📖 מַחֲזוֹר לְחַג הַסֻּכּוֹת (אשכנז) | Maḥzor l’Ḥag ha-Sukkot, arranged by Wolf Heidenheim (translation by Jenny Marmorstein 1967)

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4 August 2026 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

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20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Nusaḥ Ashkenaz

מחזור לחג הסכות Prayerbook for the Feast of Tabernacles (1967) is volume 8 in a set of maḥzorim reprinting Wolf Heidenheim’s arrangement of liturgy according to the Ashkenazi custom, accompanied by an English translation by Jenny Marmorstein, z”l (1920-2020). For services on Shemini Atseret (and Simḥat Torah), find the companion volume 9 in this set.

This work is in the Public Domain according to the 1994 Uruguay Round Agreements Act due to the expiration of the term of copyright in its home country (50 years after publication in Switzerland).

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE^[1] This preface was only published in the front matter of the first volume of this set of maḥzorim. We’ve included it here to rectify that omission.
A new English rendering of our liturgy for the most sacred days of the year obviously requires a word of introduction. The Hebrew text on which this present attempt is based, will be familiar to those who follow the German rite; and it might well be regarded as a form of perpetuation of the memory of our blessed martyrs that their own particular liturgy should have survived intact in far-flung areas of the English-speaking world.
My aim has been to combine intelligibility with dignity in contemporary English. Archaisms have been avoided wherever possible. For instance, the archaic second person singular is reserved for the Divine and the normal second person plural of current usage applied to human beings. With regard to interpretation, the German translation of the late Rabbi Dr. Selig Bamberger of Hamburg has been closely followed throughout the numerous passages of mediaeval poetry, which depend so largely on Scriptural and Aggadic allusions.
Finally, I must acknowledge my gratitude to my husband and the many friends who have been generous with their help and advice.

Notes

Notes
1	This preface was only published in the front matter of the first volume of this set of maḥzorim. We’ve included it here to rectify that omission.

Aharon N. Varady (digital imaging and document preparation)

Aharon Varady, founding director of the Open Siddur Project, is a copyright researcher and amateur book scanner. He prepares digital images and new digital editions of prayer books and related works in the Public Domain in order to make their constituent parts (prayers, translations, annotations, etc.) publicly accessible for collaborative transcription by project volunteers. (In some cases, he finds existing digital editions prepared by others that require correction and reformatting.) If you appreciate his efforts, please send him a kind note or contribute to his patreon account.

Jenny Marmorstein (translation)

Jenny (Rivqah) Marmorstein née Blau (1920-2020), born in Hamburg, Germany, was a translator of German and Hebrew. The daughter of two Jewish educators, she grew up in the predominantly Jewish Grindelviertel neighborhood attending the Israelitische Töchterschule on Karolinenstraße. After graduating she attended a two-year gardening course in 1936 at the Hachshara Home on Wilhelminenhöhe, a training center for young people who wanted to emigrate to Palestine. Her planned emigration could not be realized due to the limited immigration quotas for British Mandate Palestine, and in April 1939, her family managed to find her passage to London with a domestic permit—a residence permit for domestic workers—where an aunt and uncle of hers were already living. After World War Ⅱ, she studied Hebrew and Arabic at the School of Oriental Studies in London. In the 1960s, her translation of Wolf Heidenheim's arrangement of the festival maḥzorim was published by Victor Goldschmidt Publishers Basle. Together with her husband Rabbi Emile Marmorestein, she published Piyyutim: liturgical poems for the year's special Sabbath (Feldheim: 1983). In the 1990s, she completed a university degree in history and literature.

Wolf Heidenheim

Benjamin Wolf ben Samson Heidenheim (בנימין זאב בן שמשון היידנהיים;; 1757–1832), born in Heidenheim, Germany, was a German-Jewish exegete and grammarian. At an early age Heidenheim was sent to Fürth, where he studied Talmud under Joseph Steinhardt (author of Zikron Yosef) and, from 1777, under Hirsch Janow. Besides Talmudic literature, Heidenheim devoted himself to the study of Hebrew grammar, and particularly that of the Masorah. In 1782 he left Fürth, probably on account of Janow's opposition to Mendelssohn's translation of the Pentateuch, of which Heidenheim was an admirer. He went to Frankfurt, where he made the acquaintance of the most prominent scholars, among them Wolf Breidenbach and Solomon Dubno. There began his literary activity, which lasted fifty years. In addition to his work on Hebrew grammar and critical texts of the Masoretic bible, Heidenheim produced a still-valued edition of the maḥzor based on existing medieval manuscripts.

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