Rabbinic interpretation, focusing on non-halakhic sections of the bible, including homilies, ethical teachings, and biblical stories.

A group of melodic motifs whose formulation and canonization date to medieval southwestern German and Rhineland communities (the original “Ashkenaz”). Together with biblical cantillation, they form the underlying historical bedrock of Ashkenazi musical practice. Each of the missinai (lit. from Sinai) tunes is associated with, or assigned by tradition to, a specific event on the liturgical calendar—ranging from single prayer texts to entire services of a particular annual holy day or other sacred cyclical occasion. By definition, the missinai tune tradition (at one time also called the tunes of the Maharil, after the 14th/15th-century rabbinic authority who is thought to have stipulated the exclusivity of the oldest ones) is not confined to local communal or regional practices, but pervades the entire Ashkenazi world. These motifs are considered mandatory for their complementary prayer texts or services in all synagogues that follow the Ashkenazi ritual—whether in Europe or in any other area to which Ashkenazi Jews emigrated from Europe. In a few cases, eastern European and western, or German-speaking, branches of Ashkenazi tradition have acquired alternative missinai tunes for the same text or liturgical function, but most are common to both orbits, even if some variations have evolved.