MAZOR, 1 as some write the word (from the root to, to go round, to return), signifies a cycle. The term is used by the Jews in a threefold sense :--(1) astronomically, as illalizor .iYatan for the cycle of nineteen years, .11falizor Gadol for that of twenty-eight years, Malgor Gadol lallebanalt 2 for the Metonic cycle; (2) liturgically, for the "Larger Prayer-Book," whether in its narrower or its wider meaning (see below); and (3) ritually, for a book containing religious laws and directions, as, for example, .31a1izor Vitri by 11.. Sinahah b. Shemuel of Vitri-le-Francais, Halizor 1?abbenu Tam by R. Ya;akob b. Meir of Rameru, &c. In the first sense the plural is either ..111aliazoroth,3 or Halgorinz,4 or Haljazorin;5 in the second and third it is exclusively Malizorint. As most ancient prayer-books contain more or less fully elaborate " tables," exhibiting calendar matter, in connexion with the fixing of feasts and fasts and of the lessons from the Pentateuch and the Prophets, we cannot be in doubt as to the true cause of the application of the word Mahzor to the "Larger Prayer-Book." It is not applied because it is the equivalent of the Syriac 1t2rdrC2, as some think, but simply because Mahzor is the equivalent of the Greek e,yelos (KiiKA.03).6 The Malizor, meaning prayer-book, is capable of division from different points of view. According to its contents we may divide it into two parts, - the Smaller and the Larger. The Smaller Mahzor contains the ordinary prayers, together with the poetical insertions and the lessons from the Pentateuch and the Prophets used on the Yornint Noraim, or " Awe-inspiring Days " (i.e., New Year and the Day of Atonement), and those used on the Yaminl Tobini, the three principal. festivals (Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles). The Larger Mahzor is, indeed, the only one which really deserves this name, since it embodies the ordinary prayers, together with the poetical insertions for the whole year, and the lessons from the Pentateuch and the Prophets for all feasts and fasts and the other extraordinary occasions. According to its various "uses" the Mabzor may be divided into the Rabbanite and the AntiRabbauite. The Anti-Rabbanite Mabzor comprises the Karaite,' used by the so-called Karaites, or Scripturalists, inhabiting Russia (especially the Crimea), Galizia(Austriau Poland), Egypt, Palestine, &c., and the Semi-Karaite, adopted by the so-called "Reformed Jews" of England, in reality the "Congregations of British Jews" of London, Manchester, and Bradford.8 The Rabbanite Mahzor maybe divided into that of the Ashkenaziin, the Sepharadim, and the Italiani. The Italian 111alizor, though embodying large Ashkenazic and Sepharadic elements, is yet a distinct "use." It branches out at home into three subdivisions - (1) the Roman,9 (2) the Neapolitan 1O (now extinct), and (3) the Italian proper ;" and abroad into (4) the Greek Rites of Kaffa,12 Crete, &c. (Crete having very early received a large influx of immigrants from France and Germany, but chiefly from Italy), and (5) the Romanian,13 i.e , the " use" obtaining, among others, at Constantinople and other Byzantine cities. The Italians who, long before the year 1000, had given Jewish learning and poetry, not merely to times from Germany. The "uses" of these immigrants form the minority in Hamburg, Amsterdam, Manchester, Greek cities, as also in Canada and the United States, and the majority in India, Persia, Morocco, Leghorn, Corfu, Belgrade, all Bulgaria, Constantinople, Palestine, Egypt, South Arabia, and other parts of the Turkish empire, in the Sweden, France, Belgium, Holland, the British empire times past the separate rituals of Worms and other cities in the empire, which are all now extinct. Those of Frankfort-on-the-Main and of other towns are not sufficiently marked to' deserve separate notice. It should, however, he mentioned that there are scattered everywhere, both at of the " Temple " (Reformed congregation) of Hamburg."

Hoklonatit Hammisken, &c., 1793 ; prp, 1823 ; Mahzor Ratan, &c., 1861, all at Leghorn, in Svo.

Afaltzor, &c., Pisa, 1794; SeliPtls, 1845 ; Pene llaragel, 1856, all at Leghorn, and in 8vo.

I° It ought not to he omitted that in the old Provencal ritual and the South Arabian there are several points of contact existing. A teacher or teachers must have come from the one country and settled in the other. We will give but one example. The phrase, 1.•:crIpvi ronn, which occurs in the Pathshegen (on Genesis ii. 1), by an anonymous author, and published by Dr Nathan Adler, and which the editor modestly says he has not succeeded in finding, is in reality to be found in the service of the Hosha`noth, both in the old Provencal Mahzor (Camb. MS. Add. 752, leaf 205b ; only that, instead of Nur-pc.", it reads ti v1pn roz1) and in that of Yemen (Camb. MS. Add. 1200, leaf 625), though in no other so far as we know.

Mahzor, Pesaro, 1520, Augsburg, 1536, Venice, 1567, all in folio ; 6 vols., London, 1807, 1824, 1826, &c., 8vo.

Illalszor, 2 vole., Sulzhach, 1794, folio.

Ordnung der bfentlichen Andacht, &c., 1819 ; Seder Ha'abodah, &c., both at Hamburg, and in 8vo.

Some of these have only introduced choirs, others have introduced instrumental music, and others again have considerably curtailed not merely the poetical insertions, but the ordinary prayers themselves, and have introduced hymns and prayers in the vernacular. (s. M.