Obj. ID: 9773
Sacred and Ritual Objects Torah finials, Israel/Eretz Israel, 1948
The Torah finial consists of a shaft, a body and an apex.
The cylindrical, tapering shaft is encircled by a ring at the bottom and surmounted by a flattened widening towards the top capital. A dedicatory inscription, written towards the body in square-filled letters, appears on each shaft, it reads:
"לע'נ/ שבתאי כהן ז''ל/ הי''ד/ בן צביה ז''ל שנפל ביום ה' באייר תש'ח/ ת.נ.צ.ב.ה"
“For the exaltation of the soul of Shabtai Cohen of blessed memory, may the Lord avenge his blood, who had fallen on fifth day of Iyar, (5)708=1948, may his soul be bound up in the bond of life.”
The tapering body consists of two compressed globular parts, one tops the other, divided by the sundial-shaped blank unit. Both parts are decorated similarly. Each of them is encircled in the center by a band, flanked by elongated leaves radiating from the top and from the bottom. The band of the lower part is decorated with three pairs of roses divided by diagonal blank strip, while the band of the upper part bears three alone roses, divided by the identical strip. All roses are surrounded by leaves.
Five rings with chains carrying bells are attached to each part. The upper part terminates with a conical blank unit.
An undulating apex, rising from an umbrella-like plaque, surmounts the finial.
5 image(s)
sub-set tree:
Structure: cast
Decoration: filigree
Bonding: soldered
Inscription: engraved
Diameter: 65mm
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 Rimon, paamon ve-ktovet zikaron (Unpublished manuscript, 2023).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)