Obj. ID: 6633
Sacred and Ritual Objects Torah pointer, Afghanistan, 1st half of the 20th century
The silver Torah pointer consists of a hanger, a bar, and a pointer.
The bar is flat and divided into an upper arm and a forearm. The upper arm is straight and bears a dedicatory inscription. It is surmounted by a round upper joint with a wavy rim, decorated by a dotted net of rhomboid.
The middle joint is in the shape of a stylized flower set with a red bead. The forearm is tapering and decorated by a foliate motif.
The Torah pointer terminates with a flower-like pointer, decorated with a foliate motif.
A chain is inserted through a hole at the end of the upper arm. The dedicatory inscription is engraved in outline letters and reads towards the forearm:
בשם יעקוב בן ראובן
Translation: In the name of Jacob son of Ruben
In Afghanistan, the pointer was called a qalam in the local dialects. It was originally a flat silver rod with one pointed end, but eventually, both ends became wider and were decorated with foliate or other designs. Gems were added to some pointers generally embedded as a part of the foliate patterns. The common method of decorating the Afghan Torah pointer was engraving. The favorite patterns were foliate and geometrical designs along the borders of the pointer, enclosing dedicatory or commemorative inscriptions. The inscription was engraved along the upper or back side of the pointer from the holding end to the pointing one. In the 1940s, when olive-wood Torah pointers from Eretz Israel reached Herat, the design of the Afghan pointer underwent some changes. These Israeli pointers were shaped like a hand with a pointing finger. They became extremely prestigious and were used only on the Sabbath and holy days. As a result, pointers made in Herat acquired a hand and a pointing finger. [Hanegbi, pp. 23-24]
sub-set tree:
engraved, set cornelian
Hanegbi, Zohar and Bracha Yaniv, Afghanistan : the synagogue and the Jewish home (Jerusalem: Center for Jewish Art, 1991), pp. 68, 131.