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I have only been asked once to consider writing a scroll of the haftorot but the potential commisioner did not follow through. Nonetheless, this is something that used to be very common in synagogues but is not so nowadays. The article below is from: “Ask the Rabbi" by Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs . Published by Vallentine
Mitchell. Why are the haftarot not written on a scroll like the megillot or Torah? I understand that in earlier times this was done. When did it stop?
The answer is that it did not stop. There are still some communities which use either a scroll containing all the haftarot or separate scrolls for each of the Prophets. In my youth I used to attend services at a small synagogue, the members of which hailed from Lithuania, where they followed the practice of their native land and read the haftarot from hand-written scrolls of the Prophets. I have also seen this done in synagogues in Israel. Let me quote from the Mishnah Berurah (284: I): 'The Levush writes: “I am astonished in that I have never seen the practice of writing the haftarot according to the rules regarding the writing of a sefer Torah. For it appears to me that they do not fulfil their obligation
at all when they read the haftarah out of printed Chumashim since these are not written according to the rules of a sefer Torah and a megillah.” 'But the Taz and the Magen Avraham defend the custom, holding that even though it is a printed book and on paper (i.e., not on parchment) and is not a scroll,
it is permitted for this purpose. Nevertheless, the Magen Avraham holds that it is essential to read the haftarah out of a printed book ofthe Prophets, not out of the haftarah as printed in a Chumash, and this is also the opinion of the Eliyahu Rabba. 'However, if all they have is the haftarah as printed in the Chumash, one can rely on the more lenient view rather than do without the reading of the haftarah. But, in the first instance, it is certainly fit and proper for each congregation to have a copy of the
Prophets written on a parchment according to the rules, for then the divine names are written (by hand) with the intention to sanctify them, whereas this is not done in printing on paper. This is how the Gaon of Vilna saw to it that it was done in his community and it has now been adopted in many
Jewish communities, happy is their lot.’ |
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