By LEORA EREN FRUCHTExtract from Issue 15, November 10, 2008 of The Jerusalem Report. To subscribe to The Jerusalem Reportclick here. What jewelry did the Biblical Sarah wear? A new exhibit in Ramat Gan provides a few glittering possibilities.
The Beduin have 160 words to describe camels and their products; the Italians, over 100 words for pasta. And the ancient Israelites? They had 46 words for jewelry. That, at least, is the number that appears in the Bible and Talmud, according to Yehuda Kassif, who counted. So intrigued was Kassif, a jewelry designer and curator, at the apparent importance of jewelry in ancient Jewish history that he decided to mount an exhibit on the subject.
The result is: "Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver," a showcase of about 100 pieces of ancient jewelry excavated at archeological sites throughout Israel, which opened recently at the Harry Oppenheimer Diamond Museum in Ramat Gan (see box on page 39). The jewelry, spanning three millennia from 2500 BCE through 1800 CE, is on loan from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the University of Haifa's Hecht Museum and the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem; much of it has never been exhibited before.
At its simplest level, the exhibit - which runs until the end of March - offers an "ooh-ahh" experience as one marvels at exquisite, well-preserved gold pieces, some of which would be happily worn by today's fashion-conscious consumer. There are bangles, nose rings, dangling filigree earrings that evoke traditional Yemenite jewelry, signet rings engraved with fertility symbols, a necklace with a lion's head clasp, and an array of amulets and odes to various goddesses.
More than just a feast for the eyes, the exhibit resonates with historical connotations. "These could have been worn by the matriarchs Sarah or Rebecca," says exhibit curator Kassif, pointing to a half-dozen simple gold bangles behind a glass case. "They date to somewhere between 1560 to 2000 BCE, roughly the period of Abraham. People were nomads then so the jewelry was simple," Kassif continues, recounting the story of the gold bracelets that Abraham's servant, sent to seek a wife for Isaac, offers the chosen candidate, Rebecca, as she stands by the well. "He might well have given her something like this," continues Kassif, gesturing to another simple bangle.
There are many other Bible and Talmud stories in which jewelry figures prominently, he notes, citing the infamous golden calf, crafted by the Israelites from jewelry that they took from the Egyptians when they fled from Pharaoh. "Gold was very dominant in Egypt. According to written sources, they had 15 different types of gold, compared to the nine mentioned in relation to the Israelites." The different types relate to color, origin and other characteristics. Gold is mentioned a total of 337 times in the Bible, notes the exhibit catalogue.
In the Talmud, there is the tale of Rabbi Akiva, the latecomer to religious study, who rewards his long-suffering wife with a "Jerusalem of Gold" - a tiara in the shape of the sacred city, cited in a discussion of what jewelry a woman is permitted to wear on the Sabbath. Many such items of jewelry are mentioned in the Talmud in the context of halakha, Jewish religious law. "A woman should not go out [on the Sabbath] with a [tiara in the form of] a golden city, a necklace, nose rings, a ring lacking a seal…" notes Rabbi Shimon Ben Elazar in the Jerusalem Talmud.
Unfortunately, there is no ancient tiara on exhibit. There are, however, graphic renditions of the "Jerusalem of Gold," as well as a display of 1,500-year-old paper thin gold leaves that were often used to embellish tiaras and crowns.
Kassif notes that jewelry was a status symbol then, just as it is today. While high-society women donned tiaras, prostitutes wore ankle bracelets and slaves, nose rings. All women - rich and poor alike - as well as many men, adorned themselves with some kind of jewelry. The Talmud goes so far as to state that men are obliged to provide jewelry to their spouses, Kassif points out.
There was an active trade in jewelry in the Land of Israel, with the local population wearing both imported ornaments and ones produced by Israelite craftsmen. Locally crafted items frequently reflected the fashion trends of the time, often determined by the dominant culture in the region - Egyptian, Hellenistic, or Roman. But Kassif notes that local jewelers found ways to combine both foreign influences and local cultural ones. He points out a thick gold ring inlaid with a coral-colored stone (possibly, carnelian) dating to 167-332 BCE, the Hellenistic era. "The stone is engraved with a rooster - a Hellenistic symbol of masculinity, but also with a pomegranate, a Jewish symbol of fertility and luck," he says.
Kassif, 61, is a striking-looking figure: a portly, balding man with three loop earrings (two of them gold), a bushy white beard and a prominent mustache. Dressed in a knee-length white tunic (over his pants), he is adorned with a dazzling gold pendant inlaid with a palette of semi-precious stones, and four gold rings, one in the shape of a lizard. All are his own creations. An avid jewelry designer, he is also art director of the Oppenheimer Diamond Museum and jewelry promotion director of the Israel Diamond Institute and served, for 20 years, as general manager of the Israel Precious Stones and Diamonds Exchange.
A man whose Hebrew is as ornate as the gold jewelry he wears, Kassif explains that "the story of this exhibit doesn't begin with jewelry but with words. I wanted an exhibit tied to the Hebrew language and the jewelry it refers to."
Indeed, with a delight in language that seems to parallel his passion for precious metals and stones, Kassif rattles off a list of contemporary Hebrew words whose original meaning has been lost. Borit, a word occasionally used to refer to soap, meant a toe ring during the Mishna period (around 1100 CE), he notes. The words ekdah, a pistol, and pukh, a down blanket, once referred to gemstones. Kassif shines light on the origin of the Hebrew word lahash - or whisper - which used to denote a particular type of earring that was worn for good luck, like a "whispered prayer."
Extract from Issue 15, November 10, 2008 of The Jerusalem Report. To subscribe to The Jerusalem Reportclick here.
if(catID != 151){
var cont = `Take Israel home with the new Jerusalem Post Store