Magnificent holy ark made of silver and decorated in filigree work. Apparently not stamped. With a small Torah scroll. United States? 1814. Museum piece.
This magnificent holy ark, made entirely of silver, is in the form of gates to a royal palace. The impressive doors are decorated in very beautiful filigree work combined with the verses: “Know before whom you stand” [“דע לפני מי אתה עומד”]; “I place Hash-m before me always” [“שיויתי ה’ לנגדי תמיד”] and the letters כ”ת [for “Torah crown”]. The doors open on hinges, and lock with a double-locking mechanism. At the base of the doors, there are a pair of enamel-coated domes glazed in an aristocratic emerald color, and pure gold decorations. There are silver stalks on the sides of the ark with delicate flowers on top, also emerald-colored. There is a window and a balcony on each side, with two flags flying (one flag is lacking). Dedication plaque in each window.
The right window is inscribed with the priestly blessing and a blessing to be privileged to Torah and good deeds: [“יברכך ה’ וישמרך יאר ה’ פניו אליך ויחונך – תזכה לתורה ומעשים טובים”], and on the left, “Gift for my grandson’s bar-mitzvah, the youth Shlomo Eldabi, may he be privileged to a long life. 7 MarCheshvan, 1814. The ark stands on four miniature legs. There is a lion cub on the roof of the ark.
Height: 42 cm. (Including the lion, 47 cm.) Width: 28 cm. Depth: 14 cm; fine condition. Light dents and bumps.
Small Torah scroll , rolled on wooden atzei chaim covered in hammered silver. The Torah scroll is complete; written on light parchment by one scribe, in Ashkenazic Beit Yosef script characteristic of the time (approximately 200 years ago), such as the letters ל, א, ח, ש. Parchment width: 14 cm. 42 lines. The ink is black without signs of fading. The kashrut of the scroll has not been examined; however, it is in very fine condition.
Accompanying the Torah scroll: A pair of small finials, a matching pointer (יד) decorated with a grape cluster, and two plaques bearing the inscriptions “Shabbat” and “Pesach” respectively. All are made of silver and scaled to the size of the Torah scroll and the holy ark.
Before us is a very beautiful museum piece, custom made by an expert craftsman, with precise handiwork and attention to every detail, no matter how small, using the best techniques known at the beginning of the 19th century. A holy ark like this, given to a bar-mitzvah boy, attests to the family’s high status and its economic wealth. The family name, “Aldabi, ” is recognizable as a Sephardic name, but given that they were descendants of the Ro”sh, (who was exiled from Ashkenaz to Spain, where he married his daughter to a Chassid, Rabbi Yitzchak Aldabi), they apparently preserved the Ashkenazic traditions with respect to writing the Torah scroll. It’s possible they immigrated to the United States, and they were, as many of the American Jews of the period, descended from the anusim (“marranos”) of Spain.
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