Mahzor

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The mahzor (alternately machzor, plural mahzorim, Hebrew מחזור, IPA [max.zór] and [max.zo.rím]) is the prayer book used by Jews on the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Many Jews also make use of specialized mahzorim on the three "pilgrimage festivals" of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. The prayer book is a specialized form of the siddur, the prayerbook used by Jews the world over.

[edit] Origins and peculiarities of the mahzor

Some of the earliest formal printed Jewish prayerbooks date from the 10th century; they contain a set order of daily prayers. However, due to the many liturgical differences between the ordinary, day-to-day services and the services, the need for a specialized variation of the siddur was recognized by some of the earliest rabbinic authorities, and consequently, the first mahzorim were written incorporating these liturgical variations and additions.

The mahzor contains not only the basic liturgy, but also many piyyutim, which are liturgical poems, specific to the holiday the mahzor is intended for. Many of the prayers in the machzor, including those said daily or weekly on the Sabbath, have special meleodies sung only on the holidays. Most machzorim contain only text and no musical notation; the melodies, some of which are ancient, have been passed down orally.