Nitzavim (נִצָּבִים — “You Are Standing”)
Deuteronomy 29:9 – 30:20 — Isaiah 61:10 – 63:9
Moshe gathers all of Israel[1] to renew the covenant before the entry into the Land of Israel. He describes the exile, but promises the return. This haftara is the last of the seven haftarot of consolation: Zion will be rebuilt and adorned like a bride.
Deuteronomy 30:4
אִם־יִהְיֶה נִדַּחֲךָ בִּקְצֵה הַשָּׁמַיִם — מִשָּׁם יְקַבֶּצְךָ יְיָ אֱלֹהֶיךָ וּמִשָּׁם יִקָּחֶךָ.
“Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will take you.”
Behind a wooden door indistinguishable from the others stands Samarkand’s still-active synagogue, Kanesoi Gumbaz[2]. Completed in 1891 in the old city’s Jewish quarter[3], it was funded by Rafael ben Moshe Nosi Kalantarov[4] in memory of his wife, Tzipora.
The complex, designed by local master builder David ben Avraham, versed in Persian and Timurid forms[5], comprises a large and a small gumbaz, connected by an iwan[6], a central courtyard, and a Jewish hammam that housed the mikveh. Inside, the prayer hall’s dome resembles a blue sky. The library holds books in Judeo-Tajik[7] and in Hebrew.
Today, the Bukharan community[8] has greatly diminished, largely in favor of Israel, where it numbers between[9] 100,000 and 160,000 people.
⸻
[1] Rashi, on Deut. 30:4, understands this promise of gathering as extending to future generations as well, in continuity with the covenant.
[2] Kanesoi Gumbaz is the Bukharan term for a synagogue (kanesoi, from the Hebrew כנסת, knesset, “assembly”) crowned with a dome (gumbaz). In the Bukharan context, the phrase has become a proper name.
[3] Samarkand’s Jewish quarter, attested since the eighteenth century, is laid out around narrow lanes and low mudbrick houses. The synagogue there is deliberately unassuming, reflecting a cautious coexistence within a Muslim environment, where religious minorities lived under dhimmi status.
[4] Rafael ben Moshe Nosi Kalantarov belonged to one of Samarkand’s prominent Bukharan Jewish families. The name Kalantarov derives from the Persian kalāntar (“notable, ward chief”), an administrative title given to communal leaders in Central Asian cities. According to accounts passed down by his grandchildren (Uzbek Travel, “Samarkand: in the wilds of old mahallas”), he died of cholera shortly before the building’s completion, without ever having prayed there.
[5] The Timurid forms are recognizable in the floral and geometric motifs characteristic of Persian art, adapted here to a Jewish liturgical space.
[6] The iwan is a vaulted hall open on one side, characteristic of Persian architecture. Here, it provides transition and ventilation between the courtyard and the enclosed spaces.
[7] Judeo-Tajik, or Bukhori, is an Iranian language historically spoken by the Jews of Bukhara and Samarkand. It is traditionally written in Hebrew characters and includes a substantial Hebrew and Aramaic vocabulary.
[8] Bukharan Jews form a Central Asian Jewish community established notably in Bukhara and Samarkand. Their identity developed at the crossroads of Jewish tradition and Central Asian Persian culture, within the context of trade networks.
[9] Estimates of the Bukharan population in Israel vary according to source and criteria (family origin, place of birth, self-identification). The earliest waves of migration began in the 1970s, but the largest influx came after 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Outside Israel, the Bukharan community is mainly established in Queens (New York), Vienna, and Moscow.