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).  

On this page you will notice that part of the original prayer has been rubbed out. If you read Hebrew, you may recognize that this is the Alenu prayer, which, in its pre-censored version, declares the worthlessness of other gods and the truth of the Jewish God. The manuscript, written before the regime of censorship, originally included the full text, but when, in the 16^th century, the church became aware of the “dangers” of disseminating many copies of writings in print, manuscripts were retrospectively censored as well, as here. 

You will also notice the necks of creatures—dragons—rising from the letters on the top of the page. The original pages were trimmed, allowing for the use of the fine parchment of the page for other purposes. Images of dragons are found throughout this manuscript, having nothing to do with the text but very popular, among Christians and Jews,  in medieval Germany and elsewhere.