Halfon Perashah Archive
These recordings are a tribute to my beloved teacher, the Rev E.S. Abinun, the former senior Hazzan of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation in London. Mr Abinun, as he was always styled, served the community for over 50 years and bequeathed to it an indelible musical legacy. It is no exaggeration to say that to have heard Mr Abinun read a parasha was to hear the Torah being brought to life. His rich baritone voice, clear articulation and mastery of the Hebrew language all combined, with singular effect, to bring out the import of the text.
The 'London' approach to reading the parasha, which Mr Abinun came to define, differs somewhat from its counterparts in Amsterdam and New York, in that it is markedly less rigid and distinctly more interpretative. A consequence of this is that the rendering of particular ta'amim may be subject to variation depending on the particular context.
In these recordings I have endeavoured to follow the ta'amei hamikra and pointing of the 1767 edition of the Pentateuch edited by Yehuda Pisa in Amsterdam which has been, since its publication, the definitive Parasha Book of the London community. There are, however, a few instances where the breaks between aliot in the London use depart from those printed in the Pisa edition. In these cases, I have followed the London practice.
