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<font size=3>At 12:43 PM 10/12/2015, Micha Berger wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Once Ashkenaz started becoming a
major community, most of them too read<br>
in a 3 year cycle, as I described. And there was a qerovetz in
Mussar<br>
every Shabbbos that refered to the week's haftarah, which was also as
per<br>
the three year cycle. It suggests also what they were leining that
week,<br>
from which historians of halakhah surmized that Bereishis was on
Shavuos.</font></blockquote><br>
From
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews" eudora="autourl">
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews</a><br><br>
<font size=3>It is estimated that in the 11th century Ashkenazi Jews
composed only three percent of the world's
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_population_by_country">
Jewish population</a>, <br><br>
</font>Now as I understand it, the 3 year cycle had pretty much
disappeared by this time. The synagogue in Egypt that is reported
in the 12th century to have leined based on the 3 year cycle was an
exception. Thus, how can you assert that
"<font size=3>Once Ashkenaz started becoming a major community, most
of them too read n a 3 year cycle." It seems that once
Ashkenaz became a majority community, no one was following the 3
year cycle.<br><br>
</font>Again, the 3 year cycle was used in EY. <br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""><font size=3>Machzor Vitri (from
before Rashi's passing, 1105 CE) mentions Simchas<br>
Torah, Chasan Torah and Chasan Bereishis. So we're talking VERY
early.</font></blockquote><br>
See the marvelous sefer Toldos Chag Simchas Torah by A. Ya'ari for the
history of the development of Simchas Torah. <font size=3>R.
Avraham Yari in his sefer Toldos Chag Simchas Torah comes to some
interesting conclusions about when the Zohar was actually written.
His conclusions are based on when the name Simchas Torah was first used
to designate the second day of Shemini Atzeres. See<br><br>
<a href="http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/zohar_yaari.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/zohar_yaari.pdf<br><br>
</a>and, in particular, see what he writes on page 30.<br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Prof Ta-Shma links the Ashkenazi
3 yr cycle to the EY origins of many<br>
of Ashkenaz's pesaqim and minhagim. But it sounds from what you're<br>
saying that the early Ashk version of the cycle was more rigid than<br>
the original. I had simply not considered the possibility, and just<br>
assumed they were identical.<br>
</blockquote><br>
I again I cannot understand this given that the 3 year cycle was
abandoned before Ashkenaz became a dominate force in the Jewish
nation.</font></body>
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