Halakhah su Genesi 32:42

If the wine is changed, one must say a blessing, because even though he has already said “boray peri ha-gafen” when he was about to drink in the beginning, he is required to say a blessing for this change of wine, and this is the blessing “ha-tov ve-ha-metiv.”⁹⁴B.Berakhot 59b; Tur and Orah Hayim 175:1. So why did they say this for a change a wine, and not for a change of loaf or other things? For many reasons: (1) The crucial component for rejoicing at a meal is none other than wine. The way of kings is to change their wine, but not their loaf, and the people Israel are “the sons of kings.”⁹⁵B. Shabbat 67a. (2) Every table onto which they bring wine after wine is an expression of the multiplication of joy, but a person should not multiply his joy too much in this world, as it is said, “Our mouths shall be filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. They shall say among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them!’”⁹⁶Ps 126:2: Az yimalay s’hok pinu ulshonenu rinah az yomru ba-goyim. Higdil Adonai la’asot im eleh,” from Shir Ha-ma’a lot that we recite on holidays and Shabbat before birkat ha-mazon.Our rabbis taught in a midrash,⁹⁷B.Berakhot 31a. “When ‘will our mouths be filled with laughter’? When the nations (i.e., the Gentiles) say, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ Another verse completes this thought, “They will rejoice with trembling.”⁹⁸Ps. 2:11 They said, “In a place of rejoicing there will be trembling.” The explanation is that even in a place where there is rejoicing and joy from doing a mitzvah, there it is necessary that there be some trembling, too, to remember how the world is subject to the evil inclination and is shaken by it, so that it should not be shaken by our joy. Therefore it is a custom in a few Jewish communities at life cycle celebrations and meals celebrating a mitzvah to break there a vessel of glass or “flagons of grapes”⁹⁹Assisay ‘anavim, from Hos. 3:1– variously translated as “cups of the grapes” (JSB); “flagons of grapes (KJB); or even “cakes of raisins.” (RSV). to sadden those rejoicing, so that the simhah be mixed a little bit with trembling. And there is no greater simhah than Israel’s rejoicing at receiving the Torah [Simhat Ha-Torah] on Mt. Sinai, in the presence of the Holy One, about which it is written “like the Mahanayim dance,”¹⁰⁰Song of Songs 7:1. Mahana’im (lit., “two camps”) is the dual form of the word for “camp” – mahaneh. When Israel “married God” as it were at Mt. Sinai, the dancing at that “wedding,” that is the joy they expressed then, was like no other joy experienced on earth. Even the angels came down from heaven to celebrate and dance with them! This is an allusion to a midrash that applies this verse to Ex. 19:17 (M. Tanhuma Titzaveh 11), which R. Bahya brings in his Commentary on the Torah to Ex. 19:17: “Moses led the people out of the camp [mahaneh] toward God.” He says there
Our rabbis taught in a midrash, “600,000 ministering angels descended there corresponding to the 600,000 Israelites. And about them Jacob hinted, “He named that place Mahana’im.” (Gen 32:3), for there were two camps, one next to the other. And it is about this that King Solomon (peace be upon him) was talking when he said “like the Mahanai’m dance.” (S.S. 7:1). It was because the Israelites have been enslaved to four empires, and each one of them says that the Israelites should turn from their own faith and believe in them, which is why the verse in Song of Songs (7:1) repeats the imperative “turn” four times. And we today are subject to the fourth empire, who says, “Turn and let us seek out from among you” [nehezeh bakh], that is, “Let us make some of you political authorities, and give you all kinds of ruling power,” with the expression “nehezeh bakh” [literally, “let us gaze upon you”] having the same connotation a similar phrase has in Ex. 18:21: “You shall seek out from among all the people – tehezeh mikol ha-‘am – [all the capable men … to set them over the people as chiefs of thousands, hundreds, etc.”]