David bar Pesah's iconography is straightforward. Thus, the flowery opening
hymn of the additional service for the Day of Atonement, Shushan emek uyamah
("The rose in the valley is quivering": the rose is symbolic of
Israel in the traditional Jewish allegorical reading of the Song of Songs),
has its initial word illuminated with rosettes. Similarly, the full page illumination
for the opening of the Day of Atonement hymn, Shaare
rahamim ("Gates of mercy"), takes the form of a Gothic gateway.
This context of simplicity is what makes the full page illumination here of
"Kol," the initial word of the Kol nidre formula for
the annulment of religious vows that opens the liturgy of the Day of Atonement,
seem relatively problematic. Assuming that the artwork is not arbitrary, which
it may well be, it becomes necessary to explain the presence of those ubiquitous
images of medieval Europe, a crusader and a Saracen in combat and a (zoomorphic)
hunting scene. While alternative interpretations are encouraged (freidus@nypl.org),
it may perhaps be surmised that warfare and field sports share with Yom Kippur
a heightened sense of life and death.