sorekbekarmi: ir-hakodesh:Baal Shem Tov Hanukkah lamp with back plate modelled after elaborate Tor

sorekbekarmi: ir-hakodesh: Baal Shem Tov Hanukkah lamp with back plate modelled after elaborate Torah ark, Zhitomir, Ukraine, 1860 Filigreed Hanukkah lamps like these are known as Ba’al Shem Tov lamps because they were created in the region of the Ukraine where the Baal Shem Tov (Rabbi Israel Ben Eliezer, founder of the Hasidic movement) lived. Fashioned with silver-thread lacework, the lamps are all made to look like elegant sofas or benches, and their candle sockets like a row of tiny oil jars on a shelf. The lamps differ from one another in terms of the decorations on the back plate, which include a row of columns, a small Torah ark, and the eastern wall of a synagogue. The back plate is sometimes surmounted by birds, or a large crown flanked by lions, or by a crowned eagle, emblem of the Russian Czar. Okay THIS is fascinating.Because it says “modeled after an elaborate Torah ark,” but also:Every single last symbol on that chanukiyah is a symbol that can be found on typical Iron Age household shrines in Israelite and Judean cities and settlements. (This is not THAT revelatory, since the Torah ark is a direct descendant of those shrines. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.)These were miniature shrines in the form of arks, portable niches/miniature buildings made of clay or limestone. Theyre usually closed on the bottom, top, sides, and back, with an opening in the front face of the shrine, which is decorated with symbols known across the Levantine and surrounding regions to be associated with Temple architecture and sacred spaces. Here are two household shrines which were excavated from Khirbet Qeiyafa, a 10th century BCE Judahite settlement. Here is a Trans-Jordanian from the 9-8th century BCE. Note the pillars freestanding in front of the miniature building, similar to Iron Age temple architecture in the Levant. Tel Rekesh, Israelite, 9-8th century BCETell El Farah, Israelite, 9-8th century BCEHere are several household shrines from Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, which are not provenanced (unfortunately because they were looted and sold to private collectors). Their origins and dating are tragically less certain. (Also, they may be Judahite, Israelite, or Canaanite - although I would argue that distinction is not ultimately important because ancient Israelite religion IS essentially a type of Canaanite religion.)Common features found on Israelite and Judahite household altars include:Pillars with floral capitals representing waterlillies, sometimes with the pillar anthropomorphized as a female figureEmphasis on the door, often by a series of multiple recessed doorframes, a staple in local temple architectureLion, gryphon, or sphinx guardians, but most often lionsA bird or several birds perched on top of the shrine A curtain, depicted as filigree or spiral work above the doorwayIsraelite shrines and altars in particular also often have horns at the corners. These, in the ancient world, were clearly understood as a symbol of God’s crown. The only remaining symbol on the chanukiyah above is the symbol of the tablets, representing the Torah. In other cultures around Israel and Judah, household shrines like these were always used to house images of their gods. In some Israelite and Judahite sites, this practice has been found as well, along with idol worship. However, at Khirbet Qeiyafa, an early Iron Age Judahite fortress city, two household shrines were excavated empty. This seems consistent with many other Israelite and Judahite sites which were excavated and found to not use icons of God, however it must also be noted that household shrines may be connected to the “pillar votive figurines” found at many sites, now widely considered to be linked to the goddess Asherah. Either way, ancient Israelites had the practice of using small arks to mark sacred space in home and local contexts, serving apparently as mini-temples within the home. And, they continued using these long after they stopped using images of God. When you look at a Synagogue Torah ark, you will also find the same symbols - pillars with floral capitals, lions, the crown, a door, a curtain, and the tablets of the Torah. The Torah ark itself is a direct descendant of ancient Israelite shrines, which is why it bears all the same symbols. Just as the Torah ark was a sacred curtain, the parochet, these shrines almost certainly also had actual curtains as well, in addition to the spiral carvings over the door representing the folded fabric. This fabric that divides sacred space like the front door of the Temple, the Holy of Holies, or even a household shrine, is actually part of a long tradition of curtains as markers of sacred boundaries dating back to Sumerian temples. And the Sumerian word for these sacred curtains was ALSO parochet! In fact, the curtain for the Torah arks in Judaism today may represent one of the oldest continuesly used ritual items called by the same name, stretching back to the Sumerian era in the 4th millenium BCE. Placing the tablets of the Torah at the center of all this imagery LITERALLY “enshrines” the Torah, because this is all imagery that was used to house gods in the ancient world. Instead of an image of God, this imagery in Judaism usually houses the WORD of God in the form of a literal Torah scroll! You’ll find this imagery on Torah mantles, breastplates, crowns, arks, curtains, anything to do with housing the Torah. To me, that is a beautiful compromise. It allows us to experience the physical grandeur, the hidden mitzvah, the embodied ritual, but without actually depicting God at all! The PHYSICAL text, our interface with the Divine, is the focus of that tactile and experiential reverence and ritual. And it’s all done using imagery that does back over 3,000 years! This imagery is the imagery of the Torah ark of modern Judaism, and of the central Temples but also the everyday household shrines of ancient Israelite and Judahite religion. It makes absolutely sense to me that this lamp is from the home of Hasidism, because Kabbalistic mysticism and philosophy surrounding the Temple are like. Mainstream in Hasidism, as opposed to other streams of Judaism where they are more fringe. I think its absolutely beautiful and magical that Hasidim in the 1860s, Judahites in the early Iron Age, and anyone who opens a Chumash with pillars and lions on the front or stands in front of a Torah ark with the curtain open, all interface with the Divine through sacred space and ritual objects, in a tangible way, in their communities but also their private homes, using the same artistic motifs. I personally find that INCREDIBLY valuable. It’s is an heirloom on a level I can barely comprehend. The whole point of making judaica beautiful is “hiddur mitzvah,” or “beautifying the commandment.” The beauty I see in this particular lamp is not just the silver metal, the fine filigree work, or the overall craftsmanship and design. It’s that here is a piece of human experience that we can physically share in, lighting sacred lights in our homes in front of those symbols marking a sacred space and time, and we are sharing that experience with ancestors so old we can’t begin to comprehend our relationship to them. -- source link

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