. And our rabbis also taught this midrash (Song of Songs Rabbah 7:1): “’The Shulammite’ –is ha-ummah she-shalom ha-olamim dar be-tokhah– the people within whom the peace of the world resides [i.e., the Israelites], and she replies, ‘What would you ‘seek out’ [for leaders] from the Shulammite? [Mah tehezah ba-Shulamit?], that is, “What ruling power, status, and glory could you give to the Shulammite that you could ever find comparable to the state of joy the Israelites experienced at Mt. Sinai. This is “like the Mahanai’m dance:” two camps that would go out one before the other. And they compared the pleasure of the experience they achieved at the revelation there to a dance. To the same point our rabbis z”l taught, “In the future the Holy One Blessed be He will arrange a dance for the righteous in the Garden of Eden, so that I will never be able to turn to your [Gentile] faith, because I remember this dance – that is, like the one at Mt. Sinai. (Chavel, 2:173).
And yet, even at this peak of joy, there was the breaking of the tablets, like the breaking of the glass now to temper the pure joy at weddings. yet you know that even there, the tablets of the covenant were broken. And if you would think hard and lift up your eyes to “ever since God created human beings on the earth,”¹⁰¹Dt. 4:32. you will find in the Holy One Blessed Be He His boundless joy: “May the Glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works!”¹⁰²Ps. 104:31.But His joy has a limit with respect to the human race, “because he too is flesh.”¹⁰³Gen 6:3. That is, humans are mortal. That is what is written about Him when it says: “And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and His heart was saddened.”¹⁰⁴Ibid. 6:6. Even in the Mishkan, which was a microcosm of the world, on the eight day of the priests’ assigned service, which was the day of the New Moon for the month of Nisan, on that very day there was nothing like it in its degree of joy, its intensity multiplied tenfold, to what our sages z”l referred when they said, “On that very day they got ten crowns”¹⁰⁵Sifra Shemini. – you already knew what happened, and to what end that joy came. On that very day Nadab and Abihu died, like whom, after Moses and Aaron, there were none among the Israelites to compare. And this is what Scripture meant when it said, “Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel ascended.”¹⁰⁶Ex 24:9. I.e., in that order was their “ascendence,” their status, relative to one another. And see also what Ecclesiastes says about the joy of this world: “Of revelry I said, ‘It is mad!’ Of joy (simhah), ‘What good is that?’”¹⁰⁷Eccl 2:2. And the explanation of this statement is that because joy and sorrow are brothers attached to one another like day is attached to night, just as a person is sure in the day that night will come after it, and as sure at night that the day will come after it, so is he sure that joy will come after sorrow, and likewise sorrow after joy. And so he said, “The heart may ache even in laughter, and joy may end in grief,”¹⁰⁸Prov 14:13. to explain about sorrow after joy, and he said, “From all grief there is some gain,”¹⁰⁹Prov 14:23. “Grief” (‘etzev) here and “sorrow” (‘itzavon) in 14:13 come from the same Hebrew root. to explain about joy after sorrow. From this you learn that the joy of this world can never be complete, but rather any good in it and contentment with it is “futile and pursuit of the wind,”¹¹⁰Eccl 1:14. all glory in it is to be mocked,¹¹¹An allusion to Ps 4:3. its “glorious beauty is but wilted flowers.¹¹²Is 28:1, referring specifically to the fleeting pleasures of the table: “Ah the proud crowns of the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is but wilted flowers on the heads of men bloated with rich food, who are overcome by wine!” For right at the moment when a person’s hopes are highest in the midst of joy, it stops, flickers out, and goes away. For this reason they ruled that the blessing over a change in wine should be “ha-tov ve-ha-metiv” (“Who is good and Who does good”), the same blessing they added to the grace after meals to remember the martyrs of Beitar when they were permitted to bury them.¹¹³B. Berakhot 48b. The battle at Beitar was the Bar Kochba revolt’s unsuccessful “last stand” against the Romans in 135 CE. The explanation: Ha-tov – “Who is good” – because He didn’t let the bodies putrefy; ha-metiv – “Who did good” – by letting the bodies be buried.¹¹⁴Ibid. And all this is to make human beings feel sadness, being fashioned from clay, composed of natural elements which are dead bodies, sunken in the desires of our senses – so that we’re brought back from a surfeit of joy to the middle way.

