February 10, 2013 – 21:28
Catalogue reference DR6-L6 is a menu from someone’s wedding. We’ll see the front today, and the inside next time. בעהי”ת By the grace of God פרי עץ הדר—זו שרה (ויק”ר ל’) “Beautiful Tree-Fruit”–this is Sarah (Vayikra Raba 30) מנוי מזונות Menu of Foods (Compare the blessing for snacks, בורא מיני מזונות) לשולחן ליל התקדש חג […]
Today we have some public health notices from 1923 (DR5-L73 and 74). “Either you’ve washed your hands and nails with soap and water, or you mustn’t eat or touch your eyes. Contagious diseases are in dirt!” ‘Dam, tsfardeya, kinim’–the third plague is the worst! Check yourself for lice! Typhus comes from lice!” Also observe the […]
This one’s an edition of the London Gazette, from April 1666. I love the line “Published by Authority”. I thought that was hubris, but then I learned that the London Gazette is “one of the official journals of record of the British government,” so it really is Published by Authority. Genoa, March 6 It is […]
“One who does not learn Shulchan Aruch or Chayei Adam can absolutely not do mitzvos of the Torah as they must be done. We see some Jews are not fulfilling the mitzvah of tefillin and are making invalid brachos because the tefilah shel rosh is on their forehead…the whole tefilah shel rosh must lie where […]
I photographed this one (DR5-L8) because the first line of English at the top made me laugh: IT IS THE DUTY OF ALL JEWISH PEOPLE, TO BE INSPIRED — yes, this does correspond rather directly and unfortunately to the way a lot of Jewish leaders think. The full English is IT IS THE DUTY OF […]
Adar 1, 5698 To the Jewish storekeepers and residents of the West Side in the vicinity of West 59th Street and West 125th Street, New York City. Dear storekeepers; It is your religious duty not to transact your business on SHABOS or JEWISH HOLY DAYS. Therefore it is advisable that you have your stores closed […]
I’m not exactly sure what this one is. It says festiggiandosile nozze at the top; looks like a poem, or perhaps a song, but it’s in Italian so I don’t know really. For a wedding, I know nozze. I’m dispatching it here because I liked the multimedia aspect. You can see the poem part is […]
The RBR has a good many decrees resembling this one. They’re all printed on that kind of heavy paper which makes the letter depressions palpable, and some of them have seals and such too. They’re in German, but note how they’ve set the Latin jargon in a Roman typeface, and the German in Fraktur: This […]
Somewhere in drawer 4, but I didn’t note the reference. Two little snippets, today. One random prettything:
DR4-L5 is a pre-printed ketubah from Russia, 1857, with gaps left for the names and date. We do this today. Nice to know we’ve been doing it for a long time. The ketubah’s in a folder with the passport of its owner, who was a cantor. One supposes he travelled a bunch; you’re supposed to […]
