Talmudic tractate Massechet Soferim. This may be true, but in itself this does not support a claim of Babylonian origin as argued by Gaster: as pointed out by Louis Ginzberg the Siddur Rab Amram had itself been heavily edited to reflect the Old Spanish rite. The Ashkenazi rite also contains a quantity of early liturgical poetry from Eretz Yisrael that has been eliminated from other rites, and this fact was the main support for Zunz's theory. The earliest recorded form of the Ashkenazi rite, in the broadest sense, may be found in an early medieval prayer book called Machzor Vitry. This however, like the Siddur Rashi of a century later, records the Old French rite rather than the Ashkenazi (German) rite proper, though the differences are small. The Old French rite mostly died out after the expulsion of Jews from France in 1394, but certain usages survived on the High holidays only in the Appam community of Northwest Italy until shortly after WWII, and has since become extinct. Both the Old French and the Ashkenazi rites have a loose family resemblance to other ancient European rites such as the Italian, Romaniote and Provençal rites, and to a lesser extent to the Catalan and Old Spanish rites: the current Sephardic rite has since been standardized to conform with the rulings of the Geonim, thereby showing some degree of convergence with the Babylonian and North African rites. The liturgical writings of the Romaniote Jews, especially the piyyutim (hymns), found their way through Italy to Ashkenaz and are preserved to this day in most Ashkenazi mahzorim. Ashkenazi practices Tefillin are worn on Chol HaMoed (except on Shabbat). (The original custom was to wear tefillin for the entire Shacharis and Musaf services, for weekday New Moon and Chol HaMoed prayers; however, for the last several hundred years, almost all communities take off tefillin before Musaf on these day. Many today, particularly in Israel, do not wear tefillin on Chol HaMoed at all.) Separate blessings are said for the arm tefillin and the head tefillin. Barukh she'amar is recited before Hodu, as opposed to other rites which recite Hodu first. The second blessing before the Shema begins "Ahavah Rabbah" in the morning service and "Ahavas `Olam" in the evening. In the summer months the second blessing of the Amidah contains no reference to dew or rain (Sephardim insert the words morid ha-tal, "who makes the