🆕 Hafṭarot for Festivals and Special Sabbaths, according to the nusaḥ Erets Yisrael as recorded in the “St. Petersburg Manuscript” (NLR Ms. EVR II B 42)

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5 May 2025 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

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11th century C.E., 48th century A.M., הפטרות haftarot, לוח lu'aḥ, Nusaḥ Erets Yisrael

The ancient Land of Israel rite was most well-known for its three-and-a-half-year Torah-reading cycle, but it had its own unique aspects for festivals and special Sabbaths as well. Recorded in the “St. Petersburg manuscript” (NLR Ms. EVR II B 42) is what may be our most complete record of the hafṭarot of the ancient Land of Israel rite, at least in one community. Some, but not all, of the hafṭarot for festivals and special Sabbaths are the same as those found in the Babylonian practice, but all of them are substantially shorter, with some as short as three verses. It seems the Babylonian prohibition on hafṭarot shorter than twenty-one verses was not taken into account in the West!

Much of the work here is based on the detailed analysis found in Binyamin Elizur’s 2023 paper “הפטרות החגים כמנהג בני ארץ ישראל.”

Parashah	Haftarah
Rosh haShanah day 1	Joel 2:1–7, Joel 2:13–14
Rosh haShanah day 2	Joel 2:15–20, Joel 2:26
Shabbat Shuva	Hosea 14:2–8
Yom Kippur	Isaiah 58:1–8, Isaiah 58:14
Festival Day of Sukkot	Zechariah 14:12–18, Zechariah 14:20–21
Shabbat Ḥol haMoed^[1] In the Erets Yisrael rite, the Torah reading for both instances of Shabbat Ḥol haMoed was always Deuteronomy 14:22–16:16, which in the Babylonian rite became the reading for the additional day. This hafṭarah follows the Eretz Yisrael Shabbat custom of being linked to a prominent word in the first verse, in this case, “tithe.”	Malachi 3:10–12
Shmini Atzeret	I Kings 8:63–66
Shabbat Ḥanukkah	I Kings 7:51–8:5, I Kings 7:11
Parashat Sheqalim	Hosea 2:1–4
Parashat Zakhor	I Samuel 15:2–5
Parashat Parah	Ezekiel 36:25–27
Parashat haḤodesh^[2] Shabbat haGadol is not listed in Ms. EVR II B 42, but in some genizah fragments it is listed under the name Shabbat Ḥamishit, and instructions are given to read Exodus 11:1–3 as the Torah reading and Haggai 2:6–9 as the hafṭarah.	Isaiah 41:27–42:5
First Day of Pesaḥ	Joshua 5:9–12
Last Day of Pesaḥ	Isaiah 19:1–7
Shavuot	Habakkuk 3:1–13
First Sabbath of Rebuke	Jeremiah 1:1–6
Second Sabbath of Rebuke	Jeremiah 2:4–9
Third Sabbath of Rebuke	Isaiah 1:21–27
First Sabbath of Consolation	Isaiah 40:1–8
Second Sabbath of Consolation	Isaiah 49:14–21
Third Sabbath of Consolation	Isaiah 54:11–17
Fourth Sabbath of Consolation	Isaiah 51:12–16
Fifth Sabbath of Consolation	Isaiah 54:1–8
Sixth Sabbath of Consolation	Isaiah 60:1–9
Seventh Sabbath of Consolation	Isaiah 61:10–62:5 ^[3] The concluding verse here is a guess — the manuscript cuts off at the first verse.

Notes

Notes
1	In the Erets Yisrael rite, the Torah reading for both instances of Shabbat Ḥol haMoed was always Deuteronomy 14:22–16:16, which in the Babylonian rite became the reading for the additional day. This hafṭarah follows the Eretz Yisrael Shabbat custom of being linked to a prominent word in the first verse, in this case, “tithe.”
2	Shabbat haGadol is not listed in Ms. EVR II B 42, but in some genizah fragments it is listed under the name Shabbat Ḥamishit, and instructions are given to read Exodus 11:1–3 as the Torah reading and Haggai 2:6–9 as the hafṭarah.
3	The concluding verse here is a guess — the manuscript cuts off at the first verse.

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Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

From a family of musicians, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer believes that creative art is one of the most powerful ways to get in touch with the divine. He composes music and poetry in Hebrew and English. (He also translates and transcribes Hebrew and Aramaic texts, adding niqqud and t'amim as needed.) Isaac runs a Jewish music transcription service, which will transcribe and set any Jewish music in any language, recorded or written. Contact his service on Facebook or via his music blog.

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St. Petersburg Manuscript (NLR Ms. EVR II B 42) fol. 7r

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