This large Sukkot broadside from Sighet transforms the kabbalistic custom of welcoming the Ushpizin—the seven symbolic guests invited into the sukkah—into an elaborate printed ritual object.
Dominating the broadside is the declaration:
אוּמִין לִסְעוּדָתִי אוּשְׁפִּיזִין עִלָּאִין אַבְרָהָם יִצְחָק יַעֲקֹב מֹשֶׁה אַהֲרֹן יוֹסֵף דָּוִד
“I invite to my meal the exalted guests: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David.”
The seven names reappear in the central panel, one for each day of Sukkot. Each patriarchal guest is given his own place in the composition and accompanied by the formula inviting him to enter the sukkah together with the other Ushpizin. The repeated text gives visual form to the progression of the festival: the same seven guests return each night, but a different figure assumes the place of honor.
Surrounding this central structure are prayers, biblical and rabbinic passages, and instructions associated with the Ushpizin and the observance of Sukkot. The result is both text and object: a broadside intended not simply to be read but to inhabit the ritual space in which its words were performed.
The Ushpizin custom has its roots in the Zohar, which describes Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David visiting the sukkah. In later kabbalistic and Hasidic practice, welcoming these guests became a formal part of each evening's observance. This broadside follows the widespread order Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, David, placing Moses and Aaron before Joseph.
Printed in Sighet—today Sighetu Marmației, Romania—the broadside belongs to the rich Jewish printing culture of the region. Its publisher-printer is identified as Pananya Buchdruckerei—Brider Rozental. The restrained two-color printing, ornamental borders, carefully differentiated sizes of Hebrew type, and symmetrical arrangement make a dense collection of sacred texts legible from across the sukkah.
The two small architectural images at the lower corners further turn the sheet into a visual object rather than simply a page of prayers. Hung on the wall of a sukkah, the broadside brought together text, decoration, mystical tradition, and ritual practice.
