Rejoicing of the Law

The Feast of the Rejoicing of the Law at the Synagogue in Leghorn
1850, oil on canvas by Solomon Alexander Hart (1806-1881)
The Jewish Museum, New York

Using one of the artist's few observations of a Jewish structure during his Italian tour, the work shows the interior of the magnificent synagogue in Leghorn, originally built in 1591.
This interior is perhaps the foremost example of the lavish redecoration common to Italian synagogues in the eighteenth century. Hart captures a romantic vision of the exotic dress of his Italian coreligionists as they parade the scrolls of the Law on Simhat Torah, the feast of the rejoicing of the Law.
This marks the end of the fall harvest festival, Sukkot, and is the holy day on which the yearly cycle of reading the Pentateuch ends, immediately beginning again with Genesis.

(Masterworks of the Jewish Museum, New York, 2004)

The old synagogue was destroyed in the last war, but some of its balusters survive in the tebah of the new one.

See also:
Synagogue of Livorno - Inside the Synagogue - Moses Montefiore
The Jewish Museum, New York

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