Hallucination Depicted: Godâs Name on Shiviti Plates

Ilia M. Rodov

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Chapter 11 Hallucination Depicted: Godâs Name on Shiviti Plates

In: Sanctifying Texts, Transforming Rituals

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Ilia M. Rodov

Ilia M. Rodov
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 238â274

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004347083_013

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Abstract

The present article proposes a phenomenological analysis of shiviti plates bearing Godâs name, set in front of the synagogue prayer leader. In the specimens exposed in modern Romanian synagogues, the Tetragrammaton dominates a hierarchic composition comprising texts (divine and angelic names, Kabbalistic sefirot, and didactic utterances) and images (the menorah, halo, heraldic devices, animals, and plants). The inscriptions act as âimage-textsâ playing concurrent roles in both verbal and pictorial structures of the plates. The visual rendering of these shiviti evokes in the beholder a sense of meditative trance. They drove the worshipperâs communication with Godâs presence along the path of mental visualisation of the letters of the divine name practiced by medieval Jewish esoteric scholars. In contrast to medieval Kabbalistic concentric diagrams that instruct the visionaryâs meditation on Godâs name and attributes, the shiviti images portray the products of visions. The phenomenon revealed sheds light on the unique role of visual art in establishing both the emotional mood and the intellectual modus of synagogue worship.â©

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Sanctifying Texts, Transforming Rituals

Encounters in Liturgical Studies

Series:Â Brill's Studies in Catholic Theology, Volume: 5

Cover Sanctifying Texts, Transforming Rituals

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004347083

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 01 Jan 2017

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Chapter 11 Hallucination Depicted: Godâs Name on Shiviti Plates

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Sanctifying Texts, Transforming Rituals

Encounters in Liturgical Studies

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Chapter 11 Hallucination Depicted: Godâs Name on Shiviti Plates