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This map of the Temple in Jerusalem made in Safed by a Jewish scribe comes from an example of a “pilgrimage scroll,” also known as an “itinerary,” because they included instructions for visiting holy…
On this illustrated page from a prayer book, written in an Ashkenazic hand, the scribe Simeon ben Naphtali has added, to the prayers said at a wedding, an image of the prophet Elijah (on the left)…
Shabbetai Tzvi was the central figure of a messianic movement that swept the Jewish world in the mid-seventeenth century. Born in Izmir (Smyrna), as an adolescent Shabbetai Tzvi embarked on the study…
This manuscript copy of a prayer book, containing prayers and hymns for the Sephardic community of Amsterdam, was written out by David Mendes Franco. It shows David dancing before God and his…
This illustration from a book of prayers for the Jewish Gravediggers Society depicts the cycle of life. Figures of men and women in pairs ascend and descend the staircase, progressing from youth to…
The frontispiece of this book of penitential prayers published in Amsterdam, Tikun li-kro’ laylah va-yom (A Tikkun to Read Day and Night) has a three-tiered illustration. The top level depicts Moses…
Isaac Luria , known as “the holy ARI” (an acronym of his name, meaning “lion”), was one of the most significant figures in Jewish mysticism, famed for pioneering a new conception of theoretical…
The great value of prayer is well known. It is formulated in the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings, and explained further in the words of our rabbis of blessed memory. It is called the service of…
Following his retirement, Hijman Binger created a daily prayer book, drawing its texts from well-known sources and illustrating the manuscript with the help of his children. Completed in 1820, the…
In 1827, Tsar Nicholas I issued a statute that effectively made Russian Jews liable to military service, as part of a policy that sought to transform the Jewish population into integrated subjects who…
