Torah Ark in the syn- agogue of Dura-Euro- pos (Syria), 2nd–3rd centuries.

EARS TO HEAR, EYES TO SEE Menorah and in : The Dialogue of Images

Lidia Chakovskaya Translated by Vera Winn

Some time ago, a magazine asked for between races. And, of course, its inti- my comments on a certain project mate identification with the monstrous launched by an international network Nazi state and its vast crimes against of tattoo salons, the goal of which was humanity transposed the into to restore the swastika’s primordial a mark of unfathomable evil across solar meaning. Before submitting my much of the world. The story of the analysis, I spent some time exploring swastika demonstrates how a symbol’s the history of the symbol. I was struck manifold meanings, accumulated over by the deep iconic resonance of the time, persist even while providing the swastika in a variety of different cul- ground for developing new ones. But tures, where it stood for well-being, after its most recent iteration as the light, and movement. But even more re- symbol of Nazi Germany, the swastika markable was the speed with which it cannot be simply restored as an image acquired a new, vastly more sinister set of heavenly realms. of meanings during the 20th century. Among other novel interpretations, the Yet as horrible as this transformation of Indian origin of the swastika was cited an ancient symbol of light into a mod- as the reason for its iconic representa- ern mark of maleficence is, its journey tion of the “Aryan” race, and its cir- is instructive in understanding our cular movement was reimagined as a own cultural iconography. The cross, reference to the never-ending struggle for example, has for centuries been the

40 iconic heart of Christian civilization, aspects of the cross during the period emerging into cultural prominence af- when the specifically Christian symbol ter the Roman embrace of . was negotiating its relationship to the We take for granted that in the image shameful and terrifying Roman cross. of the cross, all aspects of Christian To identify the nexus of interaction be- aspirations and longings are united. tween menorah and cross, we have to Over the years it has become, in most consider the stages of their historical European countries, a prominent state existence. symbol and, in one fashion or another, a source of governing legitimacy. Let us first examine the ancient re- ported history of the Menorah itself.1

Before the common era, however, an- In Exodus, God provides direction for 1 other symbol—the Menorah from the its construction, stylizing it as a tree of The Temple’s Menorah is one of the Temple in Jerusalem—emerged in gold adorned with almond blossoms, most studied objects the land where Christianity was soon and thereby associating the lampstand of the Jewish Temple. born. First depicted on a coin minted of the Tabernacle with the notion of See Rachel Hachlili, by the last Hasmonean King of Judea, the tree of life (35:14). The almond tree The Menorah, the Ancient Seven-Armed Antigonus II Mattathias (died 37 BC), provided wood for the rod of Aaron Candelabrum: Origin, the menorah soon began to appear (Num. 17:8), leading to an associa- Form and Significance on graves and in synagogues, and by tion between the menorah, commu- (Leiden: Brill, 2001); the fourth century had come to be de- nity authority, and divine protection.2 Carol L. Meyers, The Tabernacle Menorah: picted in a wide variety of artifacts, also makes an association A Synthetic Study both domestic and funerary, that have between the almond tree and God’s of a Symbol from the since been discovered in Palestine and watchfulness, using a Hebrew word Biblical Cult (Mis- throughout the ancient Mediterranean. play that builds on the almond tree’s soula, Mont.: Scholars It is clear from the archaeological and early seasonal blooming as a sign of Press, 1976); In the Light of the Menorah: literary evidence that the menorah be- the potential—but fragile—natural Story of a Symbol, ed. came a touchstone of Jewish national fertility of the land (Jer. 1:11–12). Al- Yael Israeli (The Israel identity, appearing in Byzantine syna- though biblical accounts report that in Museum, 1999). gogues, medieval Jewish manuscripts, Solomon’s Temple there were ten other 2 Leon Yarden, and, finally, as the seal of the modern lampstands (1 Kgs. 7:49), Josephus “Aaron, Bethel, and state of Israel. claims that the Menorah was the only the Priestly Meno- one lit in the rituals.3 After the destruc- rah,” Journal of Jewish Late antiquity witnessed the trans- tion of the First Temple by Nebuchad- Studies 26 (1975): 39–47. formation of the language of art from nezzar in 586 BC, all temple supplies a concentration on visible realities to were carried to Babylon, from which 3 Flavius Josephus, more intangible meanings derived there is no record of their return (Jer. Jewish Antiquities, from motifs inherent in the literature 52:18–20). 8:89–90. and culture undergirding various symbols. As a result, physical images The end of the Babylonian captivity in became only the first layer of the multi- 520 BC, the return to Jerusalem, and ple meanings that educated audiences the construction of the Second Temple could discern in a symbol. The meno- marked a new epoch in Jewish life. For rah’s evolution from a specific ritual Zechariah, a critical symbol of God’s object into a far more expansive sign presence in the renewed Jerusalem of Jewish national identity paved the was the new lampstand, representing way for a similar development of the “the seven eyes of the Lord that range cross. Semantic analogues with ancient throughout the earth” (4:1–11). The Jewish symbolism played an impor- building of the new Temple required tant role in the formation of the visual not only physical human effort, but

