Following the Lost Nusach: The Nusach Catalonia

Not every nusach or its variant gets to survive the test of time, and not every local prayer custom has the privilege of being documented and preserved. One of those forgotten nusachim – which received a permanent status in the Middle Ages, and which disappeared entirely in the last few centuries – is that of the Jews of Catalonia, which was finally put into print a few years ago.

The Kingdom of Catalonia was different than the other kingdoms of Spain – politically, culturally, and linguistically – and this difference also had an effect on the character and identity of the local Jews. These Jews were influenced by their neighbors in both Spain and Provence in southern France, thus leading the Catalonian community to develop unique traits, including an independent approach to halacha and unique customs and prayer nusachs.

During the Rishonim, the Kingdom’s capital of Catalonia – Barcelona – was a particularly prominent Torah center, marked by the diversity of the locals’ approach to halacha and Torah study. Even after the pogroms of 1391 and the expulsion from Spain in 1492, those expelled from Catalonia – at least partially – maintained their customs and nusachs which they took with them to new places – in North Africa (primarily Algeria and Tunis), Italy, the Ottoman Empire, and the Land of Israel. However, aside from machzorim for the High Holidays, the Catalonia remained in manuscript form and was never printed.

The Siddur Catalonia – published in Jerusalem in 2018-9 – is primarily based on six manuscripts from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. The earliest of these is from around 1352 (more than a century before the Expulsion), and the latest is from 1507 (about 50 years afterwards).

The siddur was arranged by Dr. Idan Peretz, a native of Barcelona and an employee of the Israeli National Library in Jerusalem. The siddur is the first complete reconstruction of the forgotten nusach prayed by the Jews of Catalonia, Majorca, and Valencia in the Middle Ages. Aside from the prayers themselves, the siddur also includes halachas and customs collected by one of the students of Rabeinu Yonah Girondi. He provides a comprehensive introduction in which he explains the research methods he used at length, the manuscripts underlying the same, and lists of customs, piyyutim, and sages mentioned throughout the commentary on the siddur – including the Geonim of Sura, Pombedita, and the sages of Catalonia, France, Provence, and Spain. The commentary also explains the unique sign marking the name of Gd, which also draws on the manuscripts of the Middle Ages.

The siddur includes the prayers for all year round – for weekdays, Shabbat, and holidays – as well as a Pesach hagaddah, azharos for Shavuos, hoshanos for Sukkos and for the “day of the arava” (Hoshana Rabba), fast days, the High Holidays, cycle of life blessings and more. Of particular importance – in Peretz’s eyes – is the unique series of bakashos written by the sages of Catalonia and which are now published for the first time – one by the Ramban, one by the Rashba, and one by the Ba’al Hama’or, Rabbi Zerahiah Halevi.

In his introduction, Peretz states that “Gd made this day, let us rejoice and be happy in it, a day in which a new window is opened in the sky and the streams of our prayers return to their strength … to restore old glory, to enact the customs of the holy communities who lived and worked in the Middle Ages in the land of Catalonia, Valencia, and Majorca.” However, despite this ambition and the many Rabbinic haskamos on the siddur – it is doubtful if it is meant to actively and fully revive the Catalonia nusach in shuls.

Either way, this is a truly unique and impressive scholarly effort, very nicely designed, and reestablishing the forgotten nusach.

Dr. Reuven Gafni is a senior lecturer at the Land of Israel Department at Kinneret College. He specializes in the field of synagogues and religion in the Land of Israel in the modern era, and the relationship between Jewish religion, culture, and national identity in the Land of Israel.