Title: This [is being produced] so that all can know the route of the travels [of the Israelites] 40 years in the desert [through] the width and length of the Holy Land from the Nile to the city of Damascus, from the Arnon Valley to the Mediterranean Sea, and in it each individual tribe was given its own portion of the land

Description

This 1695 copperplate engraving of the Holy Land is one of the earliest printed maps in Hebrew. The map was drawn by Abraham Ben-Jacob, a convert to Judaism, based on an earlier map by Christiaan van Adrichem (1533-85), and reproduced in the Amsterdam Haggadah. The map features Biblical illustrations, among them depictions of the story of Jonah and the whale, King Solomon’s fleet carrying the cedar trees for the construction of the temple in Jerusalem, and beehives and cows symbolizing the milk and honey of the Promised Land. The Amsterdam Haggadah was the first Haggadah to include copperplate engravings, and was widely copied and distributed throughout Europe.

זאת לדעת לכל בר דעת דרך המסעות ארבעים שנה במדבר והרוחב והאורך של ארץ הקדושה מנהר מצרים עד עיר דמשק ומנחל ארנן עד הים הגדול ובתוכו כל שבט ושבט חלק נחלתו…