Ten of the images scanned for the Hebrew Union College are shown here courtesy of the Klau Library, Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio. The descriptive text was contributed by Dr. David J. Gilner, Acting Director of Libraries.
You may click on any of the images to see a larger version; the large images range in size from 62K to 158K bytes, so they will take a while to download if you have a slow link. Note also that the images are watermarked with a special seal.
Perek shirah mi-kol ha-beruim [Creation's Song of Praise] Ms. 815 |
This work is based on a statement ascribed to Rabbi Eliezer: "Everyone who recites the praise for creation in this life merits being among those who repeat it in the world to come." The praises of God are recited by various flora and fauna. These are depicted in beautiful miniature illuminations on parchment done in the late 18th or early 19th century. |
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This late 11th century Bible manuscript on parchment has illuminations in the Byzantine and Persian style. In the margins surrounding the biblical test is masorah, scribal notes intended to preserve unchanged the traditional wording and spelling of the text. |
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Pentateuch and Haftarot, Ms. 1.
The "Song of the Sea" (Ex. 15:1-19), which celebrates God's victory over, and the people's salvation from, the pursuing army of Pharaoh. |
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This magnificently illuminated work on parchment was produced in Germany in the late 15th century by Meir Jaffe ha-sofer, a copyist, illuminator and renowned leather tooler.
YaKNeHaZ |
The word YaKNeHaZ is an acronym comprised on the initial letters of five Hebrew words: Yayin (wine), Kiddush (santification), Ner (light), Havdalah (separation), Zeman (time). It indicates the correct sequence of blessings when the eve of Passover coincides with the conclusion of the Sabbath. The abbreviation sounds similar to the German phrase "jag den Has" (hunt the hare), and is the motivation for hare hunting scenes in illustrated haggadot. |
Or le-Arba'ah 'asar [At night on the fourteenth] |
Using a feather, a man cleans up crumbs of leaven from a brilliant citron yellow cupboard. These crumbs will be later burned, accompanied by a statement repudiating any leaven remaining in the household. Birds native to Germany, such as the goldfinch, chaffinch, and blue tit, appear singularly or in twos in other illustrations in this haggadah; here three have gathered, perhaps hoping to snatch up any crumbs the householder might drop. |
This "sister" to the Van Geldern Haggadah was produced by Moses Loeb Ben Wolf from Trebitsch, Moravia, in 1716-17. The miniatures are in oil paint on parchment and are based on the engravings found in the printed Amsterdam Haggadah of 1712.
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| An 18th century family gathers around the table to celebrate the Passover Seder. The symbolic foods for the Seder are displayed on a cushion in the center of the table. | This prayer recounts the numerous acts of God for the benefit of Israel. Each verse is in the form "If he had only done x and not then done also y," with the refrain: "Dayenu!" (it would have sufficed for us). The miniature shows one such event, the pursuing hosts of Egypt are drowned in the sea after the Isrelites crossed over in safety. |
This illuminated work on parchment was produced by Jankew Sofer of Berlin at Hamburg/Altona in 1740/41. It was renovated by Israel Kornik of Dessau in 1841. As in the Second Cincinnati Haggadah, its oil paint miniatures largely follow the engravings found in the printed Amsterdam Haggadah of 1712, but here utilize a folk-art style found in several haggadot printed in Germany during the early 18th century.
Mi-techilah [At first (our ancestors were idol worshippers)] |
The illustration portrays an iconoclastic Abram destroying idols in the garden workshop of his father Terah, which is situated "on the other side of the river Euphrates" (Joshua 24:2). |
A treatise on the laws of circumcision, with the order of prayers. First published in Amsterdam in 1694, this parchment manuscript copy was produced by Wolf Leb Katz Poppers of Hildesheim in 1775. It has various miniatures in black and white and in color.
[The Circumcision] |
[Grace after Meals] |
| The sandek, likely a grandfather by custom and from his white beard, holds the infant while seated in the "Chair of Elijah." The mohel or ritual circumcisor, bends over the child. A participant, perhaps the father, holds a cup of wine. One of the participants is holding up a child to view the ceremony. | On the festivals of Hanukkah and Purim, special prayers are added to the Grace recited after the meal of celebration. In the illustration for Hanukkah (on the right) Judith holds a sword in her right hand and the enemy general Holophernes' head in the left. In the illustration for Purim (on the left) the evil Haman leads Mordecai mounted on the King's Horse. In the background a gallows presages Haman's fate. |
| This work includes various charts and tables, often illuminated, used in the calculation of the solar-lunar Jewish calendar. The two inner wheels on this page rotate to reveal the day of the week on which a month would begin. |
[Book of Intercalations] Ms. 902 |
