Objects

Mezuzah (Hebrew: "doorpost") is a decorative case with a scroll of parchment inside, on which are handwritten verses of the Torah (Deut. 6:4-9 and 11:13-21), containing a fragment of the text of the daily prayer Shema Yisrael ("Hear, O Israel!"). The mezuzah is attached to the right-hand door frame at the main entrance and on the frames of the doors leading to various rooms in a Jewish house, as well as on the gates of tenement houses and houses. Pious Jews touch the mezuzah with the fingers of their right hand when entering and leaving a particular room, and then kiss it. The mezuzahs are intended to sanctify the house and constantly remind its inhabitants of God's omnipotence ( more in: Zofia Borzymińska, mezuza; Mezuza, in: Polski Słownik Judaistyczny, Warsaw 2003, vol. 2, pp. 147–148).

The mezuzah from the collection of the the Vistula Museum in Kazimierz Dolny is an oblong container in the shape of a semi-cylinder with flat arched handles at the top and bottom, decorated with six-petal flowers, with nail holes. The surface of the body is decorated with a heavily repoussed floral ornament on a grosgrain background. In the upper part, there is a small arched hole. Above the hole, there are three repoussed Hebrew letters: szin, dalet, jod, forming the word El Shaddai (Almighty).

The item was made in 1984, on a special order of the Museum of Goldsmithing Art (a branch of the Vistula Museum in Kazimierz Dolny) and purchased from the author, Józef Fajngold, in 1987.