Firenze Tempio Maggiore

Firenze Tempio Maggiore

Repertorio Liturgico

the "Tempio Maggiore Israelitico" was constructed in the second half of the XIX century and was inaugurated in 1882. It follows the minhag of the Florence Spagnolo congregation, originating in Livorno and in use in Florence since the XVII century.  The old "rito italiano" which was in use in the Scuola Italiana in Florence during the Ghetto era, and was still in use in a smaller synagogue until a few years after WWII, is now abandoned, though some traces (especially in readings such as for the megillot) do remain in the Florence tradition. The minhag follows a variant of the Western Sephardic ritual, that in Livorno has been heavily influenced by the qabbalistic school of Safed in particular, but not exclusively, after rabbi Chayim David Azulay's stay in town in the second half of the XVIII century; in Florence it shows what is probably an earlier variant, with fewer qabbalistic insertions: a machazor for the Scuola Spagnola printed in Florence in 1735 presents some innovations of qabbalistic origin such as qabbalat Shabbat, but shows no trace of kavanot or symbolic texts typical of the Lurianic school, that are instead present in Livorno later material (see the ritual for haqafot for Simchat Torah). The ritual found in the 1735 machazor is basically the same as the ritual currently in use.

Some selected material:

Firenze Tempio Maggiore - Shabbat

Firenze Tempio Maggiore - Yom Kippur

Firenze Tempio Maggiore - Rosh Hashanah

Firenze Tempio Maggiore - Passover

see an unsorted list of all the material below the map, or use the search page to look for specific material.

EF