Abstract
During excavations of the bimah (the platform for reading the Torah) of the 17th-century Great Synagogue of Vilna (Vilnius, Lithuania), an important memorial inscription was exposed. This paper describes the new finds associated with the baroque-rococo architecture of the bimah and focuses on the inscription and its meaning. The Hebrew inscription, engraved on a large stone slab, is a complex rabbinic text filled with biblical allusions, symbolism, gematria, and abbreviations. The text describes the donation of a Torah reading table in 1796 in honour of R. Ḥayim ben Ḥayim and of Sarah by their sons, R. Eliezer and Shmuel. The inscription notes the aliyah (emigration) of Ḥayim and Sarah to Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel. The interpretation of the inscription shows the use of multiple messianic motifs. Historical analysis identifies the involvement of the Vilna community with the support of the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Ottoman Palestine) and the aliyah of senior scholars and community leaders at the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Amongst these figures were Ḥayim ben Ḥayim and Sarah, with Ḥayim ben Ḥayim going on to represent the Vilna community in the Land of Israel as its emissary, distributing charitable donations to the scholarly Ashkenazi community resident in Tiberias, Safed, and later Jerusalem.
Highlights
The Bimah—Architectural Description and New FindsThe bimah was located between the four large central columns of the main prayer hall (Rupeikienė 2008, pp. 75–76; Levin 2012, p. 286, figs. 5.23–36)
This paper describes the new finds associated with the baroque-rococo architecture of the bimah and focuses on the inscription and its meaning
The Great Synagogue of Vilna was at the centre of its community and probably the most important edifice of Lithuanian Jewry until its ransacking by the Germans during the liquidation of the Small Ghetto in late October 1941 and later demolition under
Summary
The bimah was located between the four large central columns of the main prayer hall (Rupeikienė 2008, pp. 75–76; Levin 2012, p. 286, figs. 5.23–36). The bottom tier, some 3.9 m high, was entered from the sides by two staircases with decorative wrought iron banisters This tier was surrounded by a built balustrade mounted by twelve columns, the four red coloured corner columns with Corinthian capitals, each divided by a pair of green coloured columns of the Tuscan order.. There is certainly a possibility that this cellar belongs to the base of the original Baroque bimah of the synagogue and was reutilised during the 18th century for the new structure. This cellar is not mentioned in any of the descriptions of the bimah, nor is it visible in any of the photographs. Levin (2012, p. 287) proposes that the legendry tunnel was supposedly entered from the genizah (storage for the disposed sacred items) in the polisz, an annexed room on the south-western side of the synagogue, though, in the same manner, the legend could relate to the dark cellar below the bimah
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