Two-thirds of a 15th-century Portuguese High Holiday prayer book were lost to history. Until now.
The Lisbon Mahzor has been reunited with its remaining third at the National Library of Israel
The Musaf prayer for Rosh Hashanah in a page of the rare 15th century Lisbon Mahzor now at the National Library of Israel. Courtesy of Kedem Auction House
(JTA) — A rare 15th-century Portuguese Jewish manuscript, long incomplete after it was split into three parts, is whole again after the National Library of Israel reunited its final missing pieces.
The Lisbon Mahzor, which contains Sephardic prayers for the High Holidays, Three Festivals and more, was produced by the Lisbon school of Portuguese Jewry in the final years before the region’s Jews were forced to either convert or be expelled in 1496.
“It appears that even in their most difficult moments the Portuguese Jewish community did not give up its books – they took these cultural treasures along to their next destination,” Chaim Neria, the curator of the National Library of Israel’s Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica Collection, said in a statement.
The small-format manuscript on parchment features artistic decorations throughout, including lace and geometric and floral motifs typical of Portuguese manuscript illumination.
At an unknown point in time, the mahzor was split into three parts, with the first, containing Sabbath prayers, being delivered to the National Library of Israel in 1957.
The final two parts had been lost to history until they recently came up for auction and were withdrawn and purchased on behalf of the library due to their historical significance.
“That this treasure has ‘come home’ just at the time of Rosh Hashanah is especially meaningful, as the Jewish New Year is one of the most important liturgical moments in the Jewish calendar, a time of prayer, reflection, and renewal,” Neria said.
The three parts of the Lisbon Mahzor will now be digitized by the National Library of Israel for study and research, according to Neria.
While the auction price of the final parts of the Lisbon Mahzor were not public, in 2021, the 700-year-old Luzzatto Mahzor was sold at auction to an American Judaica collector for $8.3 million.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
