The word “Mahzor,” familiar to most Jews as the term used for the prayer book for the High Holidays, means “cycle.” It can therefore be used to describe a book containing any liturgical cycle. Sometimes the term was also used to describe a text created in codex = book form, as opposed to a traditional Jewish scroll.

Copied in Esslingen, Germany, in 1290 by the scribe Kalonimos ben Yehudah, this mahzor contains prayers for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. It is the earliest dated Hebrew book from Germany. The manuscript is large, with pages measuring 18 x 14 inches. Its size tells us that it was designed for synagogue use by the prayer leader, likely placed on a stand at the center of the prayer hall as the prayers were intoned for the entire congregation. 

Originally one volume, it was later split in two. The first half, covering Rosh Hashanah through the morning of Yom Kippur, is in the collection of the JTS Library. The second half, from the additional service on Yom Kippur through Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah, is in Amsterdam (Rosenthaliana MS 609).  

The huge word at the top of this page is “Unetane,” the first word of the key High Holiday poem, Unetane Tokef, which emphasizes that at this season God sits in judgment of all creatures, judging “who will live and who will die, who by fire and who by water…” The size of this opening word unavoidably declares, “this is a key moment in the service.”