I Bet You Can’t Sing Just One
At Touro Synagogue
March 9, 2019
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On Saturday at Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island we celebrated a special occasion. Saul Woythaler finished the recitation of every haftarah, the weekly portion of the prophets. When Saul was done, the congregation sang in delight. Rabbi Marc Mandel filled us in on the history of the haftarah, without his usual call urging us to be better people.
“Saul’s great accomplishment raises an interesting question. Why do recite a haftarah each Shabbat?
“We read from the five books of the Torah. Why must we read from the prophets? Where does this custom come from? What does it mean? There are many different theories on this.
“Some say, the haftarah was introduced to give the people a sense of consolation and comfort. The words of the prophets are comforting. They give people hope. The five books of Moses are not written that way — they don't really give comfort. According to this theory — there was no set haftarah. Depending on what was happening to the community they chose a הפטרה to deal with that situation.
“Another theory is that the haftarah was used as a theme for the rabbi’s sermon. In other words, the haftarah was the introduction to the rabbi’s sermon. Thus the word haftarah. The word פטר means opening — it was the opening of the sermon.
Another theory is that the haftarah was introduced when the Jews were not permitted to read from the torah, during times of persecution. Thus the haftarah is always connected to the parsha to substitute for the missing parsha.
“Another theory is that not every community had a sefer Torah. It's not so easy to have a Torah in a community. It has to be handwritten on special parchment. It's not a simple matter. We live in the twenty-first century — you can buy a Torah online, but that wasn't always the case. So in communities where they didn't have a torah, they read a haftarah instead.
“Rabbinic scholar Reuven Margaliot says that the haftarah was introduced as a response to the Samaritans, a group that did not accept the holiness of the Temple in Jerusalem, nor did they embrace the authenticity of the words of the prophets. So they introduced the reading from haftarah with a special emphasis on the reports of Zion and Jerusalem.
“Whatever the reason is, we are here to celebrate with Saul today ashe has completed the entire cycle of haftarahs.
“It took Saul a very long time to complete all the haftarahs, because very often, this time of year, there are special Torah readings that would preempt the regular haftarah, so it had to be a leap year, and it had to be a year when the maftir was not preempted by a special Torah reading.
“We have a special diploma or certificate for Saul - we will give it to him after Shabbat.
“Saul - may you and Susan and family continue to be blessed with good health to continue all the great work you do for our community.
“Shabbat Shalom!”
Saul then led the service as the Shaliach Tzibur with a lilt in his voice as we returned the Torah to the Ark and recited musaf.
At the kiddish, sponsored by the Woythaler family, Saul explained that he had been reciting haftarahs since his bar mitzvah, and a few years ago decided to complete them. He gave tribute to his teachers, Rabbi Theodore Lewis and Rabbi Eli Katz.
Bob Davis continued with the theme of teachers, recalling, “After hearing Saul Woythaler honor the memory of the outstanding Hebrew education that Rabbis Katz and Lewis provided, I thought we should toast Rabbi Mandel for continuing the tradition. I also said that it occurred to me that the Rabbi's most cherished goal as a Rabbi would be to have his students praise his memory in the same fashion as Saul did.”
Rabbi Mandel added, “Saul was a personal inspiration to me to raise the bar higher for increased Torah learning at Touro, and that Rabbi Katz and Rabbi Lewis really did a great job educating this community. I was very touched by Bobby's comments about my role as a rabbi.”
The fun did not stop there. When Rabbi Mandel sang a song he composed for the occasion, he was joined by all (and you can join by singing along with his video), [blog continues below video]
“Saul makes us very happy ( la,la,la, )
He recites the Haftorahs very snappy ( la,la,la, )
He comes to shul every week ( la,la,la,
He probably doesn't get very much sleep ( la,la,la, )”
Shabbat Shalom from Jewish Newport!
Thank you to Rabbi Mandel and Bob Davis for sharing their words, to Rabbi Mandel for singing and to Beth Ginsburg Levine for editing.
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