Pra yer customs and the treasures of liturgical poetry brought to Israel from the Diaspora have been the subject of diverse studies in the past few years, encompassing every community and its customs, every community and its poetry. This classic study, a translation of Leopold Zunz’s Ritus des synagogalen Gottesdienstes , reviews the history of prayer customs of diverse communities from ancient times to the nineteenth century. The author examines the uniqueness of each community, both through the wording of the permanent prayers and through the treasures of liturgical poetry recited in the Middle Ages and the Modern Era. Relations and influential factors between ethnic groups are discussed in detail. The introductory chapters present the history of Jewish prayer since the Geonic period, including the formation of the first prayer books; the creation of communal manuscripts; the impact of print; and the creation of fixed forms of public prayer. The study takes account of: books of J ewish law dealing with pra y er ; books of customs; exegeses on prayer and liturgical poetry; translations of Hebrew prayer into other languages; additions to and deletions from liturgical texts; the status and role of the prayer leader; the influence of mysticism and kabbalah; the influences of censorship and the Enlightenment. Other chapters are dedicated to the prayers of Yom Kippur , the status of Slichot pra yers, debates on integrating liturgical poetry into public prayers, and a description of the Karaite prayer book. For many years, Zunz’s study, originally published in 1859, served as a fundamental textbook for research on the history of prayer. This contemporary Hebrew translation includes research updates, many clarifications, and detailed indexes; among them an index of prayers, an index of prayer customs, an index of liturgical poetry, and an index of early manuscripts and printings of the prayer books mentioned in the study. In addition, the Hebrew edition includes notes and additions found on the author's personal copy, never to have been published before.

The book contains an edition of the piyyut corpus of the 11th Century Italian payyetan R. Yehiel bar Avraham, known especially by virtue of his son, R. Natan, author of the Arukh . Among his piyyutim we find many selihot , but also piyyutim belonging to the qerova and yotzer types. The piyyutim are accompanied by an apparatus of variant readings, a commentary, and a scientific introduction, in which R. Yehiel’s corpus is illuminated from different perspectives, with special stress on characteristic collocations and expressions peculiar to him.

The selihot of Germany and France reflect to a significant degree the spirit of their age, constituting an authentic expression of the feelings of the communities that lived under Christian domination. In the Middle Ages, they were not recited according to a fixed sequence, and payyetanim could therefore compose many new selihot , thereby adding to the corpus that was at the disposal of the precentor. Only a few selihot were incorporated and subsequently printed as part of the known liturgical rites (the rites of Poland and Lithuania). The present collection contains more than 350 piyyutim , which have been gathered by Daniel Goldschmidt from German and French manuscripts. His grandson, Avraham Fraenkel, has appended a short commentary to them. The work also contains an appendix explaining the manner in which the piyyutim have been attributed to their authors.