A.V. Seletsky
1866
Isakson, a merchant of Mogilev.

Salt paper print
Russian Museum of Ethnography
Number: ??? 8764-22964
 
Curatorial description (Accessed: 5 August 2021)
The man with a kippah on his head is wearing a labserdak, with leather footwear on his feet.
 
The kippah symbolizes modesty and humility, and reverence for God.
 
The labserdak, a double-breasted outer garment stitched at the waist, lined, with long flaps reaching the mid-calf or ankle, was popular with Jewish men. In Jewish tradition, leather footwear was considered a sign of wealth and bodily comfort. However, it was forbidden to wear it on the 9th of Av (mourning for the first and second temples destroyed in Jerusalem), on the Judgment Day (Yom Kippur) and on days of mourning and fasting (reminder of mankind's unwitting sin - killing animals and making them suffer).
 
His right hand in the bosom is the gesture symbolizing the sign given to Moses by God Himself in the Old Testament. The photograph was displayed at the Russian Ethnographic Exhibition of 1867 in Moscow.
 
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