Important Historical Manuscript Celebrating a Family Purim, Prague: 26 November, 1744

1 broadsheet (19 ¾ x 13 ¾  in.; 504 x 348 mm). Written in black and red ink in Ashkenazic square and semi-cursive Hebrew scripts on vellum, original patch at lower right; marginal tear at head, mended. Creased and cockled; soiled; stained; some ink flaking; loss affecting a single letter at right margin.

The custom, prevalent among Jewish communities, to establish holidays of thanksgiving to commemorate miraculous events of salvation, dates back to the biblical Book of Esther. Just as the holiday of Purim was established as a day of thanksgiving commemorating the salvation of the Jewish people, many communities and individuals celebrated latter-day episodes of escape from oppression or deliverance from persecution by establishing communal or personal holidays. Called Purim Katan (Minor Purim) in emulation of the biblical archetype, these holidays were observed by the recitation of special prayers as well as by the recording of the miraculous events for posterity. The present manuscript relates the rescue and deliverance of Joseph Shochet ben Hirsch Mizlap in eighteenth-century Prague.

In the summer of 1744, Prague was besieged by Frederick the Great of Prussia whose troops entered and ransacked the city beginning on the 17th of November.  As part of the city militia, Jews participated in the defense of Prague and on November 26th the Austrian army succeeded in recapturing the city. Nevertheless, rumors circulated that the Jews had supported the Prussian invaders and anti-Jewish riots broke out in the Jewish Quarter. Over the course of two days, more than thirty Jews were killed and many more were injured. Joseph Mizlap, scion of a distinguished Jewish family in Prague was sorely wounded but survived the devastating attack and wrote this document to record both the calamitous events and his eventual deliverance. In it he enjoined all successive generations of his descendants to observe the date of his miraculous salvation as a family holiday, in perpetuity.

The small bold letters that appear on the right-hand side of the double-acrostic text read "Joseph Shochet, son of Hirsch Mizlap, parnas of the holy community of Prague, may God preserve it, Amen Selah." On the left-hand side, the enlarged letters form a chronogram indicating the date.