Grigorescu, Felicia: Forme de artă în cimitire evreieşti din nord-vestul Romaniei (Satu Mare, 2013)
Glosar de termeni
III. TOMB STONE. FORMS OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION IN THE JEWISH CEMETERIES OF NORTH-WEST ROMANIA Tomb stone is from biblical perspective, the pillar that Jacob set on Rachel’s grave67, as symbol of inferiority, but at the same time it is a reminder of the uncleanness of that place. Among Jews also existed the idea that the tomb stones are not required on graves of the fathers, because they remain in memory by their words68 69 70. The classic literature uses the term "stone" tomb stone (or tombstone, gravestone) within the meaning of sign for the marking of a grave, with all that in the area concerned, the material of which this sign was made in Christian cemeteries and it may be assumed that sometimes, in the Jewish ones, was frequently wood. It meant simple boards having sometimes painted or carved inscriptions. Because of the perishable character of such material, a very small amount of wooden funeral monuments was preserved. The fact that the sign set on graves has not always been made of stone64 is testified by writings that mention funeral wooden pillar: Most graves also have torn, and the stone or wooden maţeive10. In the cemeteries of north-west Romania have not been identified so far (2013) signs or monuments made of wood. Wood had been used under the circumstances when there was no stone at hand, it was too expensive or it was not permitted, though the Torah gives clear instructions that the deceased should be placed under a pile of stones71. Such monuments are kept in a museum collection in Bucharest72 * (Pic. 58). During a research on Jewish cemeteries in Budapest, there have been identified a few monuments of wood (Pic. 59) in the Óbuda cemetery. The Jewish tomb stone includes elements that are common to funeral stones encountered at other peoples; the field of epitaph and that reserved to ornaments, the geometry of these components and the presentation on the stone were variable. Of the forms of art practiced by Jews, by tomb stone carving, they come closest to the biblical restraint for graven images. In time, Jewish communities’ option was to generalize the use of stones on graves, all over the world Jews, but each community did this in randomly. Not only shape and size varied from one community to 61Bible, Genesis 35:20, and Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. 'Henri Wald, Homo Loquens, Ed. Hasefer, Bucharest, 2001, p 11. For a nation that was ordered to obey the word of its only God and not to worship any graven image it was natural to be more attracted to music than to plastic art, to moral more than art, to hearing more than by sight. 69Marcin Wodzinski, Tombstone, http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Tombstones 70I. Kaufmann, The Jews..., p. 346 ‘The Encyclopedic dictionary of Judaism, Ed. Hasefer, Bucharest, 2000, p. 414 72 In the Jewish History Museum in Romania there are three funeral monuments of wood originating from the cemetery in Sevastopol Street, Bucharest. Each of them has a different shape although they are close in size. The difference is made by the upper part of the monument, not only the closure but also the components. One of them is circular, the second in dull (trapezoidal) angle and the third al presenting a spectacular shape with a circular lobe highlighted by a strong strangulation, this shape implies the Moorish exotic register. The monuments have an upper part for the background and vegetable motive ornaments. The reading of the epitaph and the age of the monuments has not been yet finished. (July 2011). r'The Bible, Exodus, 20:4,5, ... you shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them... 106
