Song of Songs Scroll in Silver Case, Jerusalem: ca. 1920

Manuscript on parchment (37 1/2 x 2 1/4 in.; 950 x 55 mm). Mounted on a silver roller. Text of the scroll: 14 columns of 15 lines in black ink preceded by single column blessing panel of 7 lines written in red ink; in minuscule unvocalized square Hebrew script ornamented with tagin; each column enframed in shades of blue and shell gold with floral elements featuring roses and thistles comprising a repeating design along the length of the scroll. Blessing panel incorporates a gold crown and lyre, symbols of the Solomonic authorship of the text. Scribal colophon on verso. Housed in an octagonal silver case engraved with scrolling foliage; set with gemstones, matching pull-bar with cabochon garnet.  

The foundation of the Bezalel school In 1906 by Boris Schatz (1867-1932) must be considered the beginning of genuine artistic activity in the Land of Israel in modern times. The new aesthetic was certainly informed by the European traditions that various Jewish artists brought with them to the Holy Land, but it was also a product of the nationalist Zionist consciousness that was pervasive in the hearts and minds of these new arrivals to the Land of Israel.

The execution of the present scroll was informed by the artistic creativity of the Bezalel school  and is an example of the marriage of liturgical functionality and decorative art being produced in the Land of Israel in the first decades of the twentieth century.

A colophon on the back of the scroll indicates that it was written in accordance with the scribal traditions of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev, the founder of Hasidism in central Poland.  In his teachings, 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.