The patriarch Avraham stood in prayer and begged that Sodom not be destroyed. God answered him that if there were ten righteous people in Sodom the city would be saved. But ten righteous people were not to be found there, and Sodom was demolished (Bereishit 18). Childless for many years, the patriarch Yitzḥak and matriarch Rivka prayerfully pleaded with God and were answered with the birth of Yaakov and Esav (Bereishit 25). The patriarch Yaakov prayed for God to save him from his brother, Esav, who set out against him with four hundred warriors, and he was answered and saved (Bereishit 32). Following the sin of the Golden Calf, God’s wrath was kindled against the people of Israel, and our teacher Moshe prayed intensely until God canceled the terrible decree that He had threatened to visit on His people (Shemot 32). When Miriam, Moshe’s sister, fell ill with leprosy, Moshe stood and prayed, “Kel na refa na la” (“O God, please heal her!”), and she was healed (Bamidbar 12). To turn back a heaven-sent plague, Aharon used the incense to pray, and the plague ceased (Bamidbar 17). After the army of Israel was defeated by Ai, God heard Yehoshua’s prayers and guided him to rectify the sin of Akhan, after which they won their next battles (Yehoshua 7). When the Philistines waged war against Israel, Shmuel cried out to God for help on behalf of the nation. God answered his prayer, and Israel struck and vanquished the Philistines (1 Shmuel 7). King David of Israel would often pray to God; his prayers eventually became the book of Tehilim. After King Shlomo finished building the Temple, he prayed that the Divine Presence (Shekhina) dwell therein, and that all people who pray there would be answered; God acceded to his prayer (1 Melakhim 8-9). When Eliyahu the Prophet fought against the false prophets of Ba’al on Mount Carmel, he prayed that fire would descend from the sky and so it transpired (1 Melakhim 18). Likewise, Elisha the Prophet prayed to God that He revive the son of the Shunamite woman, and the boy came back to life (2 Melakhim 4). When King Ḥizkiyahu faced death from his disease, he too prayed to God and was cured (2 Melakhim 20).

Not to eat the sciatic nerve: [Parshat] Vayishlach has one negative commandment, and it is the prohibition of [eating] the sciatic nerve; as it is stated (Genesis 32:33), "Therefore the Children of Israel shall not eat the sciatic nerve." And this [phrase] "they shall not eat" is not to be taken as part of the story, to mean that because this event occurred to [our] forefather, [we, his] descendants refrain from eating that nerve. Rather, it is a warning (prohibition) of God that they shall not eat it.

It is from the roots of this commandment [that it is to serve as] a hint to Israel that though they will suffer many troubles in the exile by the hand of the nations and by the hand of the [descendants] of Esav (i.e. the Christians), [the Jews] should trust that they will not perish, but rather that their descendants and name will stand firm forever, and that their redeemer will come and redeem them from their oppressor. And in continually remembering this idea through the commandment that serves as a reminder, they will stand firm in their faith and righteousness forever. And this hint [stems from the fact that] that the angel who fought with Yaakov our forefather - who according to tradition (Bereshit Rabbah 78) was the guardian angel of Esav - wished to eliminate Yaakov from the world, he and his descendants; but he could not [get the better] of him, (Genesis 32:26) but anguished him in injuring his thigh. Likewise, Esav's seed anguishes the seed of Yaakov; but in the end, [the latter] will be saved from them. As we find (Genesis 32:32) with respect to [our] forefather that the sun shone to heal him and he was saved from pain, so will the sun of the messiah shine and he will heal us from our pain and redeem us speedily in our days, amen!