The Wheel 6 | Summer 2016 41 The Golgotha cross the course of their ascent to power, the behind the veil. The menorah became a symbol of the strug- marble mosaic from Hagia Sophia in gle against Hellenization, support for , 6th Jewish identity, and the restoration of a century. legitimate Jewish government—a new role encapsulated by the story of the eight-day rededication of the Temple in 164 BC, when the new golden Menorah was lighted. The Festival of Lights, or Hanukkah, has since been observed as a national celebration, and in time the

4 menorah became not only the object of Philo of Alexandria, Temple rituals: a version of it also be- On the Life of , 2:102–3; Questions and came a household object in the form of Answers on Exodus. the Hanukkah lamp.

After the Maccabean uprising, the new Hasmonean dynasty constructed a new Menorah. The menorah became also cosmic intervention to remove a symbol of the legitimacy of the Mac- the causes and consequences of the ex- cabees. The Hasmoneans who reconse- pulsion; therefore, the lampstand here crated the Temple merged the ideas of was both the symbol of the Temple and the Temple and the city of Jerusalem as the image of God’s vision manifested part of their state-building campaign. as light. The symbolism of the tree of Despite their general aniconic policies, life was also further developed, as two in certain cases they began using art, olive trees were added on either side including depictions of the Menorah, of the lampstand, representing the as a support for their rule (a menorah anointed civil and religious author- relief has also been discovered in a syn- ities of the restored nation. Through agogue at Migdal dating from the early its association with divine anointing, Roman period). At a time of brutal the Menorah here became linked with confrontation with ’s appointed certain messianic properties that were Herod the Great, the menorah was an later to be transferred to Christ, as the iconic affirmation of the Temple, an in- tree of life would blossom with the dependent Judah, and the legitimacy branch of the Messiah (Zech. 3:8). of Hasmonean rule—a role manifested by its depiction on the coin of Matta- During the turbulent Hellenistic pe- thias Antigonus, the last king and high riod, the Temple became identified as priest from the Hasmonean dynasty. the singular locus of authority, both religious and political. In 168 BC, the When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epipha- and the Herodian Temple in AD 70, the nes pillaged the Temple, looted all the Menorah was removed to Rome with precious ritual objects, and “departed other trophies, as depicted on the Arch to his own land” (1 Macc. 1:21–24). As of Titus in the Roman Forum. Several a result of the revolt and civil war oc- centuries later, according to Procopius casioned by this defamation, the Has- of Caesarea, “the treasures of the Jews” monean dynasty ultimately took con- were looted from Rome by the Vandals, trol of Judea, cleansed the Temple, and who took them to Carthage. In 534, the reasserted Jewish religious practice. In Byzantine general Flavius Belisarius

42 took them to Constantinople, where to Moses in Exodus, the menorah has the Emperor Justinian, afraid that the evolved into an image of the entire Menorah would bring him misfortune, world, becoming a sacral divine tree of sent it back to Jerusalem, from which it anointment, evidence for the restora- subsequently vanished without record. tion of Jewish statehood and the direct divine interference in that history, and By the time the physical Menorah dis- then, in the visions of Philo and Jose- appeared, its image had been fully in- phus, a celestial archetype. Initially corporated into the art of late antiquity, a simple textual image, the menorah finding new life as a mutating symbol ultimately became graphical, marking open to a variety of associations and the final transformation of an object

interpretations. In the first century BC, into a symbol. 5 Philo of Alexandria had described it Jewish Antiquities, 6:7 alternately as representing the sky, the celestial bodies, the zodiac and the sea- sons, and the heavens, where the flame The cross has gone through a sym- in the center represented the sun while bolic transformation similar to that of those on either side were the stars, the menorah, with each step of its se- with the branches being three months mantic development being the result of each season.4 According to Josephus, of a new angle of theological under- it represented the seven visible plan- standing. Unlike the Menorah, the sa- ets.5 By the turn of the millennium, the cred design of which was purportedly menorah had already become such a revealed to Moses by God, the cross meaningful semantic entity that even was a quotidian instrument of horri- with the destruction of the Temple and ble punishment. At the time of Christ, its eclipse as a physical object, its icon crucifixion was the most painful, grue- and the ideas associated with it contin- some, and shameful method of public ued to expand. The graphic image of execution in Roman Empire. Yet sev- the Menorah in the synagogue at Du- eral centuries later, the image of this ra-Europos belongs to the last phase of instrument of capital punishment was its semiotic development. By the time seen everywhere. The cross was glori- Christian culture began to influence Jewish civilization significantly in the fifth century, the menorah had already become not only an important symbol for the entire Eastern Mediterranean, but also a signifier of the civic matrix of Jewish communities.

