I was about to begin on a new series of challah covers based on an Aramaic liturgical formula that is recited before the Shabbat meals. אתקינו סעודתא דמלכא I will prepare the royal feast I decided to look for crown images on Google image . I realized very quickly that most of the crowns shown Like this one, or this one incorporated crosses into the form. After a moment’s frustration, the entire history of monarchy in Europe was made clear. all of the European kings and queens see themselves and are seen as religious leaders. Seeing all of those cross topped crowns reminded me about how some of my classmates in yeshiva used to saw the crowns of of their chess kings. Judaism used the image of monarchy as a symbol of divine power. European monarchy incorporated a cross into their crowns to remind their subjects of their divine right to power. Clearly I couldn’t include a cross on a challah cover. So I sketched one out on paper and then pai...
A blog, mostly about my work making Jewish ritual objects, but with detours into garment making, living in New York City, cooking, and other aspects of domestic life. A note about comments: I love comments from readers, from spammers, not so much. I approve comments before posting them so comments are not cluttered with junk. It may take a few hours before your posts appear. Be patient. If you are a real person with a real comment it will be posted.