This silver plate from Padua, Italy, was made for use in the brit milah, the circumcision ritual celebrated when a baby boy is eight days old. In this detailed depiction of the ritual, the baby seems…
“He goes back four cubits etc.”
This implies that he must move backwards, but not forwards or to the sides. [ . . . ] It seems that this action was instituted by the sages only for an individual…
Laurence’s Tefillin questions both western art and patriarchal aspects of Judaism. The triptych portrays parts of women’s naked bodies, bound in the leather straps of tefillin, the small black leather…