Img. ID: 5590
The brass back wall of the Reader's Desk is rectangular and terminates with an undulating arched-top. The back wall is decorated symmetrically on both sides of a central axis, in the shape of a two-storied facade. At the lower storey four columns support three arches. In the widest central arch, there is an inscription in square and filled letters which read:
"שויתי##יהוה ##לנגדי תמיד"
"I have set the Lord always before me" (Ps. 16:8)
Each pair of columns support an architrave like element which indicates the second storey. On its upper cental part is the Tablets of the Covenant, inscribed with the beginning of the ten commandments, five on each side. Two birds flank the tablets carrying them in their beaks by small rings that attached to the tablets from both sides. Below the tablets is a crown that surmounts a floral cartouch that encloses an elliptic medallion, on which it is inscribed in three lines:
"שנת##תר"כ##לפ"ק" "The year (5)620 (=1860)"
Two lions sejant guardant flank the medallion from both sides. The human-faced beasts sit on the architrave.
The architectural frame is supported by a base made of four rectangular pedestals bearing a flower in the center and intercalated by panels decorated with rhomboids net pattern. On each side of the columns is an amphora out of which emerge floral scrolls that rise along the sides and form an arched-frame to the central motifs, while meeting the scroll that emerges from the vase of the upper storey. A bird facing backward stands on the scrolls on each side.