Book Review: The Koren Sacks Sukkot Mahzor

When I first opened the new Koren Sacks Sukkot Mahzor, the first thing I noticed were the pages. The mahzor is printed on a strong, durable paper. This stood out to me because the Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur mahzorim had been printed on a very thin, soft, yellowish paper. From what I understand, those mahzorim used Bible Paper, while this one does not (I would assume the mahzorim of the other holidays are the same, but I have not seen them) - my guess would be that Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are just a day or two, so the wear and tear on the books and pages is relatively minor, so they preferred the more professional type of paper, while the holiday mahzor is for 7 or 8 days of use, increasing many-fold the level of wear and tear, so they used stronger paper. But that is just my guess.

The Sukkot Mahzor uses the same style as the other mahzorim, with the Hebrew on the left side and the English translation on the right side.

The mahzor includes an introduction by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. He is always enjoyable to read, with his broad philosophical points and the stories and examples he brings from world leaders to help make his point. Along with that is Rabbi Sack's translation of the prayer text.

The mahzor includes what is necessary for bnei chutz laaretz - for those people who must daven in accordance with the ""two days of yom tov" from the diaspora, along with halacha guides in the back for the holiday. Rabbi Steinsaltz wrote the translation of Mishna Sukka that is included, and there is also Kohelet with a new translation.

It should go without saying that the Koren mahzor includes the prayers for the State and the IDF, as they include it in all their other siddurim and mahzorim, which is relatively uncommon in most mahzorim today.

The order of the services can sometimes get complicated with mahzorim, as they try to keep it from getting too large and they tell you to go to different pages where certain prayers have already been printed. Sometimes it can get confusing what page you have to turn to. While it isn't sukkos yet so I have not actually davened from it, the order of services does look very intuitive and seems to flow easily.

This is another beautiful mahzor in the Koren lineup of mahzorim. If you like to daven from a mahzor instead of a regular siddur on the holidays and have everything in one place, the Koren mahzor is one that you should be using.

buy The Koren Sacks Sukkot Mahzor on Koren Publishing


NOTE: I was not paid to review this book. It is an unbiased and objective review. If you have a book with Jewish or Israel related content and would like me to write a review, contact me for details of where to send me a review copy of the book.