Zeh ha-Sefer Tehillim (This Book of Psalms), Morris (Moshe) Weinberg, Illustrated Manuscript on Paper, Chicago: 1910-1912

116 pages (17 x 11 ½ in.; 435 x 295 mm), plus an additional photographic frontispiece and an unbound approbation page; also, several blank leaves. Foliated in ink with Hebrew letters and numerically paginated, with some irregularities. Psalms written in large Hebrew square script, with nikkud; occasional texts written in square and semi-cursive rabbinic scripts; on heavy paper stock. Profusely illustrated in black ink, with occasional highlights in colored ink. Many decorated borders and historiated initial letters and words. Very lightly soiled and stained. Original gilt-tooled calf, with prominent central Star-of-David on upper cover with title tooled in gilt within. Housed in contemporary fitted valise with two hinged clasps.

Reproductions and entries concerning the facsimile edition: Norman Kleeblatt, The Jewish Heritage in American Folk Art (Jewish Museum Catalogue, 1984) no. 90; J. Ungerleider-Mayerson, Jewish Folk Art (1986) p. 34; Goldman, Hebrew Printing In America, no. 24. Deinard, in his Kohelet America does not record the author's portrait, which appears here.

This monumental Hebrew Book of Psalms was painstakingly crafted by the talented scribe-artist Moshe Weinberg over a three year period from 1910 to 1912. It is an outstanding and highly creative example of the flowering of American Jewish calligraphic art in the early years of the twentieth century.

Weinberg was born in 1854 in the small Polish village of Kolne. Though the exact date of his migration to the United States is unknown, his intentions in creating this volume are clearly stated in his introduction:

“When I arrived in this land … and saw its ways and how so many of the People of the Lord are steeped in backbreaking labor, exhausting the body, resting neither day nor night, from seeking to feed themselves and their extensive families; They have not sufficient time even to to pray properly, three times a day; to say nothing of the recitation of Psalms, which is totally unfamiliar to them …so I said to myself, I will publish this precious book, with large letters and beautiful pictures, pleasing to the eye.”

Weinberg was true to his word and incorporated over a hundred creative vignettes, illustrating some word or phrase, cleverly inserting these images at the precise points at which they appeared in the biblical text, at chapter headings, along margins, and embedded within individual words. Although all the illustrations are literal, they are clever, detailed and well executed. The artist includes everyday items - even household gadgets and modern inventions – capturing the imagination of the reader with striking, and often unexpected imagery, for a sacred text. Among the more curious examples of illustrations to specific verses are: a denture plate ( chapter 3: verse 8), a suit of armor (5:13), a beehive (19:11), a razor (52:4), an alarm-clock (55:18), an umbrella (62:9), a hot air balloon (139:8), and many more. Though most of these are easily deciphered by the average reader with some familiarity in the Hebrew tongue, Weinberg included a key to some of the more enigmatic images in a brief explanatory index at the end of the volume. Some pages include more elaborate traditional illustrations, such as the elaborate meditative page with Psalm 67 laid out as a seven-branched candelabrum (verso of title page).

The decorative Hebrew title-page features an image of the scribe's hand at center; there are four additional illustrated divisional title pages in Hebrew and two supplementary English title-pages, each featuring a large rendering of the American flag. Curiously, the two flags are not identical, one bears only forty-six stars, while the other has forty-eight, New Mexico and Arizona having been admitted into the Union during the three years it took Weinberg to complete this outstanding example of American-Jewish Folk Art. Attention to such detail in depicting the national banner serves as an abundantly clear testament to the Weinberg’s profound patriotic spirit toward his adopted homeland and his appreciation for the religious freedom it afforded him to produce this work of spiritual beauty.

Weinberg published a lithographic facsimile edition of this manuscript in a much reduced format in 1912, omitting the original 1910 title page.

The volume is supplemented by several additional leaves: a photographic frontispiece portrait of the artist displaying his manuscript, with his stamp affixed below; poem, Kriyath Arbah an an elaborate acrostic forming the author’s Hebrew name, Moshe ben Ze'ev, readable from every direction: left, right, up, and down; a learned foreword to the reader, incorporating arcane midrashic texts, written in a rabbinic Hebrew hand in a shaped-format; pages with prayers to be recited before, and after the recitation of Psalms; .an acknowledgment page, listing the numerous subscribers and financial supporters of Weinberg’s project, including such luminaries as Solomon Schechter and J. D. Eisenstein; an elaborate, decorated Yahrzeit page, for recording the dates of death of parents for twenty-five years; and a page (now detached) with collected rabbinic approbations for the lithograph edition.

For the past three years, the present manuscript has been on exhibit at The National Museum of American Jewish History, in Philadelphia.