Calendar Manual

Pinchas (Phineas) ben Avraham Halevi

1716

Manuscript page with illustration of man on a ladder and angel above him, with Hebrew text beneath.
Sifre ‘evronot—manuals for calculating the Jewish calendar, including leap years and holidays—were a popular genre of Ashkenazic illustrated manuscripts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, although we have evidence for them from the sixteenth century. This manuscript, produced in Halberstadt, Saxony, by Pinchas, the son of Abraham Segal, contains a remarkable number of drawings in watercolor and gouache. The Illustrations include biblical scenes, themes from Jewish tradition, and pictures of everyday life. Among them is an image found in many Sifre ‘evronot: the biblical figure of Issachar on a ladder (in this case, holding it), trying to reach the secrets of the calendar, inspired by a verse according to which the tribe of Issachar “had understanding of the times” (1 Chronicles 12:32). Another figure hovers in the clouds, holding an hourglass in one hand. Some figures in this manuscript wear typical eighteenth-century dress (both nobles and peasants). Other illustrations are of town landscapes, and one shows a nobleman on a boar hunt.

Credits

The National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel Ms. Heb. 8°2380.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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Creator Bio

Pinchas (Phineas) ben Avraham Halevi

18th Century

Pinchas ben Avraham Halevi (also known as Phineas) was a scribe or artist active in Saxony in the early eighteenth century.

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