The Targum of Eliezer
Just in case you were wondering, nobody has discovered a “Targum Eliezer”. What I have in mind is the Targum of Eliezer’s mission to find a wife for Isaac in Gen. 24. Most Ashkenazi Jews are unaware that for many Jews from North Africa and the Middle East, there is a custom that on the Shabbat after a wedding the groom receives an aliyah to the Torah. For this aliyah either a second sefer Torah is taken out, or the current one is rolled to the appropriate section, and Gen. 24:1-7 is read from the Torah scroll. [1] Not only is this additional section read, but each verse is read individually followed by someone reading the Targum on that verse from a book. One of the earliest attestations to this custom is found in Sefer Abudarham (the end of the section on birchot ha-nisuin). Abudaraham says that he found this custom mentioned in the Siddur of Rav Saadiah Gaon [2], and also mentions that in addition, after the haftarah was read, the verses from Isaiah 61:10-62:5 would be read. R. Moses Isserles mentions that the custom was to read this selection from Isaiah as the haftarah on the Shabbat after the wedding (OH 428:8, he also notes the exceptions), although this custom isn’t observed today by any Ashkenazim to the best of my knowledge. Maybe the time has come to resurrect such a custom.
[1] There are some customs that after the entire parasah is read, the groom is then called up and from a book Gen. 24:1-7 is read, as is the Targum. See R. Shemtob Gaguine’s important work Keter Shem Tov, pp. 299-302 for a discussion of this entire question, and also Y. Gelis, Minhagei Eretz Yisrael, p. 339.
[2] I haven’t been able to find (which doesn’t meant that it isn’t there) this in Rav Saadiah Gaon’s siddur, nor was it mentioned in the introduction as one of the quotations from the siddur found in other books which are not in the version of the siddur that we have.
The image is from here.
This post is dedicated to the memory of Teraki Cohen z”l who passed away this Spring. While in Israel after college I lived with her family on Moshav Beit ha-Gedi, becoming part of a large family whose roots are in Jerba. It was with them that I celebrated a Shabbat Hatan, being honored with an aliyah to the Torah and experiencing first-hand the above described custom.
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:17 am
IT IS VERY NEW AND INTRESTING
November 4th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
I thought this sounded familiar. R. Binyamin Adler quotes several sources which mention this custom in his Nissuin Ke-hilchatan: the Arukh (“hatan”), Ritva on Yoma 70a, Rabbenu Bahye on Bereishit 24:1, and Magen Avraham on OC 144:5. He also notes that this has never been an Ashkenazic custom. The haftarah you mention is attested to quite early (Ra’avya, Rokeah).
November 5th, 2007 at 12:05 am
I have to see if anybody has written anything about the haftorah. I wonder when it stopped being read.