Obj. ID: 19242
Sacred and Ritual Torah case, Libya, 1884
The wooden Torah case consists of a body and a coronet.
The body has ten facets. A pair of faceted annulets encircles the upper and lower borders of the body. Ivory knobs for hanging the Torah wrapper are attached to the upper border. A pointed arch silver plaque is attached at both sides of the case's opening bearing a dedicatory inscription. The inscriptions are framed with horseshoe arches. It is decorated with a foliate pattern. The plaque is surmounted by a hooked closure. The inner face is plain wood. The hollow bottom has two rectangular hand holders. The top is decorated with a row of hollow openings. There are two holes for the Torah rods. The coronet is faceted. Each of the ten facets is decorated with symmetrical openwork of double arched pattern. The dedicatory inscription is engraved in square linear letters divided into two plaques and reads from the right side toward the left side, on the right:
בינ''ו [=בעזרת ה' נעשה ונצליח]
עמי עשו [=עזרי מעם ה' עושה שמים וארץ]
כתבו זאת על לחת [לוחות]
הארון
מזכרת נצח לדור [דוד ?]
אהרון
ויתהלל איש מצות
אהב
ספרי תורה הנחמדים
מזהב
כספו וזהבו מכיסו
הורק
On the right:
Translation: In the name of the Lord, let us do and thrive / My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth (Ps.121:2) / It was written on the Ark of the Law / as Eternal memory to Aharon's generation ($1?) and be blessed the man who performs a precept which loved the Torah books that are more to be desired than gold / his money and gold emptied from his pocket.
Continues on the left side:
שנת
התרמד לפ''ק [=לפרט קטן]
לחמדת תבל בפניה
ירק
פרי מעלליו הוד
תפארה
וכתב לו את ספר
התורה
נשלם ונגלה יום מתן
תורה
כמוס כלפון היו שמו
בראש השורה
Translation: The year 5644 [=1884] / before the goodly world he spit in face / the fruit of his doing is honourable beauty / and he wrote him the Torah's book / at the dayof giving of the Law which completed and revealed / Khamos Khalfon may the Lord sustain him and grant him favour / his name (is written) on the head of the line.
The first letters of the inscription are acrostic and combine the donor's name.
