[Avodah] Origin of Haftara

[Esther and Aryeh Frimer]

Wikipedia under "Haftarah" has the following:
  "No one knows for certain the origins of reading the haftarah, but several theories have been put forth. The most common explanation, accepted by some traditional Jewish authorities is that in 168 B.C.E., when the Jews were under the rule of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, they were forbidden from reading the Pentateuch and made do with a substitute. When they were again able to read the Pentateuch, they kept reading the haftarah as well.

  An alternative explanation, offered by Rabbis Reuven Margolies and Samson Raphael Hirsch, is that the haftarah reading was instituted to fight the influence of those sects in Judaism that viewed the Jewish Bible as consisting only of the Pentateuch."

I know that the former rationale is given by the 15th century  R. Elijah Bahur, Sefer haTishbi, sec. “Peter;” cited by R. Yom Tov Lipmann-Heller, Tosafot Yom Tov, Megilla, 3:4, s.v. “li-keSidran.” See also Abudarham, Shaharit shel Shabbat, s.v. “veAhar she-golelin” - who gives a similar idea without dating it to Antiochus.

The latter rationale is suggested by R. Judah Leib Fishman (Maimon), Hagim uMo’adim (Jerusalem: 5704), pp. 197-198. Does anyone know the source of the similar statements of Rabbis Reuven Margolies and Samson Raphael Hirsch cited by Wikipedia?

Gemar Hatima Tova

    Aryeh

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Dr. Aryeh A. Frimer
Chemistry Dept., Bar-Ilan University
Ramat Gan 52900, ISRAEL
E-mail: FrimeA at mail.biu.ac.il

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