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Comments on Were there other haftarah readings before the Tisha b'Av readings were set?
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Were there other haftarah readings before the Tisha b'Av readings were set?
After Tisha b'Av we have seven special haftarah readings, which always align with the same torah portions. Every chumash I've seen gives these special readings for those parshiyot.
I was taught that we started reading haftarah during times of oppression when public reading of the Torah was forbidden. I've most commonly heard that this was during the time of Hasmonean rule, which was after the destruction of the first temple and before the destruction of the second. I haven't been able to find when the observance of Tisha b'Av was formalized, though the day is discussed in the mishna.
Was Tisha b'Av already being observed when the rabbis created the haftarah readings, and did they assign these seven readings from the beginning? Or did these parshiyot have other haftarah readings before this practice was formalized? If there were other readings, do we know what they were?
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The original Babylonian haftara readings for these 10 Babylonian sections (3 prior to 9 Av and 7 after) are recorded by Rambam at the end of his siddur as follows:
- Mattot -- Joshua 13:15-14:5 (giving east bank to 2.5 tribes)
- Masei -- Joshua 19:51-21:8 (division of the land)
- Devarim -- Jeremiah 30:4-22 (speech beginning וְאֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים)
- Vaetchanan -- Jeremiah 32:16-44 (prayer to God)
- Ekev -- Jeremiah 2:2-4:2 (God accompanied us in the desert)
- Reeh -- Jeremiah 23:5-24 (punishment to false prophets)
- Shofetim -- Samuel 1:8:1-22 (laws of a king)
- Ki Teitzei -- Samuel 1:17:1-18:14 (about a war encampment)
- Ki Tavo -- Joshua 8:30-10:14 (about the blessings and curses at Har Grizim)
- Nitzavim -- Joshua 24:1-13 (a leader's final speech to the masses)
The ones you see printed are from Psikta which have largely supplanted the originals (see Tosafot Megilla 31b).
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