Torah Finial @museum.de

The Old Testament tells of Moses receiving the Tablets of the Law on Mount Sinai – tablets on which God conveyed the most important rules to his people: the ten commandments.

These events are described in Exodus, so they are central to Jewish scripture, the Torah. Written on long strips of parchment and rolled up to form scrolls, the Torah is present in every synagogue, where it is kept in a Torah ark.

The scriptures are venerated and protected. The Torah scroll is usually dressed in a mantle, or cover, and adorned with a magnificent breastplate. The two upper ends of the shafts, around which the scroll is wound, are held together with the Torah crown.

Take a look at your screen: that’s the drawing of the Torah from the mappah, the Torah wimpel owned by Raphael Blumenfeld from the first floor. You can clearly see the Torah Crown above the scroll.

This exhibit is from the synagogue in Archshofen – which is now part of Creglingen. As well as the obligatory crown symbol, it also shows the Tablets of Stone with the Ten Commandments, and was mounted above the Torah ark. The synagogue in Archshofen was abandoned no later than 1936. But the Torah finial survived persecution during the “Third Reich” in the attic of the town hall. It was presented to the museum on long-term loan by Archshofen municipal council a few years ago.