short description of of the festival found in the Torah. Before the haftarah is read (or chanted) the maftir precedes the haftarah with two blessings and after he ends the haftarah he recites three blessings to which a fourth one is added on Sabbaths and festivals. This fourth blessing changes with the nature of the day. The Sabbath haftarah usually has a minimum of twenty-one verses while the festival has at least fifteen verses. Lately it has become the custom for the Bar Mitzvah boy (a man upon reaching the age of thirteen) to chant the haftarah to display his ability with a Hebrew text.
Louis Isaac Rabinowitz, E. J., v. 16, pp. 1342-44.) comes from Isaiah, “and shall say, cast you up, cast you up, prepare the way” until “for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it”, (Isaiah 57:14-58:14).
מילה ביום הכפורים מלין בין יוצר למוסף אחר קריאת התורה ולאחר המילה אומרים אשרי (והמנהג למול אחר אשרי) (מנהגים) ואם הוא במקום שצריך לצאת מבית הכנסת אין מלין עד אחר חזרת ס"ת וחוזרים ואומרים קדיש: If there is a circumcision on Yom Kippur;171A circumcision must take place on the eighth day after birth, if the baby is healthy, regardless of whether it is the Sabbath, Yom Kippur, or any day of the year. The circumcision takes precedence over anything else. then they circumcize between the (Morning Prayer172Shaḥarit, שחרית; see footnote 17. prior to the Keri’at Shema named) “יוצר173The Shema, made up of Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:13-21; and Numbers 15:37-41, during the Morning Service is surrounded by two blessings before and one afterwards. (In the Evening Service there are two blessings before and two afterwards.) The Shema and its blessings are called Keri'at Shema, קריאת שמע, the Reading of the Shema. It is the basis of a Jew's declaration of One God and his devotion to God. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."
The first blessing before the Shema in the mornings is called the "Yoẓer Or", יוצר אור, "Who formest light and createst darkness" and it is a prayer of thankgiving for the creation of physical light, the light of day and the daily renewal of creation. (For a further explanation of the Reading of the Shema, see footnote 17).
Hertz, op. cit., p. 108.”, “Creator,” and the Additional Service174Musaf, מוסף, Additional Service; see footnote 166. after the reading of the Torah. And after the circumcision we say the prayer, “אשרי175Ashrei, אשרי, means literally "Happy are they". It is the first word and the name of a prayer in the liturgy composed from the Book of Psalms. The prayer is made up of the following: Psalms 84:5, 144:15, 145, and 115:18. The Talmud (Ber. 4b) states that anyone who recites the Ashrei three times a day will be assured of a life in the world to come. Therefore the prayer is read three times a day in the liturgy. It is read twice during the Shaḥarit Service, once in the preliminary psalms, Pesukei de-Zimra (see footnote 17), and once toward the end, and it is read at the beginning of the Afternoon, Minḥah Service (see footnote 40). The Ashrei is also recited before the Seliḥot (see footnote 14), prayers of forgiveness, in the months of Elul and Tishrei. On Yom Kippur the Sephardim recite the Ashrei both at Minḥah and Ne'ilah (see footnote 191) whereas the Ashkenazim only recite it at the Ne'ilah Service.
Raphael Posner, E. J., v. 3, p. 736.” But the custom is to circumcize after the “אשרי”, (מנהגים).176Minhagim, מנהגים; see footnote 13. And if the circumcision takes place in a location where it is necessary to leave the synagogue, we do not circumcize him until after the Torah scroll is returned to the ark, and then they return (to the synagogue) and say the (reader’s) Kaddish.177The Kaddish, קדיש, which literally means "holy" is a doxology, mostly in Aramaic which is recited by a reader with responses made throughout it by the congregation at the close of individual sections and at the conclusion of the whole prayer. There are four principal types of the Kaddish; the whole or complete Kaddish, the half Kaddish, the Kaddish de-Rabbanan (the scholar's Kaddish), and the Mourner's Kaddish.
The whole Kaddish basically glorifies God and prays for peace. It is recited by the reader after the Amidah except for the Morning Service when it comes after the prayer U-Va le-Ẓiyyon (see footnote 187). The half Kaddish omits the conclusion of the prayer which consists of the last three blessings. The half Kaddish is recited by the reader between different sections of the service. The Kaddish de-Rabbanan is the whole Kaddish except for a substitution which prays for those who study Torah and teach it. It is recited after communal study, after the reading of the lighting the Sabbath candles in the synagogue (Be-Mah Madlikin, Shabbat 2), after the early Morning Service, and after the song Ein Kh'Elohenu praising God. The Mourner's Kaddish is recited by the close relatives of a deceased person for eleven months following the death and every year on the day which marks the anniversary of that death. It is basically the whole Kaddish with the exception of one line concerning supplications. It is said at certain points of the service, e. g., after the Aleinu (see footnote 182) and may be repeated after the reading of additional psalms.
