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.  

The Mahzor Vitry is an 11th-century composition by Rabbi Simcha of Vitry (just south of Paris), a disciple of Rashi, which incorporates texts and directions pertaining to daily prayers, as well as prayers for the holidays and other special days on the Jewish calendar. It also includes liturgical poems, descriptions of messianic times, and legal sections on marriage, holidays, and ritual slaughter, among other topics. The work is the earliest comprehensive record of the practices of Jews in Ashkenaz (at the time, northern France and the Rhineland). 

This manuscript, completed in 1204 is the oldest, most complete surviving manuscript of this work. 

You will notice that on this page the writing takes different sizes. On the top right are directions for celebrating a Jewish wedding. Below this, in larger writing is a wedding poem, an example of what might be sung at the party. Though written entirely in Hebrew characters, the poem alternates verses in Hebrew with verses in French (written in Hebrew letters because this was likely the only alphabet educated Jews learned how to read). The French communicates mostly romantic sentiments of love, while the Hebrew—by way of double entendre—portrays, in bawdy terms, the groom’s sexual “conquest” of the bride on their wedding night. 

Why the linguistic difference? Jewish men were more likely to have had a Hebrew education than Jewish women. The women would have spoken and understood French, so the French part of the poem was written to be appropriate for a female audience. The men, though they spoke French, would also have understood Hebrew. It was to their ears that the bawdy material was directed. 

Of course, this poem stands as testimony that Jews in medieval France spoke French. This is typical of Jews through history. With a few significant exceptions, Jews spoke the languages of their neighbors.