A Hebrew Fragment in the Municipal Archive in Münster as a Witness to a Little-Known Ritual Practice

The Stadtarchiv in Münster, Germany holds a medieval Hebrew fragment with portions of the daily Shema Yisrael prayer. Measuring 510 mm in height, this fragment is but a quarter of a large-sized parchment sheet, which was designed to be hung on a wall. This study introduces the fragment and describes its material features and then suggests its possible function against the backdrop of talmudic discussions on biblical texts that are incorporated in prayer. In light of the halakhic position that biblical verses should not be recited from memory but only from a written text, the original sheet was intended to provide worshippers with an accessible copy of the Shema text, since many did not have personal prayerbooks.