Seder Kriyat Shema, Tefilat ha-Derekh and other prayers [Germany: Second Half of the 18th Century]

13 folios(3 1/2 x 2 3/4 in.; 90 x 72 mm). collation: 1³, 2-6². Written in black, brown, red and blue ink on parchment, main titles, headings and text in square Hebrew script without nikud, Yiddish instructions in Ashkenazic semicursive "wayber-taytsh" script, Hebrew instructions in "Rashi" script. Illustrated architectural title page with three miniatures; one decorated initial word panel (f. 4v); several initial words rubricated. Light finger soiling; minor ink smudges and flaking. Nineteenth century owner's note on front paper flyleaf. Marbled endpapers. Contemporary blind-tooled calf; losses to spine; worn; housed within a modern velveteen satchel with cord and button clasp.

Zussmann ben Avraham of Roedingen; from his daughter Hindche, living in Roermond, in the kingdom of Belgium-inscription on front paper flyleaf.

The early eighteenth century saw the dawning of a renaissance of decorated Hebrew manuscript production. Beginning in central Europe, talented scribe-artists produced luxurious books for wealthy Court Jews who enjoyed a privileged status as a result of the services they rendered to the kings and princes of Europe. By the second half of the century, the practice of creating small books of occasional prayers began to enjoy a wider dissemination, beyond the rarified ranks of the Court Jews. Now other Jews, below court rank, but who nevertheless were of sufficient means to be able to commission the writing of a pocket sized manuscript, could hire journeyman scribes to create books in the fashion of those enjoyed by the elite. These were usually less accomplished in terms of the quantity and quality of their decorative programs (as compared to the earlier, more elaborate Court Jew manuscripts) but were nevertheless considered as desirable status symbols by those who could afford to acquire them. They often included additional elements of kabbalistic texts and folk traditions that were absent in many of the earlier manuscripts. 

The title page of the present manuscript is charmingly rendered in red and brown inks, with the central text flanked by parallel columns enwrapped in floral, fruited vines; above a pair of rampant lions supports a central cartouche before a floral background. Below, three miniatures appear, each related to one of the textual units included in this manuscript. At right a bespectacled man wearing a dressing robe and nightcap sits at the edge of his bed; he is removing his glasses, having just completed the recitation of the Shma, read from the miniature manuscript that lays upon the nighttable. At right is a depiction of two winged angels. These celestial beings, named Uriel and Urririn are enjoined, as part of the kabbalistic additions to the standard text of Tefillat ha-Derekh (see f. 6 r,v) to protect wayfarers about to set out upon a voyage. The central miniature presents a synagogue facade and is probably an allusion to one of the lesser known texts included in this lovely folk manuscript, the recitation of a special kabbalistic supplication on each of the first twelve days of the month of Nisan, following the special Torah reading on each of those days, of the gifts of one of the twelve Princes of the Tribes of Israel in the desert. 

The manuscript includes the following texts: Prayers upon entering and departing from a Sukkah (f. 1r); Kriyat Shma al ha-Mitah (f. 2r-5r); Brakha Aharona (f.5v);Tefilat ha-Derekh with kabbalistic additions (f.6r-10r); The supplication for the "Nesi'im" (f.10v); Prefatory prayers before the Grace after Meals with kabbalistic additions (11r-13r); Eruv Tavshilin (f.13v); Tashlikh (f.13v).