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CCAR RESPONSA

 

New American Reform Responsa

 

30. Prophetic Scrolls

QUESTION: A member of my congregation would like to commission some scrolls which would then be used for the reading of the Haftarah. Is there a tradition for reading the Haftarah from a scroll? Would it be appropriate to maintain such scrolls in the ark with the Torah? (Thomas Shapiro, San Francisco CA)

ANSWER: We, of course, continue to read from the scroll of Esther, the Megillah, and the writing of the Megillah is governed by rules (Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayim 691). The other minor books which may be used in scroll form (Ruth, Song of Songs, Lamentations and Ecclesiastes) are generally read from books and only rarely from a scroll. Certainly there is no mandate to do so.

As the Haftarah is chosen from different sections of the prophets for each shabbat, we do not have a continuous cycle of readings as with the Torah. Having the text available in book form rather than in a scroll makes the process of finding the text and reading it much easier although special scrolls with the Haftarah sequence have existed. Perhaps for this practical reason there is little reference in the traditional sources to prophetic readings from a scroll. Clearly at an earlier stage of our history, scrolls of the prophets were used and the most famous of these, the Isaiah scroll, is now in the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem. Later, the codex form of the book was introduced; it was widely used by the third century but among Jews only in the eighth century.

I do not know of any synagogue that regularly uses scrolls of the prophetic books or the five megillot, although several synagogues possess them and keep them in the ark alongside the Torahs. There is nothing wrong about commissioning such scrolls to be written, but I do not find much in favor of doing so. It might be better to interest the family in another project which would be more useful to the synagogue.

November 1989

 

If needed, please consult Abbreviations used in CCAR Responsa.