It is from the roots of this commandment [that it is to serve as] a hint to Israel that though they will suffer many troubles in the exile by the hand of the nations and by the hand of the [descendants] of Esav (i.e. the Christians), [the Jews] should trust that they will not perish, but rather that their descendants and name will stand firm forever, and that their redeemer will come and redeem them from their oppressor. And in continually remembering this idea through the commandment that serves as a reminder, they will stand firm in their faith and righteousness forever. And this hint [stems from the fact that] that the angel who fought with Yaakov our forefather - who according to tradition (Bereshit Rabbah 78) was the guardian angel of Esav - wished to eliminate Yaakov from the world, he and his descendants; but he could not [get the better] of him, (Genesis 32:26) but anguished him in injuring his thigh. Likewise, Esav's seed anguishes the seed of Yaakov; but in the end, [the latter] will be saved from them. As we find (Genesis 32:32) with respect to [our] forefather that the sun shone to heal him and he was saved from pain, so will the sun of the messiah shine and he will heal us from our pain and redeem us speedily in our days, amen!

Rav J. David Bleich and Rav Moshe Shternbuch (Moadim Uzmanim 5:351) add that we similarly do not know how to resolve halachic disputes concerning the Temple service, due to the lack of a tradition on how to conduct various rituals.¹⁹Rav Shternbuch notes that without the ability to resolve these disputes, offering korbanot risks violating many prohibitions entailing the severe punishment of kareit. He suggests, however, that the desire to explore the possibility of offering korbanot in the pre-Messianic era pleases God, as it shows that His people sincerely desire to fulfill His mitzvot. Rav Shternbuch uses this approach to explain the phenomenon of an extensive literature exploring the viability of offering korbanot today. Only the Mashiach’s arrival will enable us to renew this tradition.²⁰See Tosafot (Pesachim 114b s.v. Echad Zeicher), who write that Moshe and Aharon will instruct us in the rituals of the korbanot for the Third Temple. For example, Rav Bleich (Contemporary Halakhic Problems 1:266-267), citing Rav Meir Auerbach (Halevanon 1:8 p. 54), notes a disagreement between the Rambam and the Ra’avad (Hilchot Korban Pesach 10:11) about whether the gid hanasheh (sciatic nerve)²¹The Torah prohibits eating this nerve (Bereishit 32:33). of the sheep is roasted along with the rest of the Korban Pesach. One cannot simply be strict and follow both opinions, since if one were to follow the Ra’avad and remove the nerve, the animal would no longer be “whole” according to the Rambam, thus invalidating it. On the other hand, leaving the gid hanasheh in the animal invalidates it according to the Ra’avad. Rav Shternbuch lists a host of other gray issues regarding the priestly garments, such as how to design the avnet (belt), ketonet (tunic), and migba’at (hat) of the ordinary Kohein. We do not even know how to identify the color argaman, used in the making of the priestly garments.

