"Shiviti", handwritten and hand-painted by Moshe ben Yitzhak Mizrahi. Jerusalem, [1928].
Ink and oils and gold on paper. Signed (Hebrew): "The writer Moshe ben Yitzhak Mizrahi", and dated.
At the center is a large "LaMenatze'ach" menorah, flanked by the initials of the liturgical song "Ana BeKo'ach", also used for protection and safeguarding, surmounting illustrations of the Temple vessels. Inside the frame, which is divided into oval links, are the Hebrew inscription "Know before Whom you Stand…", the verse "And this was the workmanship of the lampstand, hammered work of gold…", and the date of the Shiviti's production, "Year of 5689".
The artist Moshe ben Yitzhak Mizrahi (Shah) was born before 1870 in Tehran, immigrated to Eretz Israel circa 1890 and changed his name to Mizrahi. He resided in Jerusalem and was a scribe. He supported himself by opening a shop for frames and mirrors in the Old City's perfume market. Mizrahi was known in Jerusalem as the "Menorah Painter" (meaning a painter of "Shiviti). (See: Arts and Crafts in Palestine in the 19th Century, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1979, pp. 118-124 [Hebrew]).
Length: 40.5-45 cm (upper margins cut in the form of an arch), width: approx. 53 cm. Fair condition. Open tears, mostly to margins, with slight damage to text (and correction). Pieces of paper glued to reverse and a broad paper strip glued along the vertical folding line.