Mizrah

Mizrah (Hebrew “east”) is a decorative tablet hung on the eastern wall of a house to show the praying the direction to Jerusalem. Apart from serving as a compass such tablets bore an ideological and spiritual significance reminding one of living in exile and the holy nature of the Israeli land and Jerusalem. The imagery of Mizrah was to ferment the associations of the believer with the holy places in Israel and the events which took place there. On this particular Mizrah the central figures are Moses with the testimonies and his brother Aaron wearing the high priest’s garments and scenes depicting Moses’ life (the rescue from the river and the display of the Tablets of Testimony granted by God to the Jews). Also depicted are the main Temple symbols (the Ark of the Covenant and the Menorah).