Yad (Hebrew: hand) is one of several religious artifacts associated with the scrolls of the Torah kept in synagogues. It has the shape of a rod with a hand at the top, with the index finger extended, and is used during public readings of the Torah. The scrolls must not be touched with bare hands, so the Yad is used to guide along the text. After use, it is hung on the decorated Torah scroll.
Yads are usually made of metal, often silver. Other materials such as ivory, wood, and semi-precious stones are also used in their production. Sometimes, different materials are combined. Relief or engraved plant and geometric ornaments are placed on the surface of shafts. Foundation inscriptions or dedication inscriptions are equally common, with the name of the donor, the date of production and the name of the municipality for which a given item was commissioned. The oldest known examples of yads in their familiar form date back to the 16th century (Judaica in the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw, edited by E. Martyna, Warsaw 1993, p. 100).
The yad in the collection of the District Museum in Leszno has a conical shaft divided in the middle by a ball adorned with a spiral ring. On one end, the pointer is topped with a malleable hand with an extended index finger. On the other end, there is a ball with a hook to which a silver chain is attached. The handle of the pointer has a solid shaft decorated with a smooth strip spiraling around it. The second part of the handle is flexible and made of a spiral-bent metal strip with a raised edge. The yad is marked with two symbols on the hook: a goldsmith's monogram "MO" (?) and an image of an eagle with the purity mark "84" in a barrel-shaped field.
The artifact was purchased for the museum's collection in 1993 from an antique shop on Grodziska Street (ul. Grodziska) in Poznań. It was acquired in relation to the establishment of the Judaica Department and the planned opening of a permanent exhibition dedicated to the history and culture of the Jewish community in the Wielkopolskie Province.
Dariusz Czwojdrak
