Tiklal from Yemen

Tiklal [Sidur]

Manuscript on paper

Yemen, [1645]

Tiklal is the name for a year-round prayer book specific to the Yemenite (Teimani) Jewish tradition. Written in Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic, it differs significantly from the Ashkenazi and Sephardi liturgical rites. The tiklal reflects its unique development over approximately 2,000 years, when the Jews settled in Yemen, a country in the southwestern part of the Arabian peninsula. Scholars recognize the Yemenite Jewish tradition as the purest and oldest among the Jewish communities in the world, shaped also by the Jewish traditions of Spain starting in the 12th and 13th centuries. 

Surviving copies of the Yemenite manuscripts date back to the 15th century. The New York Public Library has a representative collection of Yemenite prayer books, the earliest dating from the beginning of the 17th century. Since Hebrew printing was not established in Yemen until the end of the 19th century, the prayer books had to be copied by hand. Since handcopying was a laborious and costly process, each synagogue could afford only a limited number of handwritten prayer books. Understandably, their deteriorated physical condition attests to their frequent use. 

On display are two handwritten pages in distinctive Yemenite script from a tiklal dated circa 1645. They are open to the section of selichot, penitential prayers recited before and during the High Holidays (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur). Traditional ornaments embellish the beginnings of the selichot prayers and their essential words, which are inscribed in larger characters.

In addition to prayers, the tiklal includes ritual instructions and kabbalistic commentaries, as well as calendrical calculations for the years 1645–1788.