Obj. ID: 48468  Shiviti, Jerusalem, circa 1910

The following description was prepared by William Gross:

The Shiviti plaque takes its name from a phrase in the Psalms, "Shiviti 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 the 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 page was found in a Genizah of a synagogue in Samarkand. It gives evidence to the fact that most ritual objects used in Buchara from the end of the 19th century and into the 20th had their origin in Jerusalem, as with this Shiviti. From the time of the first large Aliyah of Bucharan Jews in the 1880's, which included some wealthy families, the supply of religious objects for their former community were ordered by them and transfered to Buchara. A great many objects found in Buchara therefore have their origin in the Holy Land. One interesting aspect of this piece is the fact the four depictions of Holy Places are not identified by a label. It was apparently assumed that the pictures were so well known that they needed no identifying text.