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Exhibit Finds Art In
Hebrew Manuscripts

of Jewish Americans' achieve-
ments and customs will find
a feast in JEWISH TIMES:'
—PHILLIP LOPATE,
New York Times Book Review

ANDREW SILOW CARROLL

Special to The Jewish News

N

"JEWISH TIMES is
a delightful offering
of memories often
enlightening, always
entertaining."

—HAROLD KUSHNER,
author of When Bad Things
Happen to Good People

" Extraordinary....
In its constant stream of sur-
prises and unique experiences,
it moves us to say, 'Yes, this
is how it really was:"
—DAVID MEHEGAN,
Boston Globe

A Marc Jaffe Book

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1988

1

j 3

WE'RE
FIGHTING FOR
YOUR LIFE

American
Heart
Association

ew York — Jews of
medieval Spain called
their holy books
Mikdashyot, or Sanctuaries of
God, as homage to the
destroyed Second Temple, and
a new exhibition on the
history of Hebrew
manuscripts shows how
literally they interpreted that
idea.
In the Harley Catalan Bible
of the 14th century, on loan
from the British Library in
London, an artist used a
vibrant gold paint on a
checkered pink and blue
background to depict a varie-
ty of sanctuary implements.
They include the ark, an
altar, a fire pan, pots for
ashes, a seven-branched
menorah and basins for the
blood of sacrifices.
As a Sephardic scholar of
the 14th and 15th centuries
wrote: "As God wanted to
beautify His holy place with
gold, silver and jewels, so
(should it) be properly done
with His holy books."
The impulse of Jews to
beautify their books is richly
displayed in "A Sign and a
Witness: 2,000 Years of
Hebrew Books and Il-
luminated Hebrew Manu-
scripts," on view through Jan.
14 at the New York Public
Library.
The exhibit features 185 of
what the organizers call the
most historically significant
and beautiful books in the
Hebrew language, culled from
collections in the United
States, Israel and Europe.
The examples are as an-
cient as a fragile portion of
the Dead Sea Scrolls from 63
BCE, and as modern as a copy
of Lamentations printed in
Elkins Park, Pa., in 1985.
On a recent tour of the ex-
hibition, Dr. Leonard Singer
Gold, Dorot chief librarian of
the library's Jewish division
and the exhibition's curator,
said there were two main
themes guiding his choice of
exhibits.
"The first is the primacy of
the Hebrew book, and that ex-
amples of Hebrew literature
merit attention in their own
right," said Gold.
• As an example, he pointed
out a page from the San'a
Pentateuch, completed in
Yemen in 1469.
Tiny Hebrew letters, actual-
ly Psalms 119 and 121, form
the outlines of flowers, moun-
tains and schools of swimm-
ing fish. "No other tradition

that we know of does quite
the same thing with mini-
writing," he explained.
Illustrating a second theme,
Gold described a number of
exhibits that show how Jews
were "always transmitting
ideas back and forth with
cultures around them. No
matter how ghettoized, Jews
have never been far from the
mainstream."
In the Kaufman Mishneh
1295-1296,
of
Torah

Tiny Hebrew
letters form the
outlines of flowers,
mountains and
schools of
swimming fish.

Maimonides' great work is
decorated in a manner
familiar from Gothic
manuscripts.
The influence extends to a
whimsically drawn "obs-
caenium," in which an archer
shoots an arrow at another
figure across the page, where;
in Gold's words, "this poor
creature is getting it in the
hindquarters?'
The traffic was in ideas as
well as in artistic styles. In
one of the five sections of the
exhibition, "Understanding
the Universe," there are
works included on mathe-
matics, astronomy, geography,
medicine, classical philosophy
and relations with
Christians.
Only half of the exhibits in
"A Sign and a Witness" are
illuminated, and Gold
acknowledged that 90 percent
of history's Hebrew books are
not graced with decoration.
This was not due to any pro-
hibition on illustration —
Gold said that contrary to a
widely held misconception, a
biblical injunction against
making graven images was
interpreted differently accor-
ding to the time and place.
For every "Bird's Head
Haggadah," completed in
Germany around 1300 and
depicting characters with the
heads of animals, there is a
book like the Golden Hag-
gadah of 14th century Spain,
featuring recognizable
human figures.
Gold spent four years
assembling the exhibition —
touring archives, getting per-
mission to borrow rare
manuscripts and securing
grants to offset some $35
million in insurance.

Jewish Telegraphic Agency