Sefirat HaOmer.

miniature illustrated prayer book

Scarce Ashkenazic miniature Prayer Book, containing prayers for the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot, known as Sefirat HaOmer (count of the Omer). The counting begins on the second day of Passover and ends one day before Shavuot. At the time of the Temple, an offering of wheat was brought to the Temple from the new harvest on the first day for the count. This offering was called the Omer, after an ancient measure of grain. Today, the period is considered to be a period of mourning for the loss of the Temples, and several mourning rules are observed: weddings are not conducted in this period, new clothes are not to be worn, and men do not shave, nor cut their hair.

Plates include scenes of Kzirat HaOmer (harvest), Moses parting the waters of the Red Sea, two illustrations for Lag BaOmer, and a depiction of Yom HaBikurim.

Miniature book (9.2 x 5.9 cm); illustrated half-title & 5 illustrative plates (one with a small hole in the middle with some image loss); contemporary blind-tooled brown morocco boards, rubbed, top part of spine missing; 92 ll., last endleaf missing, tears to a few leaves with some text loss, some leaves closely shaved. Text in Hebrew.

Vinograd (Offenbach), 187.