All versions of the Kaddish are said standing facing Jerusalem. The Sephardi form has an additional verse which is not found in the Ashkenazi concerning the coming of the Messiah. At first the Kaddish was not part of the daily synagogue worship but by the geonic period (see footnote 19) it was an established part of the Service and it required ten men (a minyan constituting a congregation) to be recited.
The Kaddish did not become a Mourner's prayer until around the thirteenth century as a result of the persecution of German Jews by the Crusades. The prayer is not for the soul of the departed, but rather an expression of the justification of judgment proclaimed by those who have suffered a loss. Man is required to give praise to God even when afflicted by sorrow.
Editorial Staff, E. J., v. 10, pp. 660-62.
מברכין על המילה בלא כוס (וי"א דמברכים בכוס ונותנין לתינוק הנימול וכן נוהגין): We bless the circumcision without a cup (of wine).178A cup of wine is used in the circumcision ceremony, but because it is Yom Kippur there was some question as to whether this was permitted or not. (There are those who say that we bless (the circumcision) with a cup (of wine) and we give it to the infant who is 179 circumcized, and this is the custom.179Children, and therefore certainly infants, are not subject to the laws of fasting on Yom Kippur. The custom, therefore developed that a cup of wine was used in the circumcision ceremony on Yom Kippur. The infant is usually given a small piece of cloth or cotton to suck on which has been dipped in wine. This sanctifies the baby's circumcision according to the Jewish law.)
במוסף אומר שליח צבור סדר עבודה: הגה ונוהגין ליפול על פניהם כשאומרים והכהנים והעם וגם בעלינו לשבח אבל ש"צ אסור לעקור ממקומו בשעת התפלה כדי לפול על פניו ויש למחות ביד העושים כן: In the Additional Service180Musaf, מוסף, Additional Service; see footnote 166. the reader recites the order of the Avodah.181Avodah, עבודה, the Sacrificial Service on Yom Kippur; see footnote 22.
Hagah: It is customary to fall on their faces, prostrate, as they say the section of the Avodah, “and the priests and the people…” and also to prostrate when saying the Aleinu Prayer.182The prayer Aleinu Le-Shabbea'aḥ, עלינר לשבח, means "It is our duty to praise the Lord of all things." This prayer now is recited at the conclusion to the Morning, Afternoon, and Evening Pryaers, daily and on the Sabbaths and festivals. Originally it introduced the Malkhuyyot (Kingships) section of the Rosh HaShanah Musaf Amidah (see footnote 166). It is also found in the Musaf section of the liturgy for Yom Kippur.
The form of the Aleinu is like an early liturgical poem, piyyut (see footnote 149). It has short lines, each having about four words with marked rhythm and parallelism. Some traditions say it was written by Joshua while others give authorship to the men of the Great Assembly during the period of the Second Temple. It probably dates back to the time of the Second Temple because of two reasons. First of all there is no mention of the restoration of the Temple in it, which is unusual for this type of prayer it was written after the Temple was destroyed. Secondly, the prayer demands prostration which was a Temple practice abandoned after the Temple was destroyed except during this prayer on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur in the Ashkenazi rite. At all other times it is customary to simply bow when reciting the words "we bend the knee…"
The main theme of the prayer is the Kingdom of God. God is praised in it for singling out the people of Israel as a nation of God worshippers not idolaters. The second paragraph expresses a hope for the coming of the Kingdom of God when all mankind will recognize the one and only true God, this being a universal ideal.
The prayer was censored over the years by the Christians who felt, due to a misunderstanding of the words, that it insulted Christianity even though it pre-dated that religion. Throughout the centuries different parts of the prayer were left out due to outside pressure. The Sephardim for the most part retained the entire original text which has not been restored throughout most of the Ashkenazi rites.
Hanoch Avenary, E. J., v. 2, pp. 556-59. But the reader is forbidden to move from his place at the time of the prayer in order to prosstrate, and one should object to those who do this (prostrate).183Prostration was part of the Temple Service. It was believed that the Aleinu prayer was part of the Temple service in view of the line in the prayer which states that "we bend the knee and bow down…" (see footnote 182). After the Temple was destroyed it became the custom to only bend one's knee at this above stated line in the Aleinu. In the Ashkenazi rite, the reader would actually prostrate himself when he read this line during the Musaf Service on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. This was not done among the Sephardi communities.
סדר הוידוי חטאתי עויתי פשעתי: The order of the confession is; I have sinned, I have transgressed, I have offended, etc.
נהגו לידור צדקה ביום הכפורים בעד המתים ומזכירין נשמותיהם דהמתים ג"כ יש להם כפרה ביה"כ (מרדכי): It is customary to pledge (to vow) charity on Yom Kippur for the dead,183aThe following comment is given by Turei Zahav, (see footnote 19a): 621:4 - "For the dead": Beit Yosef, ב״י, (see footnote 20) cited that there is in a Midrash (stated) that even the dead need atonement and they acquire merit by the (living) giving of charity on their behalf since God examines the hearts (of people) and knows that if they were alive they would have given charity. (and they remember their souls because the dead also have atonement on Yom Kippur), (מרדכי).184Mordekhai, מרדכי; see footnote 24.