A textual nusach is distinct from amusical nusach, the latter referring to a community's musical style or tradition, particularly the chanted melodies used for theAmidah and other recitative prayers.
Nusach primarily means "text" or "version", the correct wording of a religious text or liturgy. Thus, thenusach tefillah is the text of the prayers, either generally or in a particular community.
In common use,nusach has come to signify the entire liturgical tradition of the community, including the musical rendition. It is one example ofminhag, which includes traditions on Jewish customs of all types.
It may be subdivided into the German, or western, branch ("Minhag Ashkenaz"), used in West and Central Europe, and the Polish–Lituanian branch ("Minhag Polin"), used in Eastern Europe, the United States, and among other Ashkenazim, particularly those who identify asLithuanian inIsrael.
The form used in theUnited Kingdom and theCommonwealth (except Canada, which follows the American style), known as "Minhag Anglia",[1] is technically a subform of "Minhag Polin" but has many similarities to the German rite (e.g.,Singer's Siddur).
Nusach Sefard is a style of prayer service used by some Jews of Central andEastern European origin, particularly within theHasidic community. Hasidic Jewry (Hasidim) assimilated a number ofSephardic customs, emulating the practices of the circle ofkabbalists associated withIsaac Luria (a.k.a. the Arizal), many of whom resided in theLand of Israel. Textually speaking, it is based largely on the Sephardic rite, but in melody, feel, and pronunciation, it is overwhelmingly Ashkenazi. There is a wide variation within the rite itself among different types of Hasidism, with some more similar to nusach Ashkenaz and others more similar to the Sephardic nusach.
Nusach Ari refers to, in a general sense, any prayer rite following the settings of the Arizal in the 16th century. ManyChabad Hasidim refer to their variant of Nusach Sefard as "Nusach Ari". However, Chabadsiddurim invariably note that they are "based on the Ari rite" (על פי נוסח האר"י), a description which appears in many other Sephardic and Hasidicsiddurim.
There is not one generally recognized uniform nusach forSephardi andMizrahi Jews. Instead, Sephardim and Mizrahim follow several slightly different but closely related nuschaot.
The nearest approach to a standard text is the siddurim printed inLivorno from the 1840s until the early 20th century. These (and later versions printed inVienna) were widely used throughout the Sephardic and Mizrahi world. Another popular variant was the text known asNusach ha-Hida, named afterChaim Yosef David Azulai. Both these versions were particularly influential in Greece, Iran, Turkey, and North Africa. However, most communities also had unwritten customs which they would observe, rather than following the printed siddurim exactly: from the printed materials, it is easy to get the impression that usage in theOttoman Empire around 1900 was more uniform than it really was.
Other variants include:
the customs of theSpanish and Portuguese Jews, based on an older form of the Castilian rite, with some influence from the customs both ofItalian Jews and of Northern Morocco. This version is distinguished by the near-absence of Kabbalistic elements.
Nusah Edot Hamizrah, originating amongIraqi Jews but now popular in many other communities. These are based on the opinions ofYosef Hayyim and have a strongKabbalistic flavour.
Minhag Aram Soba, as used bySyrianMusta'arabi Jews in earlier centuries (the current Syrian rite is closely based on the Livorno prints).
the Moroccan rite, also related to the text of the Livorno prints, but with a strong local flavour. This subdivides into the Spanish-speaking northern strip's customs and the country's Arabic-speaking interior and contains fewer Kabbalistic elements than most of the other rites, although more Kabbalistic elements than the Spanish and Portuguese rite.
formerly, there were variants from different parts of Spain and Portugal, perpetuated in particular synagogues inThessaloniki and elsewhere, e.g. the Lisbon[2] and Catalan[3] rites, and some North African rites appear to reflect Catalan as well as Castilian influence.[4]
Under the influence of the former Sephardi Chief Rabbi, RabbiOvadia Yosef, many Israeli Sephardim have adopted a nusach based mainly on the Nusach Edot Hamizrach but omitting some of the Kabbalistic additions.
A "Temani" nosach was the standard among theJews of Yemen. This is divided into theBaladi (closer to purely Yemenite) andShami (adopted from Sephardic siddurim)[5] versions. Both rites are recited using the uniqueYemenite pronunciation of Hebrew, which Yemenite Jews and some scholars regard as the most authentic and closely related to the Hebrew of Ancient Israel.
TheBaladi rite is very close to that codified byMaimonides in hisMishneh Torah. One form of it is used by theDor Daim, who attempt to safeguard the older Baladi tradition of Yemenite Jewish observance. This version used bydardaim was initially used by all Yemenite Jews near the time of Maimonides.
