A videót Bánfalvi-Orosz Eszter, készítette. A videóban bemutatott műtárgyak a megjelenés sorrendjében: Az első savuoti istentisztelet az új Dohány utcai templomban, metszet Tóraszekrény Tóraszekrény függöny (valamint képeslapok) The 50th day after Passover is the feast of Shavuot. We also remember that Judaism became a nation when they got the two stone tablet, the Ten Commandments, at Mount Sinai. According to tradition, we study all night and consume dairy foods during the holiday because the Torah is similar to milk and honey. The colored engraving depicts the scene where the Torah Scroll is shown in front of the community commemorating the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. As Shavuot is also the festival of the first harvest, following the tradition reminiscent of this, the synagogue is decorated with green leaves and plants. The Torah ark is used to store the holiest object of the Jewish religion, the Torah scrolls, and is traditionally located int he eastern part of the synagogue, facing Jerusalem. The 18th century Baroque Torah ark belonged to the furnishing of the Köpcsény (today: Kittsee, Austria) Synagogue. The village located in today’s Burgenland belonged to the Esterházy estate, and the community was built in accordance with the privilege given by the prince. In the 17th century, when Jews were not allowed to live in most of the Hungarian towns, they could build houses and a synagogue in the area received by the prince. They could operate the institutions necessary for Jewish life: ritual bath, school, kosher butchery and wine-shop. They enjoyed extensive autonomy in the internal affairs of the community with the consent of the landlord, but were free to choose rabbis and magistrates. The exterior appearance of the Torah ark evokes the style of the artistic furniture manufacturing of the era. It is possible that its maker was one of the carpenters of the princely court, as manorial craftsmen could work on the construction of the synagogue. The separation of the Torah ark and the synagogue space is provided by an ornate Torah ark curtain. The Hebrew name of this object, Parochet, is first mentioned in the description of the First Temple, where it separated the Holy of Holies from the temple area. The curtains of the Second Temple, as described by Josephus Flavius, were embroidered by virgins in the neighborhood of the temple. The Torah ark curtains are reminiscent of the Temple. At parts of the liturgy reminiscent of Jerusalem and the Temple, the community prays facing East, Jerusalem, that is, facing the curtain. The ornamentation of the earliest surviving Torah ark curtains evokes the architectural details of the biblical Temple, and each element has a symbolic meaning. The double twisted columns summon the two columns in front of the Temple, Jachin and Boaz. Grape tendrils are wrapped around the columns, and on top of them there is a bouquet of flowers in a vase. The crown resembles the crown of kings, but on objects related to the Torah it is reminiscent of the term ’Crown of the Torah’. The Parochet has a typically seven-scalloped valance. The traditional name of the Torah Ark valance is kaporeth, which refers to the gold-molded lid of the chest containing the former Ten Commandments.The 18th Century kaporeths are made of textile, with an embroidered image of a piece of furniture of the Temple in each scallops. Aaron’s priestly headdress, The table of 12 sacrificial shewbreads, a copper plate, the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, Altar of incense, the big golden Menorah, the high priest breastplate of Aaron, the ephod. The parochet originally belonged to the furnishing of the Óbuda Synagogue and was moved from the collection of the Óbuda Jewish Museum to its present location after 1945. Video made by Eszter Bánfalvi-Orosz, translated by Eszter Cseh-Szilárd. Objects in the video: The first Shavuoth in the Dohany street synagogue, etching Torah Ark Torah Ark Curtain, Parochet (and postcards from the Kohn-collection) A papírkivágás a 18-19. században lett népszerű a zsidó közösségekben, elsősorban a lengyel és a galíciai területeken. Ezzel a technikával férfiak dolgoztak, jesive-bóherek, melammedek és tanítványaik. A videónkban bemutatott siviti különösen szép példája a papírkivágásoknak. Különlegessége, hogy az általános gyakorlattal szemben nem színezett, a fehéren hagyott papír gazdag csipkemintát ad ki, melyben szinte kizárólag a héber betűk dominálnak. Feliratai a zsinagógákban és zsinagógai tárgyakon gyakori mondatok, elsősorban zsoltár-idézetek. This shiviti from Gyöngyös is a papercut; a characteristic piece of East-European Jewish folk art. Papercuts became most popular in the 18th-19th century amongst jewish communities. They were made exclusively by men: pupils in heder, yeshiva students, teachers (melamedim) and their assistants. While paper cuts were mostly painted with watercolors or colored with chalk and then mounted onto a sheet of paper of contrasting dark color paper, the uniquity of our shiviti that it was made of white paper, with only the Hebrew words dominating: typically, the text is citations from the Psalms, or other frequently cited texts. A bemutatott műtárgy: Siviti tábla The object on display: Shiviti table Lenke Földes is one of the undeservedly forgotten sculptors of the twentieth century. Born in 1896, The artists spent several years in Vienna and later made a career in Paris, her name however, is little known in Hungary. Only one major publication has been written about her to this day, in 1945, with a prologue written by Lajos Kassák. In his writing Kassák emphasized the childlike experimentational spirit of the introverted sculptor and classified her art as one following the most modern trends. