Obj. ID: 43612
Sacred and Ritual Objects  Archie Granot, Ram Granot Bar Mitzvah Book, Israel, 1986

Archie Granot created this book for his son Ram (Avraham) on the occasion of his bar mitzvah in November 1987. 

The upper text reads:

This - the Vision of Obadiah - is the Haftarah that Ram, son of Rivka and Aaron Yosef Granot, recited on the Holy Sabbath on the 14th of the month of Kislev in the year 5748

The lower text reads:

You are the Lord G-d who chose Abram and changed his name to Abraham Nehemiah 9:7.

(In Hebrew, this verse begins and ends with the first and last letters of the name Avraham/Abraham.)

The remaining pages follow the design of the first page and contain the haftarah, (the supplementary portion from the prophets), that Ram recited in the synagogue. This text has been enhanced by a decorative border incorporating excerpts from a piyyut, a lyrical composition, for the Shabbat eve, that was composed during the second half of the 16th century by the Italian philosopher and kabbalist, Rabbi Mordechai ben Judah Dato.

The final page of the book also contains a colophon, signed by the artist, that reads:

I hereby give this haftarah book to my son, Ram, in the Holy City of Jerusalem as he accepts responsibility for observing the sacred commandments. I completed the book on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, 5747

The Ram Granot Bar Mitzvah Book is in the collection of the Library of Congress.