Hanukka '97
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Issue: December 1997
Designer: Igal Gabay
Stamp size: 40 x 25.7mm
Plate #: 327, 328
Sheet of 15 stamps
Tabs: 5
Printers: Government Printers
Printing Method: Offset
Bezalel spinning top
he festival of Hanukka is described very early in Jewish historical sources as a festival of joy and happiness (1st Book of the Maccabees, Chapter 4). With the passage of time, however, the traditional sources became blurred as other historical events became associated with it.These were principally the miracle of the oil-lamp, in which one day's supply of purified oil for the holy lamp in the temple lasted eight days until new supplies were available; and the victory in 164 BCE of the Maccabees over Greek invaders.
These events are commemorated by the lighting of candles every night for eight nights. While the candles are still burning it is customary not to carry out normal household activities, so children are given special toys. The most popular of these is the sevivon, a spinning top. It is generally a cube with one face sharpened outwards to a point and the opposite face bearing a peg for handling and rotating.
The name "sevivon" is modern; in Yiddish it is called, amongst other names, a dreidel or a trandel. The origins of the sevivon can be traced back to ancient India, when the four sides were marked with the points of the compass. In the Middle Ages, the game spread to Europe, especially to Germany. For Hanukka, the four sides were impressed with Hebrew initials to indicate "win," "draw," "lose" or "win half." These same initials also stand for the Hebrew phrase "A great miracle occurred there," referring to the miracle of the oil, and in Jewish circles the letters eventually came to be given this meaning exclusively. In modern Israel, the last letter has been changed to indicate "here."
The sevivon is found in a multitude of colorful forms made from many different materials, including wood, silver and lead, molded and covered with copper. In the past, Jewish children would cast their own by pouring molten lead into specially-made wooden molds.
The stamp shows a cubic copper sevivon. Its convex base has a projection in its center on which the sevivon revolves. It was fashioned at the beginning of the twentieth century at the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem. The lettering indicates that it was intended for export.
Curator of the Ethnographic Pavilion Eretz Israel Museum, Tel-Aviv
Coin of the Bar-Kokhba War (132-135 BCE)
hroughout the three years that Bar-Kokhba conducted war against the Romans, he issued silver and bronze coins, all overstruck on current currency. He thus erased the emblems of the enemy, demonstrating sovereignty, and also preserved the currency, maintaining the economy during the turbulence of the war.The overstruck coins were Roman provincial silver tetradrachmas (called sela'im in the Mishna), silver denarii and drachmas (zuzim in the Mishna), and bronze city-coins. On the overstruck Roman denarius reproduced here, the traces of the face of the emperor (on the right) can still be seen.
Most of the emblems on these coins express the desire to rebuild the Temple and renew religious services there. On the zuzim coin, the various emblems depicted include a bunch of grapes, a wreath surrounding a legend, a lyre, a kithara, two trumpets, and a one-handled jug with fluted body and a palm-branch on the right. This appears often on the zuzim throughout the three years of the war, in most cases with a palm-branch on its right side. It is the subject of our coin.
The jug depicted on the coin seems to have been either of silver or of gold and was used in the Temple service. Some scholars believe that it is intended to depict the golden flask (zelochit) used for libation of the water of the Shiloah. However, others believe that it depicts the Cous oil vessel. (Mishna, Tamid 7,2).
Our coin was struck in the name of Shimon (Bar-Kokhba) and El'azar the Priest.