The menorah has evolved into an im- age in which various semantic pos- sibilities bleed into each other, per- mitting multivalent interpretations to stand alongside each other and to in- form the self-identification of the varie- gated community that looks to it. Each successive interpretation of the meno- rah has added to, rather than annihi- lated, the previous ones. Based initially Coin of Antigonus II on the very precise description given Mattathias of Judah (37 BC).

The Wheel 6 | Summer 2016 43 fied in liturgical poetry and its mean- Justin Martyr followed another line of ing expounded in various texts; by the reasoning by interpreting the cross as a fourth century it had become a symbol universal cosmological image. He con- of religious identity for much of the ceived the wood itself in architectural population of the Mediterranean basin terms; material used as a frame for tor- and the Near East. ture was reconceptualized as essential scaffolding for the universe, forming The first generations of Christians the basis for the form and structure of reflected on the meaning of the cru- human beings. Such concentration on cifixion for the salvation of the world the cross’s physical elements also led and avoided the details of its physical naturally to the identification of the

6 appearance; it was not the cross that cross as a tree of life, a manifestation Epistle of Barnabas, stood for Christians, but Christ him- on earth of its antecedent in the gar- 9:7. self. New Testament authors stressed den of Genesis 2.7 This interpretation 7 Justin Martyr, Dia- the cross as an instrument of the res- extended the referential range of the logue with Trypho, 86. urrection, and as “life” and cross by associating it with one of the 8 “light.” The most ancient visual man- most important biblical topoi related to Ambrose, On the Death of Theodosius. ifestation of the cross was conveyed the menorah. not through a literal graphic repre- sentation, but in the form of a Chris- As Christ is the “light of the world,” togram, a monogram or combination so the cross was also understood as of letters that forms an abbreviation or the source of light and comprehension acronym for the name of Jesus Christ of divine mysteries; this added to the or one of his various titles. In Chris- similarities with the menorah, an ac- tian scribal practice, nomina sacra were tual lamp. The motif of light as applied abbreviated in order to highlight the to the cross would be appropriated name of God among other names, and expanded by the Emperor Con- and the cross itself was frequently stantine as it became the sign of politi- given prominence as one of these sa- cal triumph, inseparable from the new cred words. These were Christian state. often freighted with numerological significance, their symbolic meanings During the first centuries, Christians based partially on their numeric corre- conceived the cross as the tree of life, spondence to important biblical sums the symbol of the atoning sacrifice, the (for example, the elect three hundred image of the universe, and the bearer of and eighteen horsemen of , where the numerical value of eigh- teen is represented by the iota-eta— the first two letters of Jesus’s name in Greek—and the letter stands both for the number 300 and for the cross).6 In Christian manuscripts of 175–200, the , composed by letters tau and , was used to abbreviate the Greek words “cross” and “crucify.” The focus of these texts was not on the image of the cross, but on the power Menorah stone from of the sacred word; the abbreviated the synagogue at name of Jesus was more important Migdal (Galilee). than the cross.

44 divine light, but confined themselves to of Constantine’s vision of the cross be- concepts instead of images. Although fore the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in gradually the cross became an essen- 312. reports: “Constantine tial feature of the Mediterranean semi- said that about noon, when the day was osphere, even in the fourth century St. already beginning to decline, he saw Ambrose said about St. Helena that she with his own eyes the trophy of a cross “adored not the wood, because this is of light in the heavens, above the sun, an error of the Gentiles and the vanity and bearing the inscription, ‘Conquer of wicked. But she adored him who with this [τούτῳ νίκα].’” He claims that hung on the tree, whose name was in- at first Constantine did not understand scribed on the title.”8 what the apparition meant, but that on

