The following description was prepared by William Gross:
The Shiviti plaque takes its name from a phrase in the Psalms, "Shivit Adonai Lenegdi Tamid". "I will always hold the Lord before me." During morning prayers the 67th psalm is read as a part of the liturgy. The making of such visual pages to augment the reading started almost 500 years ago. It began because of a particular story or legend. The custom relates that if one gazes on the form of the Menorah while reciting the Psalm, or reads the psalm written in the form of a Menorah, the person is carried back to the Temple, standing before the golden Temple Menorah itself. To complete the illusion, some of the Temple implements were often illustrated. The mysticism of the idea is clear, and the Shiviti page is often filled with Kabbalistic abbreviations as well as the Menorah form. Sometimes, depending on the size and complexity of the image, other texts read during the time of prayer are also presented on the sheet.
Such pages appear as small sheets to be inserted into a prayer book and taken out when the psalm is recited or as large pages to be hung on the wall of the synagogue for viewing by the whole congregation. The sheet was also used on the wall of a home or Sukkah. Later still, the Shiviti could be printed in the prayer book or painted on the wall of the synagogue. There are numerous examples of both the prayer book tradition and the wall plaque tradition in the Gross Family Collection.
The Shiviti is usually a page, in manuscript or printed form, which is often inscribed with the Biblical verse of Psalm 67 in the shape of a Menorah and/or the Shiviti verse. The Hebrew words of this verse, “Shiviti Adonai Negdi Tamid”, are variously translated as “I set the Lord always before me” or I keep the Lord even in my sight” or “I am ever mindful of the Lord’s presence”. A tradition grew which carried the idea that when the 67th Psalm was recited in the morning prayers and it was read inscribed in the Menorah form, the reader, through his meditative concentration on the inscribed Menorah, would be transported back to standing before the Golden Candelabra in the Temple. This concentration could increase the intensity of the prayer.
This near folk tradition, magical and mystical in its conception, began to appear in manuscripts almost 500 years ago. Later it started to be made in small sheets that fit into the daily prayer book to be used at the time of the reading of the 67th Psalm. Then larger examples were hung on the walls of synagogues, homes and the Sukkah and the smaller version printed in the prayer book itself. In some cases the Shiviti was even painted on the walls of the synagogue. There are numerous examples of both the prayer book tradition and the wall plaque tradition in the Gross Family Collection.
On the reverse of this page is a "Segulah Le-Shmirah" from R' Ye'udah Moshe Petaya.