Remnant of a Community Gone

Kaifeng, in the Hunan Province of China was once the home of a Jewish community. The place of origin of these Jews is unclear as well as the date when they established their settlement in Kaifeng with estimates ranging from the 6th to 10th Century. In the early centuries of their settlement, they may have numbered around 4,000. Despite their isolation from the rest of the Jewish diaspora, they managed to practice Jewish traditions and customs for several centuries. Kaifeng Jews specialized in the manufacture of cotton fabrics, useful in compensating for the chronic shortages in the silk industry. The distinctive customary life of the Kaifeng community slowly eroded, as assimilation and intermarriage with Han Chinese and Chinese Muslim neighbors advanced. By the 19th century, its Jewishness largely became extinct. Few objects of their past remain. In 1955, this ivory mezuzah was discovered, removed from an old building in Kaifeng. It is hand carved in the form of a fish, the symbol of fertility revered in the Orient.

Times listed in date boxes are for Los Angeles (zip code 90045.) For other locations, see inside back cover.

Protection

Many Jews view the mezuzah to be a protective amulet, a symbol of G-d as guardian. Jewish artisans in Yemen developed distinctive silver work techniques to create mezuzahs designed to be worn as amulets. A bride would receive one as part of her dowry and wear it on her wedding day to ward off evil spirits and back luck. Here, set in the hoops on the amulet are bells often in the shape of pomegranates whose purpose was to chase away the evil spirits with their jingling noise. Throughout Jewish sources, the mezuzah offers protection from damaging spiritual forces, from sin and from other dangers. The word “mezuzah” appears for the first time in the Bible in the account of the Exodus from Egypt. Before the last plague smiting the Egyptian firstborn, the Almighty forewarned the Jewish people to mark their doorposts with the blood of the sacrificial lamb so that the forces of destruction would pass over their houses and thereby protect those inside. In ancient times it was a Jewish custom recorded in the Mishnah, Talmud and Midrash to carry a mezuzah in a walking stick for protection. However, the protection only comes with the actual observance of what’s written on the parchment and not through the parchment or casing itself. The mezuzah is there to keep away evil those we can control – inside our doors and our hearts. The mezuzah is a trigger to be mindful of shifting influences whenever moving from one domain, one sphere of activity, to another at the defining checkpoint: the doorway.

Times listed in date boxes are for Los Angeles (zip code 90045.) For other locations, see inside back cover.