Objects

Sabbath lamp

The light heralding the arrival of the Sabbath queen is lit in both homes and synagogues. This ritual, like all the other rituals associated with celebrating the Sabbath, emphasises the deep bond between Jews and the Creator. According to traditional beliefs, during the holiday, the faithful receive an additional soul (Hebrew: neshamah yeterah), symbolised by a Sabbath candle. The day of Sabbath rest is at the same time a foretaste of the future messianic world (Hebrew: ha-olam ha-ba), in which the peace and tranquillity characteristic of this weekly holiday will encompass the whole world (A. Untermann, Encyklopedia tradycji i legend żydowskich, Warsaw 1994, pp. 261–262).

Among the objects associated with Jewish religious ritual in the Leszno District Museum's collection, there is a hanging Sabbath lamp. It has a baluster stem, to which an oil container in the form of an eight-pointed star is suspended. Beneath it, another, smaller container, shaped like a bowl, is suspended, into which the excess oil flows. On the outer wall of one of the recesses, an engraved inscription in German reads: "Leszno Youth School". The item comes from the former Jewish school located in what is now Zygmunt Krasiński Avenue (Al. Zygmunta Krasińskiego). The number of arms suggests that it may also have been used during the Hanukkah festival.

The Jewish school in Leszno was built in 1888 outside the historic ghetto. It was abolished in 1923 due to a decrease in the number of Jewish students and their referral to an evangelical school. After 1945, the building housed a special school and is now occupied by the Private School Complex in Leszno.

The lamp was purchased for the Leszno museum's collection in 2016 from Jerzy Lech Przewoźniak from Koszalin. The item was included in the historical collection. The previous owner did not provide any information that could help determine the history of the object or the path it took before returning to Leszno.

Dariusz Czwojdrak

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Information about the object
Author / creator
unknown
Object type
handicrafts
lighting
Time of creation / dating
19th century
Place of creation
unknown
Technique
cast
engraving
Material
brass
Keywords
Copyright status
the object is not protected by copyright law
Owner
Local Museum in Leszno
Identification number
MLH 4847