Haggadat ha-Keter, Shuki Freiman, Jerusalem: 2008

44 triple vellum leaves (4¼ x 5¼ in.; 118 x 134 mm). [ff.2] [pp.80] [ff.2], modern pagination in pencil. Written in black, blue and red inks in stam script with tagin and nikkud, Extensively illuminated in gold leaf, illustrated and decorated in pencil, watercolor, gouache and lacquer; each doubled vellum leaf forming two pages, each with an additional inserted vellum sheet. Thirty-six pages embellished with papercuts and backed with blue paper leaves also inserted within doubled vellum. Inscribed and signed by the artist on second leaf. Boards and spine fully decked in shagreen, with 14k gold protective full frames and bosses on each board, within each of which are set twenty-six diamonds with a total weight of 5.2 carats; top and bottom edges hand-painted with floral motif and gilt highlights, matching endpapers. Housed in a cream calfskin, barrel-tapered, double-trapezoid chest lined in royal blue velvet, standing on four silver ball feet, the upper lid with pen and ink depiction of the Temple of Solomon on vellum, with highlights in liquid gold, sunk within a silver frame embellished with gemwork; within a complementary-green velvet drop-box.

44 triple vellum leaves (4¼ x 5 ¼ in.; 118 x 134 mm). [ff.2] [pp.80] [ff.2], modern pagination in pencil. Written in black, blue and red inks in stam script with tagin and nukkud, Extensively illuminated in gold leaf, illustrated and decorated in pencil, watercolor, gouache and lacquer; each doubled vellum leaf forming two pages, each with an additional inserted vellum sheet. Thirty-six pages embellished with papercuts and backed with blue paper leaves also inserted within doubled vellum. Inscribed and signed by the artist on second leaf. Boards and spine fully decked in shagreen, with 14k gold protective full frames and bosses on each board, within each of which are set twenty-six diamonds with a total weight of 5.2 carats; top and bottom edges hand-painted with floral motif and gilt highlights, matching endpapers. Housed in a cream calfskin, barrel-tapered, double-trapezoid chest lined in royal blue velvet, standing on four silver ball feet, the upper lid with pen and ink depiction of the Temple of Solomon on vellum, with highlights in liquid gold, sunk within a silver frame embellished with gemwork; within a complementary-green velvet drop-box.
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A unique contemporary illuminated and illustrated Passover Haggadah

For centuries, the Passover haggadah has served as an outlet for creativity and artistic expression amongst the Jewish people. As early as the middle ages, artist-scribes have combined the traditional text of the Seder service with illuminations, illustrations and decorations designed to visually enhance the service that accompanies the quintessential Jewish holiday of Passover and the accompanying festive meal. Over the centuries, succeeding generations of artisans, from every corner of the far-flung Jewish Diaspora have each contributed their own cultural nuances and artistic perspectives. At the very forefront of the eighteenth century renaissance of Hebrew manuscript production were the exquisite haggadot produced by a generation of artist-scribes such as Aaron Herlingen, David Leipnik, and Meshulam Zimmel.

However, it is rare in this day and age to find artistic innovation at that level of accomplishment which extends this historic legacy of the marriage of text and art.  The present haggadah, a masterwork by the Israeli artist Shuki Freiman (b. 1939) combines many of the elements borrowed from this centuries-long tradition as well as adding his own contemporary overlay that melds the final work into a contemporary classic that rivals the greatest exemplars of his illustrious predecessors.

The execution of this work using only the finest quality materials has made it a milestone in the history of the Hebrew book. In addition to the hundreds of thematic illustrations and decorations throughout the haggadah depicting traditional motifs of the Passover story which envelop the text, Freiman has used the physical construction of the book to incorporate midrashic and mystical elements of Jewish tradition. The use of shagreen, a highly polished rough sharkskin hide, as the binding material for the haggadah serves as an allusion to the midrashic promise that in the messianic period, the entire Jewish people will be gathered within a sukkah of the lustrous skin of the mythical sea-creature, Leviathan. The twenty-six diamonds embedded within a golden frame on each of the haggadah's covers is numerically equivalent to the ineffable name of God, the Tetragrammaton.