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The Art of Decoration
“…looking at pleasant forms and beautiful images and drawings quickens and stimulates the soul.”
– Profiat Duran (a 14th century Jewish scholar), The Making of the Ephod
Exquisitely decorated manuscripts were created in Sepharad and Ashkenaz in the Middle Ages,
including Passover haggadahs, holiday prayer books and writings of the sages.
Those manuscripts, which have been preserved in various collections worldwide,
reflect the influences of surrounding cultures on Jewish art
and also attest to how Jewish illustrators overcame the prohibition against making a “graven image or likeness”
when creating depictions of the human form.
