Medieval megillot were beautifully illuminated. Why? Because God’s name is not mentioned.
Illustrated Esther scroll (Ferrara, Italy, 1616)(photo credit: The National Library of Israel/Ktiv Project)ByDAVID GEFFENOn Purim this year, there will be an unusual occurrence. What will it be? Outside Israel, the megillah is normally read on Purim (March 14), and then read the next day on Shushan Purim (March 15). The “next day” this year is Shabbat, so the megillah will be read on Sunday (March 16). The name for this phenomenon is Shushan Purim Meshulash (“triple” or “three-part”).
During the day of Shushan Purim, I normally walk through the city of Jerusalem and stop at one of the Chabad Purim tents where the megillah is read in its entirety, over and over. On Sunday, I will enjoy hearing the words of Megillat Esther in this most beautiful way.
It is so different from outside of Israel. In the Diaspora, we who grew up in the United States enjoyed Purim by making a lot of noise to blot out Haman’s name. What was kept from us, in an almost secretive way, were the megillot. We were only permitted to see the Megillat Esther from afar, never up close. Most of thought it was a small-sized Torah – that was the only other scroll with which we were familiar.
When I was 27 and living in New York, just about to enter the US Army, an acquaintance offered to sell me a handwritten megillah in an olive wood case. I bought it. How fortunate I am to have it and to be able to pass it along.
Mine is a simple megillah. By contrast, medieval megillot were beautifully illuminated. Why? Because God’s name is not mentioned. Hence, the rabbis permitted Megillat Esther to be illustrated with scenes from the Purim story, as well as other images.
Scroll of Esther scroll, Morocco, 19th century. (credit: The National Library of Israel/Ktiv Project)There has long been interest in illuminated Hebrew manuscripts, as documented in the beautiful 1969 book Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts by noted scholar Bezalel Narkiss. This volume contained images that were also used in the first edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Center of Jewish Art website states, “Esther scrolls exemplify an important feature of Jewish culture. This demonstrates the continued image of handwritten books. In them, Jewish artists could express their creativity.”
In the introduction to Digital Catalogue of Illuminated Esther Scrolls, Dagmara Budzioch, who compiled the work, writes, “The Book of Esther, written on parchment scroll, is one of the main Jewish ceremonial objects. Megillot Esther are produced for fulfilling the precept of celebrating the festival of Purim and are used twice a year on Purim evening and morning.”
But the study of illuminated Esther scrolls has only been in practice over the last 70 years. The National Library of Israel (NLI) began collecting such manuscripts in 1950s shortly after the founding of the State of Israel. Today, there are 35 historical illuminated Esther scrolls cataloged at NLI, over 3,000 online in the library’s Ktiv International Collection of Digitized Hebrew Manuscripts project, and it is constantly seeking out more.
According to researcher Dafna Siegman in the book 101 Treasures from the National Library of Israel, “Megillat Esther is the only liturgical scroll permitted by Jewish law to be decorated and illuminated. Throughout the 17th century, wealthy Jews took advantage of this license and commissioned dozens of elaborate scrolls of the Book of Esther. These scrolls added an artistic element to the carnivalesque atmosphere of the Purim celebrations. The Book of Esther is fertile terrain for illustrations, as it contains all the elements of a great story: heroes and villains, death and violence, sex and power, war and love.”
Iberian Esther Scroll
Some of the manuscripts at NLI include the extremely rare Iberian Esther Scroll, one of the few pre-expulsion Megillot Esther. Scholars have determined that this Esther scroll was written by a scribe on the Iberian Peninsula around 1465. To attest to its antiquity, carbon dating was employed.
The description of the scroll makes some important points for the study of such beautiful treasures. The scroll is made of leather, upon which it is written with brown ink. The script is characteristically Sephardi, similar to that used in a Torah scroll. The traditional blessings are written on the scroll.
Illustrated Esther Scroll
In 1616, a colorful Esther scroll was inscribed and illustrated by Moshe ben Avraham Pescaralo in Ferrara, Italy. “The text panels,” according to the book, “are separated by columns painted in blueish green and feature the motif of a flowering vase. Each column rests on a rectangular base decorated with an image of a beast, bird, or plant.”
The Purim story unfolds in a series of scenes that, as was often done, relate to the locale where it was created. “The artist has visually set the story in the Italy of his day, with the figures wearing contemporary dress, and the rooms furnished in the latest country styles.”
This year, Purim 2025 (5785), the Pescaralo scroll will be on loan for display at the MEIS National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah in Ferrara.
Moroccan Esther scroll
The NLI also has a 19th-century Esther scroll from Morocco, a parchment scroll mounted on a wooden roller. This scroll starts out with the blessings that are said before and after the reading. The outstanding artistic characteristic is that each column appears inside colorful decorated arches.
Because I was immersed in original illuminated scrolls, I decided to donate one to the National Library: a printed illuminated scroll, gifted to me by my cousin Reuven Geffen, and decorated by the children of Kibbutz Beit HaShita. Research is now going on to discover why such a scroll was created. Stay tuned for the information about its origins.
My close friend, the late Ezra Gorodesky, a noted collector, once said to me, “David, from the time I made aliyah in 1951, I was hoping to find an illuminated Esther scroll. Sadly, I never saw one. And even so, I probably could not have afforded it.” Then, with his impish smile, he said: “How blessed I am. I will have celebrated Purim in Jerusalem for almost half a century.”■
