Showing Results 1 - 10 of 65
The ketubah is a religious and legal contract of marriage. Traditionally, ketubot outline the conjugal and economic conditions of a marriage and are written in Aramaic. This ketubah was copied and…
This micrographic drawing designed for a sukkah decoration is the best-known artwork of Israel David Luzzatto. Micrography, a form of drawing originally created by scribes, in which lines of miniature…
The book of Esther (also known as the Scroll [megillah] of Esther) is read out loud on the holiday of Purim. This example of a scroll from Venice has Hebrew text framed by arcades and borders…
This Haggadah, decorated in the Ashkenazic tradition, was copied in northern Italy. As is traditional for Ashkenazic Haggadahs, illustrations appear in the margins and frame the text. At the top left…
Moses ben Abraham Pescarol’s illuminated scroll of Esther, completed in Ferrara, constitutes one of the oldest examples of an illustrated manuscript of this biblical book, which is chanted on the…
In answer to those who ask me whether or not it is permitted to paint the walls of the synagogue with pictures of grass, trees, and calyxes, we researched the question and our answer is as follows:
At…
In the presence of all the rabbis and the entire council (qri’ah) of Rome, the Scuola Catalana-Aragonese [Catalan-Aragonese Congregation] agrees to release Giuseppe Picciotto from a ban (niddui). The…
Why is my back loaded with fine flour, while in my mouth there is no bread at all, but only straw? I drink well-water, though I carry wine. And the stick goes on fracturing my skull!
I live in rubble…
Only three exits are becoming to every woman, big or small. The first is when she exits from the womb, dirtied, as if from a deep swamp. The second is when she exits from her woman’s tent and enters…
This wedding riddle from Italy is written in Hebrew and Judeo-Italian. Wedding songs, sometimes performed by professional jesters, were traditional at Jewish weddings. Some had lyrics in the form of…
