Decorated Miniature Song of Songs, Jerusalem: [ca. 1925]

Scroll (1 5/8 x 34½ in.; 42 x 870 mm). Ink, gouache and shell gold on parchment. Written in square Hebrew script ornamented with taggin; every text column enframed by paired architectural columns which flank one of the tribal symbols. along the upper border, winged putti encircle zodiacal images. Small tear in the upper margin above the eighth column, not affecting the text. Housed in a parcel-gilt bell form case set with colored stones.

Scroll (1 5/8 x 34 1/2 in.; 42 x 870 mm). Ink, gouache and shell gold on parchment. Written in square Hebrew script ornamented with taggin; every text column enframed by paired architectural columns which flank one of the tribal symbols. along the upper border, winged putti encircle zodiacal images. Small tear in the upper margin above the eighth column, not affecting the text. Housed in a parcel-gilt bell form case set with colored stones.
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This charming miniature scroll, illustrated in delicate colors, is a delightful example of the work of artists who were active in Israel in the first decades of the twentieth century. The design and imagery is clearly based on that which was pioneered by the Bezalel school.  An inscription on the back of the scroll signed by Abba Moshe indicates that he wrote this scroll in accordance with the scribal traditions of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev, the founder of Hasidism in central Poland.  In his teachings, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak stressed the element of joy in Hasidism and he later became a popular hero in Jewish poetry and fiction both in Hebrew and in Yiddish.