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).  

A complete page (in front of you) is dedicated to the words “Kol Nidre,” the opening words of the formula with which Yom Kippur begins. The size of the words and their framing communicates the unexceeded importance of the moment, as there is no time of the Jewish year that is more important than the beginning of Yom Kippur. Notably, Kol Nidre was the focus of objections by rabbinic authorities, as its formula either retrospectively or proactively nullified vows taken by Jews; it was therefore referenced by anti-Semites to prove that you couldn’t trust a Jew. But despite rabbinic objections, its recitation was popular among common Jews, perhaps because of the haunting tune with which it was chanted.