One of the ways of decorating the synagogue is by depicting scenes from the biblical history of the people of Israel. The Jewish tradition of temple decoration goes back to the biblical story of the construction of the Tabernacle for the Ark of the Covenant. Moses was commanded to build a portable temple at Mount Sinai before God gave him the text of the Torah. God’s instructions for what the temple should look like are described in detail in the Bible spanning seven chapters. The tabernacle in the desert was the first synagogue and the repository of the stone Torah scriptures.
The panel from the collection of the Russian Museum of Ethnography is made of silver and ivory. It depicts a scene of the wanderings of the Jews in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt, a turning point in the history of the Israelite people. For 430 years the Jews lived in Egypt, and when they outnumbered the Egyptians, Pharaoh demanded that the Jews be exhausted by hard labor and that all the newborn boys be killed. The future prophet Moses was to be among them, but his mother put the baby in a reed basket and floated him down the river. Moses was brought up among the Egyptians, and one day God appeared to him in the flames of the Burning Bush. He conveyed to Moses his will to lead more than half a million Jewish brethren out of Egypt to the Promised Land.
The Jews left Egypt, but they disobeyed God and did not follow his commandments from the Torah. As punishment, they were doomed to wander for 40 years in the hot desert so that the generation of slaves would be replaced by a generation of free people. When that period was over, the Jews reached the Holy Land, and Moses the Prophet died, making Joshua his successor.
This Bible story was most often depicted on the pages of Jewish handwritten books and items of decorative art. In the panel made in Dresden in 1830, the people are dressed in conventional ancient clothing reminiscent of medieval European costumes. Wayfarers walk leaning on staffs, with the animals walking beside them: donkeys, cows, sheep and a camel burdened with heavy loads. The panel is placed in a wooden frame covered with plates of silver. Two removable silver arms with candlesticks decorate the lower corners of the frame.
The panel from the collection of the Russian Museum of Ethnography is made of silver and ivory. It depicts a scene of the wanderings of the Jews in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt, a turning point in the history of the Israelite people. For 430 years the Jews lived in Egypt, and when they outnumbered the Egyptians, Pharaoh demanded that the Jews be exhausted by hard labor and that all the newborn boys be killed. The future prophet Moses was to be among them, but his mother put the baby in a reed basket and floated him down the river. Moses was brought up among the Egyptians, and one day God appeared to him in the flames of the Burning Bush. He conveyed to Moses his will to lead more than half a million Jewish brethren out of Egypt to the Promised Land.
The Jews left Egypt, but they disobeyed God and did not follow his commandments from the Torah. As punishment, they were doomed to wander for 40 years in the hot desert so that the generation of slaves would be replaced by a generation of free people. When that period was over, the Jews reached the Holy Land, and Moses the Prophet died, making Joshua his successor.
This Bible story was most often depicted on the pages of Jewish handwritten books and items of decorative art. In the panel made in Dresden in 1830, the people are dressed in conventional ancient clothing reminiscent of medieval European costumes. Wayfarers walk leaning on staffs, with the animals walking beside them: donkeys, cows, sheep and a camel burdened with heavy loads. The panel is placed in a wooden frame covered with plates of silver. Two removable silver arms with candlesticks decorate the lower corners of the frame.
