Inlaid Wooden Reading Desk (Teva) from the Ottoman Empire

Central platform and desk, called teva in the Sephardi rite, from which the Torah is read and the service led. Craftsmen of the Ottoman Levant decorated it with geometric inlay of mother-of-pearl, bone and precious wood in the Damascene tradition. The sloping top receives the open scroll, and the raised whole embodies the center of the praying community.