Obj. ID: 52745
  Sacred and Ritual  Shiviti, Livorno, 1793

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.

This engraving is a rare and unusual creation.  The size was small so the the two pages could be folded for insertion into a Siddur. The words of the 67th psalm are written into the Menorah shape while the rest of the text is printed from the engraving platae. The author was a North African Rabbi, Avraham Alnakar, who had the amulet printed in Livorno as the appropriate press did not exist in Algeria of the time. This is one of the earliest printed Shivitis.

Based on the writings of Abraham Alankar from Livorno (1740-1803).

Date:

א'ל' מ'ו'ל' פ'נ'י' ה'מ'נ'ו'ר'ה' [תקנ"ג]