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The Machzor

Alvin Stern

When we come to shul during the High Holiday season, we see tables set up with piles of the special prayer book that is used on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.  This book contains all the prayers (and their translations) that will be recited, as well as some that our TBS tradition has us skipping.  In addition, the book contains the Torah readings, Haftarot, Yizkor and even the Mincha service prior to these Days of Awe.  In short, the book contains everything we will need to conduct our services.

Normally, when we pick up a prayer book, we know it by its Hebrew name, Siddur.  This word is related to Seder – both having to do with “order”.  In the case of Pesach, there is a unique order to the events of the evening; in the prayer book, we first daven the blessings of the morning, followed by the songs of praise, followed by the morning service, etc – everything has a proscribed order.   We are not permitted to deviate from this order in either case.

So, why do have a special name for the High Holiday version of the prayer book?   The special name for it is “Machzor”, reflecting the cyclical nature of the Holidays.  The holidays always come in the fall, the entire year’s calendar repeats with each holiday in its appropriate season.  Rosh Hashana, as one of the New Year’s celebration we have in Judaism, is the “head of the year” – thus all the other holidays follow it, much as all the horses on a merry-go-round follow any particular horse.   So, in the case of the High Holidays, the prayer book’s name reflects not the prayers themselves, but the concept of these holidays marking a special time in the year.

The term “Machzor” is also used for special prayer books that are published for each of the three Pilgrimage holidays (Pesach, Sukkot and Shavuot).  For example, Art Scroll has several versions of these, each book containing the unique prayers for that day, as well as the Torah and Haftarah readings that are used.   Here again, we can understand the cycle of the year’s special holidays.

Perhaps there is another aspect to consider in the use of the term Machzor for the High Holiday prayer book.  It is often said that though the holidays come around each year at the same time, we who come to these holidays are not the same people we were in the previous year.  Our lives are affected by good and bad things that have occurred during the previous months; the world itself is changing constantly and therefore our perspectives are not the same from year to year.  Though we do in fact return cyclically to the same prayers each year, we may read those prayers differently.  One of the major themes of these Days of Awe is “teshuvah” – often translated as repentance, but meaning returning – returning to the ways of our tradition, returning to the performance of mitzvoth and good deeds, returning to G-d and making Him a part of our daily lives throughout the coming year.  Shana Tovah!