It seems to this writer that Mor u-Kezi'ah regarded the establishment of halakhic time, and hence of the Sabbath, in the places under discussion to be a matter of unresolvable doubt. To be sure, as clearly enunciated by R. David ibn Zimra, Teshuvot ha-Radvaz, I, no. 76,⁸See also Parashat Derakhim, Drush 23, s.v. od nakdim; R. Israel Lipschutz, Tiferet Yisra’el, Berakhot, note appended to Bo‘az, end of chapter 1; R. Chaim Joseph David Azulai, Birkei Yosef, Oraḥ Ḥayyim 242:1; R. Joseph Saul Nathanson, Teshuvot Sho’el u-Meshiv, Mahadura Revi’a’ah, no. 154; and R. Benjamin Aryeh Weiss, Teshuvot Even Yekarah (Lemberg, 5654), no. 11. determination of the onset and conclusion of Shabbat is determined locally. Leviticus 23:3 mandates that the Sabbath be observed "in all your habitations." That phrase is understood by Radvaz⁹A similar interpretation of that verse was earlier advanced by Seforno in his commentary ad locum. See also the interpretation of Exodus 31:16 advanced by the Zohar, Genesis 56a. The verse “And the children of Israel observed the Sabbath to make the Sabbath for their generations (le-dorotam)” is rendered by the Zohar as “to make the Sabbath for their dwellings (le-dirotam).” as signifying that the onset and conclusion of Shabbat is to be determined in accordance with sunset at each particular "habitation."¹⁰R. Abraham ibn Ezra, in his commentary to Genesis 33:10, understands the verse “And the sun rose upon him” (Genesis 32:32) as reflecting this underlying solar phenomenon, i.e., the sun rose for Jacob in the locale in which he found himself but did not rise simultaneously in other areas.
R. Isaac di Trani, renowned as the author of Teshuvot Maharit, declares in his Ẓofnat Pa‘aneaḥ (Venice, 5413), Drush le-Parashat Bereshit, that the work of creation did not cease throughout the globe at a single instant. Rather, the process of creation came to a halt at each point when night fell at that spot. In effect, in observing Shabbat as determined by local sunset, man emulates the Creator who ceased from the process of creation at different times in different places. Ḥatam Sofer, cited by R. Israel David Jaffe, Ḥazon le-Mo‘ed, no. 8, sec. 7, also stated that this was the case during each of the six days of creation: the work of each day did not take place simultaneously throughout the world; rather, the entities created on each day of the week were created in every geographic area while it was day in that locale. This, Ḥatam Sofer asserts, applied even to the “ten things” which the Mishnah, Avot 5:6, declared to have been created on the sixth day between sunset and nightfall, i.e., those objects were created in different places at different times. Ḥatam Sofer interprets the verse “And God finished on the seventh day… and He rested on the seventh day” (Genesis 2:2) as referring, not to a single act of cessation of labor, but to a divine comportment at two different places, viz., God completed the work of creation at one locale while at the same time resting at another locale. See also R. Yechiel Michal Tucatzinsky, Bein ha-Shemashot (Jerusalem, 5729), p. 53; idem, Yomam (Jerusalem, 5703), p. 73; and R. Ben-Ẓion Uziel, Mishpetei Uzi’el, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, II, no. 29. Cf., R. Menachem Kasher, “Shabbat Bereshit u-Shabbat Sinai,” Talpiyot, vol. I, no. 1 (Tishri 5704), pp. 415-420.
Cf., however, Teshuvot Sho’el u-Meshiv, Mahadura Revi’a’ah, who candidly acknowledges that, in observing Shabbat according to local time “in all their habitations,” Jews do not observe Shabbat during the same time period in which the Creator ceased from the work of creation. Moreover, he regards that concept to be reflected in the otherwise problematic words of the musaf prayer: “a people who sanctify the seventh day (am mekaddeshei shevi‘i).” Jews sanctify the month and hence the festivals which are calendar dependent. Shabbat, however, is predetermined and does not require sanctification of the new moon by the Bet Din. Nevertheless, explains Sho’el u-Meshiv, since Jews must observe Shabbat “in all their habitations” at different times they are indeed a “people who sanctify the seventh day.” Shabbat is designed as a "sign between Me and between you" (Exodus 31:13) and accordingly, is to be observed during the period representing the culmination of six days of labor in each person's locale. The Sabbath day, which includes a period of darkness and a period of daylight, is roughly twenty-four hours in length in all places other than in the extreme northern and southern regions. As a result, the Sabbath is observed on the same day of the week in all parts of the globe. Accordingly, Mor u-Kezi'ah assumes that in locales in which that cannot be the case there is no discernible method for determining the days of the week. Hence, determination of the advent of Shabbat remains either a matter of irresolvable doubt or, alternatively, there is no concept of halakhic time in such places. Therefore, Mor u-Kezi'ah rules that a person finding himself in such a place faces a problem that is no different from that confronting a person lost in the desert or confused with regard to a sequence of days and must conduct himself in an identical manner. That is precisely the import of Mor u-Kezi'ah's concluding phrase "in the manner indicated earlier with regard to one who travels in the desert," i.e., he may perform no forbidden act on any day of the week and must recite kiddush and havdalah on the seventh day of every seven-day cycle subsequent to his arrival.

4. Rashi, I Chronicles 27:24, seemingly ignoring the sources cited in both Berakhot 62b and Yoma 22b, posits two entirely different verses as sources for this prohibition. The passages "If a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall your seed also be numbered" (Genesis 13:16) and " 'Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to count them'; and he said unto him, 'So shall your seed be' " (Genesis 15:5) are interpreted by Rashi, not simply as blessings, but as prohibitions against counting the progency of Abraham. In his commentary on I Samuel 15:4, Rashi cites yet a third verse, "I will surely do you good and make your seed as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude" (Genesis 32:13) which he renders as "which shall not be numbered for multitide.⁹Cf., Meshekh Ḥokhmah, Parshat Naso, s.v. be-haftorah.

