Grigorescu, Felicia: Forme de artă în cimitire evreieşti din nord-vestul Romaniei (Satu Mare, 2013)
Glosar de termeni
Although the religious connotations of this symbol are yet to be unravelled, the Jews have adopted this symbol, which they had known since Antiquity - however, without any direct connections of historical-religious identification with them. It was probably one of the few things that were given to them, in order to represent themselves legally and identitarily through it. This was one of the most outspread identitary Jewish symbols in North-West Romania, found on numerous funeral monuments, on the frontons of synagogues, on column heads, near the shrine, on the ceiling, on cultic objects, on frontlets’ covers, in the window eyes, in the ornament of the sepulchres’ doors or on the cemetery gates, and in many other places. In Jewish cemeteries, the symbol is usually found on the tombstone of men. It is made through carving or, more spectacularly, in low relief, either as two overlapped equilateral triangles or as a rosette with six rhombic leaves. Monuments, on which this décor appears twice in compositional symmetry, were identified (Pic. 46). The Tablets of Law. This is a Biblical symbol, with strong religious connotations for the Jews. The Tablets of Law - Shnei Luchos Habris - represent the behavioral code of the Chosen People, its existential definition, in order to correspond with the divine exigencies, for the Promised Land. These were given to Moses on the Mountain: Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them11'. The Bible returns to the description of the Tablets: And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony [were] in his hand: the tables [were] written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other [were] they written. And the tables [were] the work of God, and the writing [was] the writing of God, graven upon the tables"4. According to the Biblical description, the symbol appears in the shape of two adjacent planes, usually arched in the upper part, on which letters from the Hebrew alphabet are carved. The symbol is frequently seen in the decoration of the synagogue, but can also be found in the cemetery. In the cemetery, the symbol can be found in different hypostases: either as an element of decorum in the superior register of the funeral stone, or in the form of epitaphs (Pic. 48), or even as the form of the funeral monument (Pic. 49), but especially in the case of two contiguous sepulchres, in which case both tables carry an epitaph each (which is not, however, compulsory). The Tablets of Laws represent the Moral Law that comes down from Heaven113 114 115. These are perceived as a link between the members of the community, as unifying centre116, with a very important role in the ethnical resistance of the Jews along their historical trajectory. The Blessing of the Cohens. This symbol consists of the approach of two hands in a certain position of the fingers: the approach of the thumbs stuck on the forefingers, and the grouping of the four adjacent fingers, pairwise: the forefinger with the middle finger and the ring finger with the little finger (Pic 64). In the Jewish world, the blessings are very frequent: first of all, and always, the God is blessed, the completion of the commandments given through the Law, all the religious activities, such as the 113 The Bible, Exodus 24: 12 114 Ibidem, 32: 15,16 115 Chevalier, Gheerbrant, D.S., vol. Ill, p. 324 m Ibidem, \ol. Ill, p. 324 130
