There is a difference between the Sefardic and Ashkenazic versions of the haftarah of Ki Tisa. Sefardim read only the section that deals with the confrontation between Eliyahu and the Baal worshipers at Har haCarmel(18:20 onward). Ashkenazim start earlier (from 18:1) and include the encounter between Eliyahu and Achav.
I think the difference is noteworthy l'halacha.
The SA (OC 218) quotes the din that a person has to recite a bracha when he sees a place where a nes was done for Klal Yisrael. The SA gives some examples: the place Yam Suf was crossed, the rock Moshe sat on during the battle against Amalek, and others.
Biur Halacha there goes back and forth as to whether one is obligated to say that same bracha when seeing Har haCarmel. The mashmaus of a line he quotes from the Kaftor vaFerach is that one only says a bracha when there was an imminent life or death danger. Even assuming that is what the Kaftor vaFerach means, one can debate whether what happened at Har haCarmel meets that criteria. On the one hand, one can argue that what occurred was just a kiddush Hashem demonstration that the Baal worshippers were wrong. On the other hand, when taken in context of Eliyahu being one Achav's most wanted list, his coming out of hiding to perform such a demonstration was indeed a risk to his own life.
I think this issue is what is behind the difference between the two versions of the haftara. The Sefardic version takes Eliyahu's demonstration that Baal worship was wrong as an independent, stand alone event. The Ashkenaz version places what occurred in context of Eliyahu's conflict with Achav, with all the risks and dangers that entailed.
My wife also had some thoughts on the haftara on her blog here.
> There is a difference between the Sefardic and Ashkenazic versions of the haftarah of Ki Tisa. Sefardim read only the section that deals with the confrontation between Eliyahu and the Baal worshipers at Har haCarmel(18:20 onward). Ashkenazim start earlier (from 18:1) and include the encounter between Eliyahu and Achav. <
ReplyDeleteFYI, what you call the "Sefardic" custom is also the minhag of Frankfurt (and of Italian communities) -- I should know, as this haftara was my BM haftara at KAJ/"Breuer's".
The imminent-danger point is well-taken, but having now leined the [Eastern European] "Ashkenazic" version a few times, that added M'lachim Aleph section strikes me as mostly being about the danger to _Ovadyahu_'s life, not to Eliyahu's life.