Decorated Esther Scroll, [Jerusalem:ca. 1920]

Scroll (60 x 18 1/2 in.;1525 x 470 mm). Gouache and ink on parchment. 11 columns of 42 lines written in square Hebrew script, with tagin, on 2 membranes. Text columns separated by tortile pillars, each supported by a crown-topped pedestal; set within each pillar are medallions containing the Signs of the Zodiac and their pictographs. Corresponding medallions containing emblems of the twelve Israelite tribes are set within the decorated border along the lower margin. Worn, as expected from liturgical use.

Meir Bar Ilan, 'Astrology in Ancient Judaism', 'Astronomy in Ancient Judaism', J. Neusner, A. Avery-Peck and W. S. Green (eds.),  The Encyclopaedia of Judaism, V, Supplement Two, Leiden - Boston: Brill, 2004, pp. 2031-2044; Iris Fishof, Written in the Stars: Art and Symbolism of the Zodiac, Jerusalem:2001.

This colorfully decorated Esther scroll features a decorative program that emphasizes the correlation between Signs of the Zodiac and the twelve tribes of Israel. The connection between these two duodecimal groupings is first attested to in the Yalkut Shimoni (Exodus, 40:18), the thirteenth century comprehensive midrashic anthology.  There, the association of the twelve Signs of the Zodiac with the twelve Tribes of Israel is based on the correlation between the zodiacal signs in the heavens and the positions of each of the tribes in the Israelite encampment in the desert, as described in the Book of Exodus. The Signs of the Zodiac were used by some artists in the decoration of Esther scrolls because of their close association with chance and fate, elements integral to the Purim story.