"Maʿaseh Bereshit" and "Shir Shel Yom" in the Early Siddur: New Finds from the Cairo Geniza / קריאת פסקאות מעשה בראשית ומזמורי שיר של יום בסידור הקדום על פי ממצאים חדשים מן הגניזה הקהירית

The practice of reciting maʿaseh bereshit and shir shel yom according to the days of the week was observed during the Temple time until its destruction; we have no knowledge, however, as to whether it continued during the rabbinic period. The earliest post-Second Temple evidence of the practice of reading these passages in succession are two liturgical documents from the Cairo Geniza, which evidently attest to a Palestinian prayer rite of some kind. Moreover, as shown at the end of the article, this custom probably influenced the creation of Seder ha-maʿamadot found in the French rite from the eleventh-century school of Rabbi Elijah ha-Zaken.