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This silver Torah pointer from Yemen is inscribed in Hebrew: “[The teaching of the Lord is perfect, renewing life; the decrees of the Lord are enduring, making the simple wise;] the precepts of the…
May the bridegroom rejoice and the roses multiply, let sorrows fade away and let the young, old, and simple-minded understand. May the grooms be joyful with strophic poetry (shirot) and songs (renanot…
[ . . . ] [A]n Ashkenazic sage came to Ṣanʿāʾ in the time of Sar Shalom al-ʿIrāqī (d. 1780) . . . and stayed at his house and ate at his table. Fearing for the Ashkenazi’s life, Sar Shalom told him…
In her grace, an awe-inspiring woman musters a holy and treasured people,
Each dawn and each evening she gives me recompense,
She is my bow and she is my sword and in her my heart is redeemed.
She is…
This is an example of the sort of necklaces worn by Jewish girls and women in Sana‘ (Yemen) on festive occasions, to display their dowries and represent the wealth of their families. Its two…
Jewish brides in Sana‘ (Yemen) traditionally wore a large necklace composed of dugag, large silver filigree beads, as part of their wedding ensemble. The dugag are hollow spheres that ring against…
This wooden tevah—a stand or reader’s platform used for supporting Torah scrolls—was made and used in Yemen. It was the practice in Yemen for boys to become active participants in synagogue services…
The little lightning bolt of Yemen flashed, despite the overwhelming darkness,
Spurring on sheets of dewy rain to the joy of mankind,
The rivers of Paradise are streams, watering the roses and the…
Love for an honored woman illuminates my mind’s eye and my imagination,
While I praise her beauty, for she comforts me in my exile.
My soul is like a lone bird and each night she greets the face of…
During the seventeenth century, Shalem Shabazī wrote deeply spiritual, kabbalistic poetry that couched his subject— the love of God—in the erotic language of Arabic (and Hebrew) love poetry. His poems…