Page 143 - HANUKIYA

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Mach a Brachah! Merchants, shluchim, Jews traveling to a new home in
a new land — when Chanukah came around, they all
There is a beautiful Chanukah menorah from Leipzig, needed a menorah to light. In Mr. Hoffman’s collection
early 1700s, in the collection of the Israel Museum. It has are several travel menorahs from around the world,
something unusual: Instead of lions flanking the seven- including one from Tunis, which is about 100 years old;
branched menorah, on the right side are the brachos one from the United States with an inscription in ivory
said before kindling the Chanukah lights, and on the left that tells us it belonged to Max Wiener and is also
is the prayer “Haneiros halalu.” The designer probably about a century old; and one that belonged to a Reb
thought he had come up with a great idea: No more Greenwald from Bendin (Bedzin), Poland, which also
searching for your siddur at the last minute or forgetting dates from around the same period.

the words halfway through saying the blessing. But even Full-sized Chanukah menorahs don’t usually have
though design motifs were often copied and traveled the names of their owners inscribed upon them, unless
freely from country to country, and there are a few they were presented as a gift and therefore have
more menorahs with the blessings a dedication plaque. But perhaps travel menorahs
inscribed on the backplate in the were different. It’s easy to imagine the scene at some
museum’s collection, apparently this roadside inn in Poland or Tunisia, where a dozen or
was one design idea that didn’t take more travelers have set up their Chanukah lights.
off — perhaps because the words are Having your name inscribed on your menorah would
difficult to read due to the average help to prevent mix-ups when, the following day,
menorah’s relatively small size. everyone packed their belongings and went on their
In Mr. Hoffman’s collection is way, carrying the memory of the small flame that
something similar and even rarer: dispels a great darkness with them.
a small silver stand holding a tiny
“siddur” opened to the page with the

brachos, which could be placed next to the menorah.
“I’ve never seen anything else like it,” says Mr.

Hoffman, who comments that because of the object’s
small size, it was probably used in the home and not in
shul.

He believes it’s from Germany, probably from the
19th century. But with nothing to serve as a point
of reference — and at a time when fake “antique”
Judaica is flooding the market — how does he know
it’s authentic?
Mr. Hoffman acknowledges that determining the
authenticity of a piece of Judaica can be a problem.
He relates that once when he was in Budapest, there
was a menorah that caught his eye.

“It was a very nice one,” he says. “The shop owner
told me, ‘If you like it, I have more in the back.’ It was
a fake.”
So how does he separate the proverbial wheat from
the chaff?

For one thing, he says, reputable auction houses
such as Sotheby’s will have thoroughly researched
an item before they agree to include it in one of their

auctions. But like most collectors, he
also relies on instinct.
“I can feel it,” he says.

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