Obj. ID: 9187
Sacred and Ritual Objects Torah finials, Israel/Eretz Israel, 1948
The pear-shaped Torah finials consist of a body, a shaft, and an apex.
The cylindrical, tapering shaft is encircled at the top and the bottom. The shaft is decorated with a dedicatory inscription, identical on both finials. The inscription is written in square-filled letters in three lines towards the body. It reads:
"לזכרו של החייל מרדכי בן חנה שנפטר/ בן ח''י שנה שנפל על משמרתו בעיר הקודש/ ירושלים ט''ז לחודש ניסן ש'' תש’'ח/”
Translation: “For the memory of the soldier Mardehai ben Hana who passed away in the age of eighteen the year when he fell on his duty in the holly city Jerusalem 16th on month Nissan the year 1948”
The shaft is topped by a semi-globular capital.
The pear-shaped body is divided into two parts by a compressed protruding ring.
The lower part consists of two bands, separated by a narrow blank strip. The body base is alternately decorated with a blank arch and an arch with a flower. It is topped by a wide band, bearing blank ovals surrounded by floral motif.
The conical upper part is blank.
Six chains terminating with bells are attached to the ring.
The body is surmounted by an apex, shaped like a Star of David. The apex bears the inscription ""ציון “zion”.
9 image(s)
sub-set tree:
For more finials dedicated to soldiers, who fell during the War for Independence, see
Mizrahi-Tzoref, Yehuda. Rimon, paamon ve-ktovet zikaron (Unpublished manuscript, 2023). [In Hebrew], https://cja.huji.ac.il/external_texts_db/Mizrahi_Rimon ve-zikaron_2023.pdf (accessed April 30, 2023)