The modernNusach Eretz Yisrael is a recent attempt by RabbiDavid Bar-Hayim at reconstructing the ancientNussach Eretz Yisrael, based on theJerusalem Talmud and documents discovered in theCairo Geniza and other sources. The reconstruction and adaption is published in the form of asiddur ("prayer book"), and used by Rabbi Bar-Hayim's Jerusalem followers in public prayers held in Machon Shilo's synagogue.[7]
Nussach HaGR"A was a very brief version of Nussach Ashkenaz written by theVilna Gaon, removing some passages which he believed were not in the original prayer text, correcting some grammatical errors (according to him), and some additional small changes.
Closely related to these was the "Romaniote" rite[8] from Greece, where an ancient, pre-Diaspora Jewish community lived. The surviving Romaniote synagogues are inIoannina,Chalkis,Athens,Tel Aviv,Jerusalem, andNew York. These now use a Sephardic rite but with Romaniote variations, selections of a few Romaniotepiyyutim, combined with their own melodies and customs and their special form of Byzantine-JewishCantillation.[9] There were formerly Romaniote synagogues in Istanbul. (The customs ofCorfu are a blend between Romaniote, Apulian, and Sephardic rites.)[10]
There was once a French nusach, closely related to the Ashkenazi. The rite mostly died out after the expulsion of Jews from France in 1394. Still, certain usages survived on the High holidays only in theAfam community of Northwest Italy until shortly after WWII, and have since become extinct.[11]
In the Middle Ages, there was a unique Nusach Morocco, unrelated to Sephardic liturgy. This original minhag has not been practiced since shortly after the Expulsion of Jews from Spain, and it is unfortunately not well documented.[12]
Until the16th century, the Aleppo community had its unique prayer rite.[15] After the Jews expelled from Spain arrived, they managed to convince the local community to adopt their practices, and the rite died out completely.
The Jews ofCatalonia had a Nusach distinct from the "standard" Spanish rite. This rite was preserved partially until the 20th century.[16]
TheUrfalim Jews of south easternAnatolia follow their own prayer rite, which differs from the Syrian, Kurdish, and Iraqi Jewish rites.[citation needed]
It is said among some mystics that an as-yet undisclosed nusach will be revealed after the coming of theMashiach, theJewish Messiah. Others say that the differences in nusach are derived from differences between the twelve tribes of Israel, and that in Messianic times each tribe will have its proper nusach. The concept of onenusach for each of the 12 tribes was formulated by R'Isaac Luria; at the time there were exactly 12 Jewish communities in Luria's city ofSafed, and each community'snusach was meant to stand in place of that of one of the tribes.[17]
Most halakhic authorities believe that one should follow the nusach of one's family, or at the very least follow one nusach consistently.[citation needed] RabbiDavid Bar-Hayim disputes this and permits a Jew to change hisnusach at any time, even on a daily basis.[18][19][20]
^In 2019, Idan Peretz published "Siddur Catalonia" based on manuscripts.
^Rabbi Shalom ben Aharon Ha-Kohen Iraqi would go to a different synagogue each Shabbath with printed Sefardic siddurim, requesting that they pray in the Sephardic rite and forcing it upon them if necessary (RabbiYosef Kapach,Passover AggadtaArchived 2016-10-05 at theWayback Machine [Hebrew], p. 11).
^Ha-Chilukim Bein Anshei Ha-Mizrach Uvne Eretz Yisrael, edition Margaliot, Jerusalem, 1928, "The differences between the people in the east and the people of Eretz Yisrael", from the early Geonic period;Nusach Eretz YisraelArchived 2015-12-22 at theWayback Machine.
^There are two surviving copies of the first printing of this rite from 1527, both of which are missing pages. Recently, Yad HaRav Nissim produced a facsimile of a combination of the two copies, using pages from one edition where the other is missing, seehere. The copy from theNational Library of Israel is scanned and availablehere. It was printed once more in1560, but the second printing was highly censored, see a reprint ofVolume I andVolume II.
^ Joseph Davis,The Reception of the "Shulḥan 'Arukh" and the Formation of Ashkenazic Jewish Identity, AJS Review: Vol. 26, No. 2 (Nov., 2002), pp. 251-276 (26 pages), pages 254-256. Davis writes that the twelve communities had their origins in 'Portugal, Castile, Aragon, Seville, Cordoba, the Maghreb, "Italy," Calabria, Apulia, the Arab lands, Germany, and Hungary'.
