Advanced Search 
Torah binder
German
1736
Medium/Technique
Linen plain weave, embroidered with silk and gold thread, gold sequins, and glass beads.
Dimensions
8” x 124”
Credit Line
Gift of Evelyn Megerman in memory of her parents, Lilli and Alfred Rahn
Accession Number2019.12
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsJudaica
ClassificationsTextiles
DescriptionA Torah binder is used to bind a Torah scroll and keep it from unwinding. It is made from cut pieces of the swaddlecloth used to wrap a baby boy at his circumcision, and emboidered or painted with the Hebrew blessing recited during the ceremony - mentioning the baby's and father's names, the date of birth, and good wishes for the boy's life.
Torah binders were donated to a synagogue on the boy's first visit (around the age of four), and were first used on the Sabbath of the boy's Bar Mizvah.
Torah binders were donated to a synagogue on the boy's first visit (around the age of four), and were first used on the Sabbath of the boy's Bar Mizvah.
InscriptionsEmbroidered in Hebrew: "Moses, son of Rabbi Isaac called Itzhak - may he live long and happy days - was born to good luck (with mazal Tov) 8 Av 5496 (16 July 1736). May God raise him to Torah, Huppah (marriage canopy) and good deeds. Amen…”
ProvenanceBy 1937, Lilli Bechmann Rahn (b. 1911 – d. 1970), Furth, Germany and Denver, CO [see note]; 1970, to her daughter, Evelyn Rahn Megerman, Waltham, MA; 2019, gift of Evelyn Megerman to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 20, 2019)
NOTE: Alfred and Lilli Rahn fled National Socialist Germany in 1939, shipping their belongings, including this Torah Binder, to the United States in 1937. It had probably been inherited by Lilli Rahn from a member of her family.
NOTE: Alfred and Lilli Rahn fled National Socialist Germany in 1939, shipping their belongings, including this Torah Binder, to the United States in 1937. It had probably been inherited by Lilli Rahn from a member of her family.