Misprint in Succoth Prayerbrook is Reported by the Publisher

A nationwide alert to four misprinted lines in its latest prayer-book has been issued by Mesorah Publications of Brooklyn. Mesorah, which publishes the ArtScroll series of English translations of Judaica classics, says that four lines in its new Succoth machzor went unnoticed until two days before the holiday, too late to be recalled.

The four misprinted lines appear at a critical place in the “Amidah” silent prayer, the “Shmoneh Esray,” to be said during the holiday’s intermediate days of Chol HaMoed. The mistaken lines in the “Yaale VeYavo” section of the prayer instead of the intermediate days of Succoth, as they should.

Jewish law requires that if these four lines are not recited correctly they must be repeated.

Mesorah says the nationwide alert was deemed necessary because the errors are subtle and thus likely to be overlooked by many readers.

In addition, several other errors, described as “minor flaws,” were also discovered in the machzor, including the inadvertent printing of two pages twice in one of the several repetitions of the “Hallel” prayer. This error, say the publishers, would be obvious to the worshipper. The correct text of the prayer appears elsewhere in the machzor.

Several thousand copies of the 1,300-page machzor were distributed in advance of the holiday by Jewish schools, as well as in bookstore sales. Because ArtScroll books are considered to be authoritative by many traditional homes, synagogues and institutions, the publishers felt compelled to launch an immediate notification campaign as soon as the errors were discovered, on Oct. 5, which was only two days before the Succoth holiday began.

On Oct. 5, Mesorah sent pressure-sensitive labels with appropriate replacement text for the misprinted lines via air express to Jewish book-stores throughout the country. In addition, paid advertisements were placed in a national Anglo-Jewish newspaper (The Jewish Press) to notify the public of the errors.

ArtScroll publishers say they were advised by some people in the publishing business to delay public notification of the errors until after the holiday, but that they chose to ignore this advice. Rabbis Meir Zlotowitz and Nosson Scherman, general editors of the ArtScroll series, said, “We could not break faith with the many tens of thousands who rely on our prayerbooks to enrich the holiday’s spiritual experience. These printing errors are doubly embarrassing because ArtScroll has taken great pride in the high level of printing and graphic quality of its books. They are the most serious printing errors that we have ever encountered in 10 years of publications, and will inspire us to increase our quality control efforts in the future.”