Birchath HaLevanah [sanctification of the New Moon]

(LITURGY).

Frankfurt a/Main

1836

Hebrew Manuscript on vellum. Composed by Eliezer Zussmann Mezeritsch in square Hebrew script with nikud, instructions in a rabbinic hand.

So well regarded was the scribe of the present work, Eliezer Zussmann Meseritch, that he was selected by Charlotte von Rothschild to prepare the text of her illuminated masterpiece Haggadah, created for her uncle Amschel. Though only a single other exemplar of a Kiddush Levanah manuscript produced in 1823 by Eliezer remains extant (Frankfurt, Stadt und Universitätsbibliothek Oct. 209). The scribal proficiency displayed by Eliezer here is exemplified by the surviving corpus of manuscripts which bear his name. The present manuscript was created in honor of the Bar Mitzvah of Wolfgang Speyer, son of Isaac and Hannschen Speyer, which took place on Shabbat HaGadol, the 8th of Nissan, 1836. The scribe has included a blessing that young Wolfgang’s parents merit to escort him to the wedding canopy and that he follow in the footsteps of his ancestors, fully observing God’s commandments and His Torah.