📖 מחזור לסכות (אשכנז)‏ | Maḥzor l’Sukkot: The Form of Prayers for the Festival of Tabernacles, a bilingual Hebrew-English prayerbook compiled and translated by David Levi (1795)

Contributor(s):

Shared on:

4 October 2025 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Maḥzorim for Sukkot, Maḥzorim for Shemini Atseret

Tags:

18th century C.E., 56th century A.M., British Jewry, Minhag Poland, Nusaḥ Ashkenaz

מחזור לסכות The Form of the Prayers for the Feast of Tabernacles According to the Custom of the German & Polish Jews was compiled and translated in 1795 by David Levi (1742-1801). Besides Sukkot, additional services for Shemini Atseret and Simḥat Torah are included. It is the fourth volume in a set of nusaḥ Ashkenaz maḥzorim by Levi. Due to the high esteem accorded it, this set served as a template for later maḥzorim in their translations and layout. For Levi’s principles of translation, please refer to his “Preface” in his first volume (The Form of Prayers for the New Year).

This work is in the Public Domain in the United States due to its having been published more than 95 years ago.

This digital edition was prepared by Aharon Varady from page images made by the National Library of Israel from an item held in their collection.

David Levi (translation)

David Levi (1742-1801), born in London, was a printer, author, pioneering Jewish translator, and scholar. A self-taught English Jew, he provided an educated defense of Judaism against its English detractors and published resources on Judaism to both Jews and Christians in English. Since the English Jewish community of the time knew little or no Hebrew, Levi translated the Sefaradi and Ashkenazi prayer books, and produced expositions and translations of much Jewish lore about ritual and practice. His texts were used by Jewish and Christian writers well into the 19th century.

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=63751

Associated Image:

Maḥzor l’Sukkot – The Form of Prayers for the Feast of Tabernacles (David Levi, 1795) – title

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

Properly attribute the work to David Levi (translation).
Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=63751>.
Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)

Additional Notes:

The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of volunteer contributors, or its institutional partners.
We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture.

ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)