Israeli Religious Art: "Torah Shield"

This is an Israeli Jewish Torah shield, called "tas" in Hebrew. The Torah shield decorates Torah scrolls, particularly in synagogues, when it is not in use. Torah shields are often called breastplates.

This form of decoration is an Ashkenazi (Eastern European) tradition. As part of the Torah dress, they are hung by a chain from the Torah staves so that they rest flat on the Torah. This tas features the "lions of Judah," standing at the entrance doors to Solomon's temple, symbolizing strength and the Jewish people.

"Torah," is Hebrew for teaching and refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts, including both Judaism's written law and oral law. The Torah contains genealogy, historical narrative, poetry and allegory.

According to Jewish tradition, the Torah contains the 613 "mitzvot," or commandments, dictated to Moses by God, in 1312 BCE at Mount Sinai. Modern biblical scholars believe its books were completed over centuries beginning in the 500s BCE.

The Torah is written on parchment manufactured from specified sections of the hide of a kosher animal. The Sefer Torah (written Torah) is the most sacred of all Jewish books. Torah reading is a Jewish religious ritual that involves the public reading of a set of passages from a Torah scroll. The entire Torah is read each year.

In English, the books are: Genesis (the story of creation and the selection of Abraham and Sarah as the bearer of God’s covenant, Exodus (the story of Jews’ slavery in Egypt and Moses leading the Israelites through the Red Sea to freedom), Leviticus (the laws of Israelite sacrificial worship, purity and diet), Numbers (the history of the Israelites in the desert) and Deuteronomy (Moses’ reminder to the Israelites that they have entered into a covenant with God to which they must adhere.)

Judaism is a religion in which people believe that there is one god (monotheism), the same god the Christians and Muslims worship, who created the universe and has a personal relationship with humans. The religion was founded in Israel about 4,000 years ago by Abraham, who entered into a covenant with God to follow the laws of God. Moses received the Jewish holy book from God. Scholars disagree about whether there is an afterlife. Jews are waiting for the Messiah who may bring about an afterlife.

See also: https://pixabay.com/photos/torah-scroll-israel-jewish-4299038/299038/
Source:
https://learn.ncartmuseum.org/artwork/torah-shield/
Source Citation (MLA 7th Edition) Rabinowitz, Louis Isaac, and Warren Harvey. "Torah." Encyclopaedia Judaica. Ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed. Vol. 20. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 39-46. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. Document URL http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do