DailyHalacha.com for Mobile Devices Now Available

Click Here to Sponsor Daily Halacha
"Delivered to Over 6000 Registered Recipients Each Day"

      
(File size: 474 KB)
What Kind of Book or Scroll Should be Used for the Haftara Reading?

Every Shabbat and Yom Tob, the congregation conducts a Haftara reading from the Prophets after the Torah reading. What is the preferred book that a congregation should use for this reading?

Ideally, the congregation should use what we call a "Sefer Haftarot," a parchment containing all the Haftarot readings. This parchment does not contain the entire Prophets section of the Tanach; it includes only the Haftarot. Nevertheless, it is the most preferable scroll to use for the Haftara reading.

If no such scroll is available, then a congregation should use a printed Tanach, a book containing the entire Torah, Prophets and Ketubim. Indeed, most synagogues keep a large edition of the Tanach near the Bima (table) and use it for the Haftara reading. This is the preferred practice if a Sefer Haftarot parchment is not available.

If the congregation does not even have a printed Tanach, then the Haftara should be read from any Humash where the Haftara is printed. However, although this practice does have ancient origins and is grounded in Halachic sources, the more preferred practice, as mentioned, is to read from a Sefer Haftarot parchment, or at least from a printed Tanach.

Summary: Ideally, the Haftara should be read from a "Sefer Haftarot" parchment, which contains all the Haftarot. Otherwise, it should be read from a printed Tanach. Only if these are not available may the Haftara be read from an ordinary printed Humash.

 


Recent Daily Halachot...
Ereb Rosh Hashanah – Charity, Hatarat Nedarim, Halla, and the Mikveh
Praying at the Cemetery on Ereb Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah – Are Women Required to Hear the Shofar?
Rosh Hashana- The Power of Shofar
Rosh Hashanah – Women’s Recitation of Musaf; Reading Hallel as Part of Tehillim
Rosh Hashana: Customs During the Torah Reading
Rosh Hashana- Answering Kadish During the High Holy Days
Rosh Hashanah – If One Cannot Hear the Beracha Over the Shofar
Rosh Hashana- Accepting the Ereb Rosh Hashanah Fast
Rosh Hashana- The Tekiot in Musaf
Answering to Kaddish on the High Holidays
The Custom to Fast on Ereb Rosh Hashanah
The Night of Ereb Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah: The Custom to Dip the Halla in Honey or Sugar, and to Use Round Hallot
Rosh Hashanah – The Order of the Simanim
Page of 239
3585 Halachot found