Jewish ceremonial art

Pharaoh's army drowning in the Red Sea from the Szyk Hagaddah

Jewish marriage ring. Chased and enameled gold and filigrees, early 14th century, part of the Colmar Treasure.

Jewish ceremonial art, also called Judaica, is the range of objects used by Jews for ritual purposes. Because enhancing a mitzvah by performing it with an especially beautiful object is considered a praisworthy way of honoring God's commandments, Judaism has a long tradition of commissioning ritual objects from highly regarded craftworkers and artists. ^[1]

Objects by type

Haggadah of Pesach

The tradition of artistically embellished haggadahs dates back to the Middle Ages. the Sarajevo Haggadah of 1350 is a celebrated example. Major contemporary artists have produced notable haggadahs, such as the Szyk Hagaddah.

Chanukah menorahs

The menorah used on the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah is perhaps the most widely produced article of Jewish ceremonial art.^{[2] [3][4]} The Lindo lamp is a particularly fine example by an 18th-century silversmith.

Contemporary artists often design menorahs, such at the gold-plated brass menorah with 35 moveable branches designed by Yaakov Agam.^[5] A silver menorah by Ze'ev Raban from the 1930's is in the Judaica Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art. ^[6]

Spice boxes

The close of the Jewish Shabbat is marked by the brief prayer ceremony of Havdalah, which usually takes place in the home. Part of the ceremony requires sniffing a sweet-smelling spice or plant. In Jewish communities around the Mediterranean, a sprig of a sweet-smelling shrub was customarily used, in Northern Europe by the twelfth century there are literary references of the use of a specially designed spice box or container. The oldest surviving spice boxes for Havdalah date to the mid-sixteenth century. The Jewish Museum (New York) has an German example c. 1550 thought to originate in Frankfurt am Main.^[7]

Museum Collections

Museums with notable collections of Jewish ceremonial art include the Israel Museum, the Jewish Museum (London), the Jewish Museum in Prague, the North Carolina Museum of Art ^[8] and the Jewish Museum (New York).

References