O | Ornamentation: | Full page framed | Full page framed by text
M | Menorah | Menorah with Psalm 67
B | Bird
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The following description was prepared by William Gross:
This Shiviti was made with the shape of the menorah and the 67th psalm. Such pieces were kept in the prayer books and when the time came to read the psalm, it was done from the Shiviti. A tradition claims a special force when the psalm is read in this form. In the twentieth century the Shiviti in this form was often printed in the prayer books published in Baghdad. For a European version of this custom see Gross Family Collection 036.012.004. The particular style of this piece and its fine workmanship definet that it is the work of the great Kabbalistic Rabbi of Jerusalem, originally from Iraq, Rabbi Yehudah Petaya. Rav Petaya was know at the foremost student of the Ben Ish-Chi in Baghdad.