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves: who was Lenke Földes and how did the stages of her life unfold? Lenke née: Sonnenfeld married István Földes, a lawyer in Újpest, in 1912 and was forced to emigrate to Vienna with him, because of his involvement in the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Lenke Földes studied there from Anton Hanak, a teacher at the Vienna school of applied arts, an acclaimed artist of the era, who described the first works of the inexperienced, yet instinctive sculptor as: Lenke Földes seemed to bite them out with her teeth’. In 1925, the couple was granted amnesty so they could return home, but before long, Földes was already working in Paris at the suggestion of the sculptor Már Vedres. In the French capital, she visited Antoine Bourdelle, a celebrated French sculptor of the era, who immediately gave her an opportunity to exhibit her art. From 1925, she regularly attended Paris’s most prestigious exhibitions. During the 1930 exhibition of her collected works in Paris, Maurice Raynal, the most famous art critic of the time gave a lecture on her art, and the Luxembourg Museum purchased her sculpture titled Motherhood. The first exhibition of the collected works of Lenke Földes in Hungary was held in the autumn of 1959, in the Fényes Adolf Hall in Budapest. The artist later lived in Australia for a long time. Eventually, she died in London at the age of 90. The central motif of Lenke Földes’s expressive sculptures, mostly made of agalmatolite and marble, was always motherhood and female representation. She modeled standing, sitting, bathing, dancing, sleeping, leaning women, and mothers nurturing, hugging, protecting and sheltering their children. The intimate sculptures, which are often miniature in size, have a monumental effect despite their small size, reflecting the features of modernism, but at the same time, they seem archaic and even primitive due to their block-like nature and the rough and mask-like facial contours. Perhaps these were the characteristics Antoine Bourdelle was referring to when he described Földes’s art as ’block of momentum’. Many of her sculptures and paper sketches are preserved in the collection of the Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives. Her work, the Crouching Mother, was displayed at the first exhibition of the OMIKE Art Action. The museum also preserves a photo of the inauguration of the statue made by Földes of the politician Vilmos Vázsonyi. Translated by Eszter Cseh-Szilárd Készítette: Farkas Zsófia
A Karlsbadi szédertálak eredete igazán meglepő: közép-európai interkulturális kapcsolatok eredménye, melyben vannak nagyvilági urak, nem kóser ételek és rafinált szuvenírárusok is. A népszerű csehországi fürdőhely a zsidó látogatók körében is népszerű lett, ezért a szuvenír- forgalmazók az ő igényeik kielégítésére az eredetileg osztriga szervírozására tervezett tálakat a megfelelő héber feliratokkal szédertálakká alakították. A kisfilmet Toronyi Zsuzsanna készítette. The origin of the Kasrlsbad Sederplates is really striking: the product of Central European intercultural relations incorporating worldly potentats, non- kosher food and flyboy souvenir sellers. The Czech spatown of Karlsbad became really popular among the Jewish visitors and this led to the souvenir sellers mouldering plates originally intended for serving oysters into seder plates by ingraved Hebrew inscriptions to fulfill their new potential customers’ needs. The short film was made by Zsuzsanna Toronyi. A budapesti Zsidó Múzeumban látható egy nagyon érdekes szédertál. Nem különleges, egyedi darab, hanem tömegáru, melynek számos ikertestvére van más múzeumokban, vagy akár pesti háztartásokban is. Valamennyi közepén egy hajdan divatos fürdőváros, Karlsbad neve olvasható. Karlsbad és Marienbad nyugat csehországi gyógyvizes fürdők, melyek sikerességüket elsősorban a gyomorbajok enyhítésére alkalmas gyógyvizüknek köszönhették. Igazán divatossá a huszadik század első évtizedeiben váltak, amikor ide járt nyaranta az arisztokrácia és a feltörekvő középosztály. A fürdőkúra elsősorban pihenést, korzózást, és a gyógyvíz fogyasztását jelentette. A vacsorához divatos volt az osztriga is, melyből egy tucatot, vagy fél tucatot, azaz hat darabot fogyasztottak. Az osztriga potencianövelő hírének köszönhetően mondén viccelődések tárgya lett, és a szuvenírárusok megjelentek az ajándéknak szánt osztrigatálakkal. Kevéssé ismert, hogy az asszimilálódó