Grigorescu, Felicia: Forme de artă în cimitire evreieşti din nord-vestul Romaniei (Satu Mare, 2013)
Glosar de termeni
is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This decorative element takes the shape that the carver usually imagines, as the Tree of Life does not have an equivalent in the real life. For this reason, in the studied area we usually meet it single, taking the shape of one of the trees that are mentioned by the Biblical text: the willow, the palm tree etc. It frequently appears in the cemetery (Pic. 69). The Oak. It appears quite frequently in the cemeterial art, in the shape of the broken trunk, with the crown fallen to the ground, as a metaphor of the tragedy of a human destiny, too quickly broken. Its Biblical references are more profound than we might expect. The Biblical text presents the root of the oak tree planted firmly in the ground, intact after the cutting of the trunk. It is the miracle of regeneration, as it can be read from the following passage: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast [their leaves: so] the holy seed [shall be] the substance thereofJ. Here we are also very close to the association with the being of the Israeli people, with the miracle of its perpetuation. In the Bible, the correlation of the oak tree with the cemetery can be found connected to a place of burial: Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth . In the ornamental representations on the gravestones, the oak tree appears either with a broken trunk, or through other vegetal elements (Pic. 70). Its leaf, with five or more rounded lobes, set in a decreasing sequence, on one side and the other of the central lobe, appears in spectacular bouquets or friezes. The fruit - paired acorns, connected with the symbolism of the egg, of prosperity and fecundity - also appears . The palm tree. This symbol belongs to those with the greatest identitary connotations and is known also by the name of date palm, and its branch as lulav. It is a well-known vegetal motif, the plant being one specific to the narrow coast of Israel and of the Jordan Valley* 128 129 130. This tree was very frequent in Jerusalem; Jericho was named in the Bible the city of palm trees131 132 133 134 135. This ornamental motif is one having rich references to the Judaic history and religion, being on one of the first places, if it were to make a statistic of the vegetal Biblical allusions . The palm tree is named as one of the most important in the making of tents in which the Jews were supposed to live in the feasts seventh month'1'3. The palm tree can be associated to innocence, and lack of sin, according to the Biblical reference: The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree1'4. Furthermore, it is present in the ornamentation of Solomon’s Temple: On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers145. niIbidem, Isaiah 6: 13 128 Ibidem, Genesis 35: 8 129 Chevalier, Gheerbrant, D.S., vol. 2, p. 93 130 Cynthia Crewe, Plant motifs..., p. 7 131 The Bible, II Chronicles 28: 15 132 Cynthia Crewe,, p. 77 133 The Bible, Nehemiah 8: 14-15 134 Ibidem, Psalms 92: 12 135 Ibidem, I Kings 6: 29 135
