Hatan Torah Poem in Honor of Manoah Raffaele Ascarelli, [Rabbi Jacob Joseph Caivano], [Rome]: 1782

Ink and gouache on parchment (14 1/2 x 11 in.; 365 x 275 mm). Framed; not examined outside of the frame.

Simhat Torah celebrates the day when the yearly cycle of the reading of the Torah is completed and immediately begun again. It is customary to honor two members of the congregation on this festival. One serves as Hatan Torah (Bridegroom of the Law) and reads the concluding section of the Torah, while the second is selected to be Hatan Bereshit (Bridegroom of Genesis) and reads the first section of Genesis. This decorative plaque is inscribed with a poem, most likely composed by Rabbi Jacob Joseph Caivano, in honor of Manoah (Tranquillo) Raffaele Ascarelli, scion of a wealthy Sephardic family, who was chosen to be the Hatan Torah in the Jewish community of Rome in 1782.

Plaques created in Rome during the eighteenth century were often embellished with allegorical figures and emblems relating to the text. Three such allegorical personifications illustrate the present document: Aurora (The Morning Star), a winged youth holding a lighted torch in his right hand and an urn in his left spilling out the morning dew; Puritá (Purity), a woman holding flowers in her left hand and scattering corn to a rooster with her right hand, with the emblem of the sun on her breast; and Beatitudine (Happiness), a woman holding a heart. A heraldic shield at the top of the plaque displays the coat of arms of the Ascarelli family: a lion rampant beside a tower surmounted by a lion’s head, the lion imagery playing on the family’s name as it was transliterated into Hebrew: Az ka-Ari’el (strong as a lion). 

Literature

Judah Nello Pavoncello, “Shir li-kevod rabbi manoah refa’el ascarelli be-yom himmunato la-hatan torah be-ir roma rabbati,” Italyah 7,1-2 (1988): 83-92.