Embroidered Torah Ark Curtain – The Balfour Declaration in the Form of a Menorah – A Decade Since the Balfour ...

Embroidered Torah Ark Curtain – The Balfour Declaration in the Form of a Menorah – A Decade Since the Balfour Declaration
An embroidered Torah ark curtain featuring the text of the Balfour declaration in the shape of a menorah. [The Levant?]. Dedication from the year 5688 [1927/1928] – a decade since the Balfour declaration.
Velvet; goldwork; cardboard cutouts; metallic ribbons and fringe.
A Torah ark curtain made of green velvet. The text of the Balfour Declaration is embroidered in the center, on a dark green velvet rectangle framed with metallic ribbons.
The text of the declaration appears in its early Hebrew translation and is embroidered in the shape of a seven-branched menorah (a shape usually preserved for Psalms 67 or the Piyyut "Ana BeKhoach"): "His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people…"; topped by the verse "Shiviti". Hebrew dedication on bottom center reads: "The Balfour Declaration, dedicated by Mr. Nissim Yehuda Fijon… and… M. Simcha, daughter of Rivka, wife of Haji Eliyahu Fijon… the year 5688".
This is a unique item – the text of the Balfour Declaration, the famous state document from 1917 acknowledging the right of the Jewish people to establish a national home in their country, embroidered on a religious artifact, used in a synagogue by one of the communities of the Levant.
The Balfour Declaration was perceived by many as a sign of the coming of the Messiah. Some sages saw the Balfour declaration as the first stage in the process of redemption and the realization of the prophecies about the return to Zion. Subsequent to the declaration, Rabbi Kook, who was then the Chief Rabbi of Jaffa and the settlements, wrote that Britain was destined by Divine Providence to play the role of bringing forth the salvation, and about Lord Balfour himself he wrote that he is "remembered favorably, the renowned declaration being justifiably named after him". Like Rabbi Kook, other rabbis also saw the declaration in a religious Messianic light. For example, Rabbi Moshe Kalfon Hacohen, Chief Rabbi of Djerba and one of the leading rabbis of Tunis, saw the Balfour Declaration as one of the "thirteen holy sparks of redemption", calling the swift economic and agricultural development of Palestine "Ketz Meguleh" (revealed redemption).
Approx. 147X110 cm. Good condition. Faded velvet. Blemishes, stains, wear and unraveling. Some tears and open tears. Suspension loops on upper edge.