Rabbi Schuck bolsters this thesis by pointing to the enumeration in Genesis 32:15-16 of the various species of animals sent by Jacob as a gift to his brother Esau. Scripture first mentions goats and sheep, then camels, followed by cattle and, finally, donkeys. The order is puzzling in that the enumeration of clean species is interrupted by mention of camels, an unclean species, while the other unclean species, viz., donkeys, is mentioned last. Rabbi Schuck suggests that the "camel" to which reference is made is none other than the taḥash. He contends that at a later period the taḥash was bred with a non-kosher species, i.e., a non-kosher camel, and that the giraffe was the product of that union. Rabbi Schuck seems to believe that the common species of the present-day giraffe, produced as a result of crossbreeding, possesses hoofs that are incompletely split and hence is obviously non-kosher, but that the original giraffe was a ruminant with completely split hoofs. In any event, if Rabbi Schuck were to be correct in describing its origin, the present-day giraffe, since it would be descended from a non-kosher ancestor, could not be regarded as a kosher species.

And this prohibition is practiced in every place and at all times by males and females. And one who transgresses it and makes himself a clairvoyant in one of the ways from all the matters we have mentioned or in another matter, and tells people things that he sees through his clairvoyance, is liable for lashes - and that is when he does some act in the thing, as we do not administer lashes without an act. But one who asks [something] from a clairvoyant is not under the liability of lashes. Nonetheless, very disgusting is anyone who fixes his thoughts or expends his time on these vanities. As it is not appropriate for one whom God has graced with knowledge and given the true religion as an inheritance to think about these vanities. Rather, he should fix his thoughts on the service of the Creator, may He be elevated, and not fear the words of the clairvoyant; since God, in His kindnesses will change the system of the stars, and nullify the power of the constellations, [so] as to do good to His pious ones. And it is known that we are the holy people, such that we are not under [the power of] a star or constellation - 'the Lord is our inheritance, as He spoke to us.' And [it is] like the matter that we found with the forefathers, that God placed their stature above the ministers above: Like that which is written about Yaakov, "but rather Yisrael will be your name" (Genesis 35:10), "for you have dominated (sarita) with powers, etc." (Genesis 32:29); meaning that God made him a minister (sar) over the [celestial] ministers. And so [too,] is Yitschak called Yisrael, as it is stated (Genesis 46:8), "these are the Children of Israel that were coming to Egypt, Yaakov and his children." And so [too,] Avraham is called Yisrael, as we wrote in the Introduction of the book. And this is [the meaning of] what is written about the matter of the disagreement of the prophet, Eliyahu, with the prophets of Baal, as it stated (I Kings 18:31), "like the number of tribes of the children of Yaakov," whose name was called Yisrael: As he was rebuking them [about] why they were leaving the service of the Master, the Lord of Hosts, who has in His hand to nullify all the actions of the powers and the constellations; and like the matter that He did with the forefathers, such that He put the constellations under their hand. And that is [the meaning] of its stating in that place (I Kings 18:31), "like the number of tribes of the children of Yaakov, to whom was the word of the Lord, saying, 'Yisrael will be your name,'" - meaning to say, that He made him a minister over the [celestial] ministers, to change their system and their power with his merit. [This is] meaning to say, Israel, who are the children of Yaakov, are also ministers over the celestial ministers; and hence it would be fitting for them to not worship anything besides God alone. And so did we find with Yehoshua, who decreed to the sun and the moon to stand - as it is written in Joshua 10:12, "Sun, be still in Giveon, moon in the Ayalon Valley" - and they stood. And so [too,] several pious ones of Israel who changed the system of the constellations [and their power] with their merit. The matter would [take too] long, to bring [the] several stories that happened in Israel about this matter.

“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).