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incised branch or palm branch, or in a bundle with
branches of myrtle (hadas) and willow (arava), and
often with the ethrog. At Sepphoris the bundle
is set in a bowl.
The ethrog (citron) is a citrus fruit, prevalently
designed in Jewish art as a circular or ovoid object
with a small stem. As noted, it is commonly connected
with or bound to the lulav. The ethrog,
with the lulav and the shofar, is generally shown
flanking the menorah. At Sepphoris, non-identical
ethrogim are set close to the lulav bundle.
The incense shovel is a rectangular fire-pan with a
handle, used by the High Priest on Yom Kippur.
Such incense shovels formed part of the accessory
utensils of the menorah, used to remove ash
and clean the menorah lamps in the Temple (Ex.
25: 38). Commonly paired with the shofar, it is
the rarest of all four ritual objects and appears
mostly on synagogue mosaic pavements and on
some synagogue architectural elements. On the
Sepphoris synagogue mosaic floor the incense
shovel is unusually placed beneath the Torah
shrine (pl. II-1b). Incense shovel is represented
only in the Land of Israel; in the Diaspora it is
replaced by a vase.
The ritual objects flanking the menorah are
represented on account of their above-mentioned
connection to Tabernacles, which during
the Second Temple period came to be the most
important of the three annual pilgrimage feasts
(attested already by Zechariah, 14: 16-18). Tabernacles
was referred to as ‘The Feast’ (Jos. Ant.
8. 100) and asif (the final harvest of the year)
(Hachlili 1988: 267-8; 1998: 359-360). A Tabernacles
ritual in the Temple was the rite of the
four plant enumerated above. Later they came to
symbolize this important annual festival, and to
recall the Temple rites. The Jews could remember
and celebrate the national, communal, and
agricultural activities of the festival.
The antithetic symmetrical composition of
the Torah shrine panels is a distinctive feature
of Jewish art occurring in many figurative and
decorative subjects; it is also one of the basic features
of art in the Near East. Jewish art has a propensity
to portray two similar but non-identical
objects in pairs, namely to produce the non-identical
symmetry effect. This holds for the depiction
of pairs of menoroth too (Hachlili 1988: 253-254;
376-378; 1998: 419-420; 2001: 191-194).
An important issue is the explanation of the
symmetry that appears in mosaic pavement
panels, such as a pair of menoroth flanking the
chapter two
Torah shrine or the Ark of the Scrolls. It might, in
fact, have special significance (Hachlili 1988: 367;
2001: 198-200). The simple answer lies in the tendency
to symmetrical composition in Jewish art, as
influenced by Levantine oriental art. The occurrence
of two menoroth, however, may reflect the
actual function of the menorah in the synagogue.
Such portrayals very often reflect the use of actual
objects; they illustrate the internal arrangement
of the synagogue, with the ark in a central position,
flanked by menoroth. They may also have
been placed together with the ark in the niche
or apse of the synagogue, for example, the three
built niches of the ’Eshtemo‘a synagogue which
probably held an ark and two menoroth (Hachlili
1988: 255, Fig. VIII,5; 2001, fig. IV-3). These
portrayals of pairs of menoroth may indicate that
some time during the 3rd and 4th centuries a
change in the synagogue ritual occurred, requiring
the use of two menoroth functioning simultaneously.
In the mosaic floor depictions other
innovations at this time are, for example, zodiac
representations and additional ritual utensils. The
proliferation of Christianity, and its inherent challenge
to the established Jewish religion, may have
been the cause of the increasing ceremonial content
in synagogue ritual and art (Hachlili 2001:
199-200).
The composition of the Torah shrine panel is
generally uniform on numerous mosaic pavements
(and reliefs). It is unique, and is found in various
sites separated by distance and time. Slight variations
notwithstanding, this seems to prove the
existence of a prototype (Hachlili 1988: 391-394).
The styles of the mosaic pavements, however,
differ completely as each synagogue’s artist added
to, and changed the basic pattern.
Their proximity to the Torah shrine reinforces
the hypothesis that the ark and menoroth were
actually placed in the niche or apse of these synagogues
(see, for instance, the reconstruction of the
Beth Alpha interior in Sukenik 1932: Fig. 17).
Synagogue mosaics that show these objects
have a twofold function: to show their actual use
and to suggest their symbolic connotations. As
these objects were in the past connected to the
Temple, they probably expressed a longing for
the Temple rites and ceremonies, which could
be satisfied by the depiction of the objects on the
synagogue floor.
A different design, in the form of a symbolic
temple or sanctuary façade, appears on mosaic