Obj. ID: 12845
Sacred and Ritual Objects Torah pointer, Afghanistan, 1952
The silver maniform Torah Pointer consists of a bar and a pointer.
The bar is divided into an upper arm and a forearm by an upper a middle and a pointer. The bar is flat, straight, and is decorated with a frame of lines. It bears a dedicatory inscription on its upper side. The bar is surmounted by a flat stylised leaf upper joint which is decorated with five petal leaves.
The bar is divided by a flat flower-shaped middle joint which is decorated with leaves and set with a semi-precious gem.
The pointer is identical to the middle joint but it is smaller. The inscription is engraved in linear letters and reads
זה הקולמוס עשיתי בניאמין / לנש! אחי שלמה בן אברהם / ש! תשיב % נו עד [=נוחו עד]
Translation: This Qulmus (=Torah pointer), I made, Benjamin % for the soul of my brother Solomon son of Abraham the year (int.) (5)712=(1952) % may he rest in Eden (int.)
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:
Hanegbi, Zohar and Bracha Yaniv, Afghanistan : the synagogue and the Jewish home (Jerusalem: Center for Jewish Art, 1991)