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Friday, May 31, 2013

The Absurd verse chosen by Ariel Toaff for his bookplate



Above is a photo of the bookplate of the now infamous, Ariel Toaff. The theme, is very absurd, the title translates as Divine Providence and the verse below it is a Vulgate Latin translation of the Verse from the Tochecha . הָיְתָה נִבְלָתְךָ לְמַאֲכָל, לְכָל-עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וּלְבֶהֱמַת הָאָרֶץ
I can understand the connection of the lion, to his name Ariel, but the choice of this verse seems to indicate something else might be going on.




While I'm at it, above is the bookplate of Rabbi David Shonak. Rabbi Shonak was in the book news recently when his congregation in Milan's synagogue had Judaica lifted by 4 young Israelis.
When Rabbi David Shonak found the exquisite ancient Torah ornaments from the ark in his Malan synagogue had been swiped, he did the logical thing: the ex-Israeli paratrooper kept his cool and called in the Italian police, but he also called a slew of leading Judaica dealers around the world.
Within ten minutes Shonak got the lead he was waiting for: The priceless hot merchandise had just been offered (over over-the-counter!) to a leading Jerusalem Judaica shop. Collared by the cops, it turned out the four young thieves had left their backpacks at the synagogue for safekeeping with the accommodating rabbi.  When they went to pick up their gear the next day, the ungrateful nogoodniks decided to take some 'souvenirs' with them.


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