zsidó családok mellett ortodox és haszid zsidók is nyaraltak Karlsbadban. Az 1920-as évektől rendszeresen itt pihent a nagytekintélyű munkácsi rabbi, Hájim Eleázár Spira is. A helyi fotósok igazi lesifotósként fényképezték a kelet-európai ortodox rabbikat, majd a képeket jó pénzért, emléktárgyként árusították a rabbik követőinek. Az osztrigatálakat viszont nem lehetett nekik eladni, hiszen az osztriga nem kóser, zsidók nem fogyaszthatják. Ekkor jöhetett rá egy szemfüles ajándékboltos, hogy a hat, kagyló alakú mélyedéssel ellátott tál a megfelelő feliratokkal könnyedén szédertállá alakítható, s így már a zsidó látogatóknak is eladható. Annyit vettek belőle, hogy más fürdőhelyek is átvették ezt a formát: ezen a Trencsén-Tepliztben készült tálon már a rituális ételek neve sem szerepel, csak a közepén lévő Dávid csillag utal a tál kulturális kötődéseire. A very interesting seder plate can be seen in the Hungarian Jewish Museum in Budapest. It is not a special, unique piece, but a mass produced item with many twins in other museums or even in households in Pest. In the middle of each is the name of a once fashionable spa town, Karlsbad. Karlsbad and Marienbad are spa baths in the western part of the Czech Republic, whose success was mainly due to their healing water, which is suitable for the relief of stomach troubles. They became really fashionable in the first decades of the twentieth century, when the aristocracy and the emerging middle class came here during the summer. The spa treatment mainly meant relaxation, sauntering and the consumption of medicinal water. Oysters were also fashionable for dinner, of which they consumed a dozen or half a dozen, that is six pieces. Thanks to its potency enhancing reputation, it became the subject of carnal jokes and souvenir vendors appeared with oyster plates as gifts. It is little known that besides assimilating Jewish families, Orthodox and Hasidic Jews also vacationed in Karlsbad. From the 1920s onwards, the highly respected rabbi of Munkács, Hajim Eleazar Spira was also a regular visitor here. Local photographers took photos of Eastern European Orthodox rabbis as real paparazzi, and then sold the pictures as souvenirs to the followers of these rabbis for good money. Oyster plates, however, could not be sold to them as oysters are not kosher so they cannot be eaten by Jews. It was then that a vigilant gift vendor realized that these plates, with six shell-shaped holes, could easily be turned into seder plates with the appropriate inscriptions and thus sold to Jewish visitors. There was such a demand that other bathing resorts also took over this practice: this plate, that was made in Trencin-Teplitz, no longer bears the names of the ritual dishes. Only the Star of David in the middle refers to the cultural attachments of the plate. Translated by Eszter Cseh-Szilárd
A videót a múzeumi audioguide részleteinek felhasználásával Bánfalvi-Orosz Eszter, a múzeumpedagógiai tartalmakat Dancz Vera készítette.
A videóban bemutatott műtárgy: Szédertál takaró További tárgyak a megjelenés sorrendjében: Képeslap Moritz Daniel Oppenheim: Képek a zsidó családi életből Kalácstakaró Szédertál takaró Továbbiak a feladatlapban: Szombati lámpás Fűszertartó Kancsó (lévita kanna) Gyertyatartó pár Emeletes szédertál Serleg Fali gyertyatartó
In the Jewish tradition, the breads used for ritual eating, the Shabbat challah and the unleavened bread consumed at Passover, the matzoth, should be kept covered before the blessing. This habit led to the development of Challah covers, Seder plate covers. The Seder plate cover embroidered with red, blue and beige silk thread is a beautiful example of cultural interaction. On both of the two post-stitched bases we see a framed picture, with a Seder evening scene on the right and symbolic objects related to ritual meals on the left.Above the picture on the right we can read the name of the owners: Yoel Samuel,and his wife Yachet. In the picture, the head of the family is sitting with a goblet in his hand, wearing the white robe, kittel, also worn during Passover.It is evident from his wife’s hands that she is lighting the festive candles.On the table there is a tiered Seder plate, and above the table a multibranched brass lamp used in Jewish households, the Judenstern can be seen. There are two more illuminators on the walls. The embroidered pictures are framed by tulips and pomegranates. This type of embroidery spread during the Turkish occupation. It was made primarily in noble mansions and later appeared in simpler households as well. The Seder plate cover, decorated with a Seder scene and a row of lilies and pomegranates, was probably made int he early 18th century.
Video edited by Eszter Bánfalvi-Orosz, educational content by Vera Dancz Translated by Eszter Cseh-Szilárd Object in focus: Sederplate-cover Further objects: Postcard Moritz Daniel Oppenheim: Bilder Challah-cover Sederplate-cover More in the educational content: Shabbat lamp Spice container Levite pitcher Candle holders Tiered Seder-plate Chalice Wall lighters |
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