Img. ID: 20439

According to Rashi, the first case (fig. 1) refers to anointing the unleavened wafers: after baking they were tempered with oil as the Greek chaff which resembles the shape of our nun, like this (n-נ; Ex. 29:2; I:74, 3rd column: משחים בשמן. אחר אפייתן מושחן כמין כ"ף יונית שהיא עשוייה כנו"ן שלנו, כזה). Rashi's commentary is based on BT Menahot 74b: "he took the oil with his finger like a Greek chi (χ)"; (for chi see Kasher 1992, addenda, Parashat Tetzaveh, vol. 23, parag. 20). This should illustrate the movement of the finger or hand while taking the oil from a vessel and spreading it on the wafers. However, this does not explain the form of the Hebrew letter nun (נ), which resembles rather an inverted gamma (Γ). This error results from a conflation of two different traditions which appear in our commentary (Gruber 1994, pp. 31, 34 and n. 8). Rashi proceeds to explain the anointing of Aaron (Ex. 29:7): "even this anointing is like a Greek chaff, putting oil upon his head and between his eyelashes, joining them with his finger" (I:74, 3rd column: ומשחת אותו. אף משיחה זו כמין כ"ף יונית, נותן שמן על ראשו, ובין ריסי עיניו, ומחברן באצבעו). In the second case (fig. 2), which refers to the anointing of the Tabernacle, the sanctuary implements and Aaron and his sons (Ex. 30:26), a smaller letter nun illustrates Rashi's emphasis that "all anointing was in the shape of the letter nun, except that of kings, which was like a diadem" (I:76v, 1st column ומשחת בו. כל המשיחות כמין כי יונית, חוץ משל מלכים שהן כמין נזר). However, in the third case (I Kings, 1:33-34) the shape of the letter nun (n-נ) illustrates the way Solomon was anointed with oil, apparently applied with a finger "between his eyelashes in the form of a diadem like our nun as in this drawing" (I:201v;נותן לו שמן בין ריסי עיניו כמן נזר, כגון נון שלנו, כזה הציור; fig. 3). This description too is a reflection of two traditions, which are explained in Rashi's commentary on Kritot 5b. There Rashi explains the difference between two kinds of anointing: that of kings "like a diadem: anointing round his head" and that of priests "like a chi: pour oil on his head and then between his eyelashes and combine them with the finger through the forehead" (Gruber 1994, p. 34, and fig.1). To sum up, the three letters nun in our manuscript illustrate the movement of the finger or hand while "taking the oil" and applying it to a wafer or the eyelashes of priests and kings.