the following night he had a dream in 9 Throughout this early period, the which Jesus “appeared with the same Eusebius, Life of Constantine, 28–29. cross’s function as a tool of Roman sign which he has seen in the heavens, capital punishment was mostly ig- and commanded him to make a like- nored in writings and graphic depic- ness of that sign . . . and to use it as a tions. The two earliest known pictorial safeguard in all engagements with his references to the crucifixion emerged enemies.”9 Constantine then created a from non-Christian and non-Jewish standard overlaid by a golden wreath, milieux, one as a parody (the Alexam- with the XP placed in its enos graffito, c. 300), and another as an center. engraved magical gemstone amulet of the late second or early third century. Two aspects of this account are note- Only after early Christians began to worthy. First is the continued promi- perceive a greater variety of interpreta- nence of the Christogram: the figure tional possibilities in the cross did they of the cross itself seems not to have describe the crucifixion itself through been sufficient as an iconic represen- imagery and artifacts, and in fact the tation, but required an additional lit- earliest image of the event did not ap- erary designation. Second and more pear until the late fifth century. intriguing is the combination of the cross with solar imagery in Constan- The transmutation of the cross into a tine’s vision (in Russian Orthodox tra- visual sign was also closely tied to its dition, Constantine’s is also appropriation by the imperial house- called “Shaped like the Sun” and is hold, beginning with Eusebius’s report seen as a fulfillment of the prophecy

Bronze coin of Constantine with labarum, AD 327.

The Wheel 6 | Summer 2016 45 Apse mosaics of in Mal. 4:2–3). Constantine is known the Empire was even further enhanced Santa Pudenziana in to have been a devotee of the solar when his mother Helena reported the Rome, depicting the cult, and this was not his first solar vi- discovery of the True Cross in Jerusa- Golgotha cross, AD 400. sion: Panegyrici Latini 6 describes how, lem shortly after the Council of Nicea. after defeating Emperor Maximian Following the recovery of this object, 10 André Grabar, in 310, Constantine experienced a Constantine built the Church of the L’Empereur dans l’art shining heavenly vision of — Resurrection on the site of its discov- Byzantin (Paris, 1936). —in his temple. After ery, and Christian tradition claims that the vision of the miraculous cross on he then erected a cross on . In the sun, Sol Invictus was replaced the Life of Constantine, Eusebius de- by Christus Victor. Constantine’s scribes him as a new Moses who had military standard, rather than a simple first crossed the sea and then, in the graphic depiction of the cross, became new Tabernacle, had erected the new the dominant symbol of the Roman Menorah, now transmogrified into Empire in his period and continued the saving Sign of the Cross. Most to have strong influence in Orthodox probably the “new Menorah” was a iconography and hymnography. The life-sized jeweled cross resting on a military and nationalist influence three-stepped pedestal; depictions of Constantine’s vision is still quite show it decorated with golden apples, apparent in the hymnography for the and the sixth-century mosaic in Hagia Feast of the Cross; the cross assimi- Sophia portrayed it as located behind lated the solar symbolism understood a curtain, similar to the setting of the by the Emperor and was then parlayed Menorah in the Temple.10 Jeweled into a trophy for the construction of a cruces gemmatae ultimately became new Roman state ideology. an important component of impe- rial donations; in the Holy Sepulcher, Some years after Constantine’s initial the earthly Jerusalem and Christian visions, the prominence of the cross in concepts of the New Jerusalem were

46 united. According to the travel diary Reliquary cross of of the nun Egeria, after venerating the Justin II (Constanti- nople, 568–74). relics of the true cross, pilgrims were shown relics of the ring of Solomon and the horn from which the kings were anointed. Imperially sanctioned solar imagery continued to be a major feature of cross visions, highlighted especially by the appearances (stauro- phaneiai) of of light in the sky above Jerusalem, as recorded by Cyril of Jerusalem in 351.

During the Second Temple period, the menorah gradually became a pro- found symbol significant in the entire Mediterranean area. It became a sign of anointing, a symbolic manifestation of God’s presence and—due to the Mac- cabees and the account of the miracle of light—a symbol of statehood. At the same time, within the Hellenistic cul- ture sphere, the menorah symbolized a celestial system. Yet the materiality of the menorah always remained at the symbolism played a significant role in heart of this sign. overcoming the fear of the terrifying Roman cross. The concentration on the Conversely, early Christians started re- iconography of the cross began only alizing the metaphysical and allegori- after Constantine had seen it in the cal significance of the cross before it be- form of letters and the cross acquired came a physical object of worship and its meaning as a symbol of the state, of a symbol of Christianity. In contrast the intervention of higher powers, of to subsequent theological reflection, the heavenly army, of heavenly light. early Christians barely acknowledged Yet by the time Helena discovered the © 2016 The Wheel. the “physical” reality of the cross as true cross, the menorah had already May be distributed for a tool for the murder of Jesus Christ. long been associated in Judaism with noncommercial use. www.wheeljournal.com Semantic overlaps with ancient Jewish these same ideas.

Lidia Chakovskaya, PhD, is a senior researcher at the State Insti- tute of Art Studies, senior lecturer at Moscow State University, and Associate Professor at the Humanities Center of the National Re- search Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute). She is the author of The Memory of the Temple Embodied: The Artistic Realm of the Holy Land Synagogues of the 3rd–6th Centuries (Moscow: Indrik, 2011).

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