Showing Results 1 - 10 of 33
During the holiday of Sukkot, four plant species are used in rituals in the synagogue. One of these is the etrog (citron). While containers to protect the etrog later became more common, they were…
Like Torah scrolls, the scroll of the biblical book of Esther, read ritually in the synagogue on the holiday of Purim, must be completely unadorned. However, in the sixteenth century, for reasons…
This scroll of Esther from Germany, created for use on the holiday of Purim, is extensively decorated, with illustrations of biblical scenes from the Esther story, as well as various flora and fauna…
This silver Hanukkah lamp, made in Amsterdam by the master silversmith Pieter van Hoven, sits on six claw legs and is decorated with intricate leaf and floral patterns. Its front side is further…
At the center of the backplate of this Hanukkah lamp from Frankfurt am Main is a scene depicting the biblical heroine Judith, who has cut off Holofernes’s head and is about to place it in a sack held…
This silver, repoussé, punched, engraved, and cast Torah shield, decorated with flowers and bunches of grapes, from Metz, France, is inscribed in Hebrew: C[rown of] T[orah]; Festival of Shavuot.
Flags like this, made of paper, decorated, and attached to a stick—sometimes with an apple and a small lit candle atop it—were commonly carried by children during Simḥat Torah celebrations. The…
The scroll (megillah) of Esther is read out loud on the holiday of Purim. This example, from Baghdad, is hand painted, with an ornate design in which bands of flowers frame the text. It is rolled on a…
This silver Hanukkah lamp is an example of a new type for home use that became popular in the late seventeenth century in Frankfurt am Main. Designed to resemble an ancient menorah, it has a central…
Moses ben Abraham Pescarol’s illuminated scroll of Esther, completed in Ferrara, constitutes one of the oldest and most unusual examples of illustrated manuscripts of this biblical book, which is…
