Grigorescu, Felicia: Forme de artă în cimitire evreieşti din nord-vestul Romaniei (Satu Mare, 2013)
Glosar de termeni
proportion compared to what it holds and the arms grow unnaturally from the trunk. It is known that the Roman art represented the image in a realistic101 * 103, un-idealized way, so it should have been normal for the representation to be the real one. In any case, the candelabrum brought as pillage from the Temple of Jerusalem was the most impressive of the objects carried on the streets on Rome. In most representations, the menorah reclines against a tripod whose feet can be represented as the lion’s legs . It is odd, however, that, although the model on the Arch of Titus - arcus septem lucernarum - was placed in the midst of the Christian world, in Rome (one of the most visited places by the Christian pilgrims), its model was never extended in the Christian iconography. The menorah is also a symbol of the representation of the Babylonian Tree of Light . It has seven arms - three for each part of the main axis. The candlestick would correspond to the seven planets and the seven skies - seven being considered the perfect number, the seven candlesticks being the seven eyes of God, who wandered about the Earth. The candlestick is a symbol of the logos, light of the world. In the chapter Zechariah104, he describes it as being watched over by two olive trees from which the oil needed for the candlesticks flows directly. In the Jewish society, the eight-armed candlestick - the Hanukkah Menorah - is also well-known: the one that burnt for eight days during the war between the Maccabees and the Seleucids from Syria, although the lamp oil was supposed to last for only one day105. The Hanukkah commemorates the recovery of the Jewish religion and of the political independency, and afterwards it came to symbolize independency itself. Antigonus, when he wanted to re-establish the Hasmonean Dynasty and to decree the popularity and prestige of his ancestors, chose the symbol that best expressed his historical justifications, his spiritual legacy, and his religious and political intentions106. On the coins, the representation appears in a simplified form, corresponding to the description of Moses’ candelabrum: all branches end at the same height; it seems to stay on a leaning basis which supports itself on three small feet, like the cup represented of the heavy money from the first rising - in agreement with the rabbinic tradition which says that it stood on feet. The leaning on legs is specified in the Talmud, without their number being mentioned. As seen in the mediaeval texts, according to the tradition, they were supposed to be three. Between the 1st and the 4lh century, a great number of painted candlesticks appear, that were engraved on a three-legged basis. As they are originally from the entire Europe and Middle East, they are varied as decorative style and shape, but they share the three-legged basis - therefore it cannot be the result of local stylistic influences107. The symbol is present both in the synagogue, especially in the arrangement of the bimah images for the chapter Synagogues), where the candelabra appear most frequently, but also in the area of the shrine. In the cemetery, the symbol appears on the lul Élie Faure, Istoria artei. Arta antică, Bucharest: Meridiane 1988, p. 197 1112 N. Badrus, Simboluri..., p.92 103 Chevalier, Gheerbrant, D.S......p. 223-224 104 The Bible, Zechariah, 4: 1 -14 105 Paul Petrescu, Obiecte rituale iudaice din România, Bucharest: Hasafer 1999, p. 64 106 D. Sperber, Menorah..., p. 142 107 Ibidem 128
