haftarah
/ˌhɑːftɑːˈɹɑː/
haftarah is the alternative form of Haftarah.
Noun capitalized: Haftarah
Haftarah (plural Haftarot or Haftaros or Haftarahs or Haftaroth)
- A selection from the books of Nevi'im and Ketuvim of the Tanach, usually corresponding to the week's parashah, publicly read in synagogue following the parashah.
- Recent scholars, on the other hand, without much show of reason, as it would appear, variously hold the Haftarah to have sprung from the sermon or homiletic exercise which accompanied the reading in the Pentateuch, and took its exordium (as Haftarah, by an extraordinary linguistic passage, adapted...1874, Literary Remains of the Late Emanuel Deutsch, page 320
- Every year between Tisha B'av and Rosh Hashanah, we read the Seven Haftarot of Consolation from Isaiah 40-61.2024, David Golinkin, “Comfort, Oh Comfort My People”, in Responsa in a Moment, volume 4, page ix
Forms of haftarah
| plural | haftarahs |
|---|---|
| plural | haftarot |
| plural | haftaroth |
| plural | Haftarot |
| plural | Haftaros |
| plural | Haftarahs |
| plural | Haftaroth |
| alternative form | haftarah |
| alternative form | Haftorah |
| alternative form | haftorah |
| alternative form | Haftara |
| alternative form | haftara |
| alternative form | haphtara |
| alternative form | haphtarah |
Origin of haftarah
From Hebrew הַפְטָרָה (haftará), also through Yiddish הפֿטרה (haftore). The alternative spellings with -or- and pronunciations with /ɔːɹ/ – which may appear even outside of Ashkenazi pronunciation traditions – may possibly be strengthened due to influence from Torah or reanalysis to half + Torah, as the haftarah follows the reading of the Torah and is of secondary importance.
Questions about haftarah
- What does haftarah mean?
- Haftarah means a selection from the books of Nevi'im and Ketuvim of the Tanach, usually corresponding to the week's parashah, publicly read in synagogue following the parashah.
- What is haftarah the alternative form of?
- Haftarah is the alternative form of Haftarah.
- What part of speech is haftarah?
- Haftarah is a noun.
- How do you pronounce haftarah?
- Haftarah is pronounced /ˌhɑːftɑːˈɹɑː/.
- What is the plural of haftarah?
- The plural of haftarah is haftarahs.
Words near haftarah in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: haftarah (page history and authors); Haftarah (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “haftarah.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/haftarah. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.