Sabbath Cooking Pot

1579/1580

Pot with Hebrew inscription and two handles.
Because observant Jews do not light fires or cook on the Sabbath, they prepare hot meals before the beginning of the Sabbath. In some communities, families brought their Sabbath stew (known as cholent among Ashkenazic Jews) to communal ovens to cook slowly overnight. Sometimes the pots had inscriptions that identified their owners. This brass pot from the Jewish ghetto in Frankfurt am Main is inscribed in Hebrew: “Hirtz Popert’s s[pouse], daughter of Moses zur Leiter in [the year 5]340 (= 1579/80).” The “Leiter” in the inscription refers to the house in which Moses lived, which had the sign of a ladder. Each house in the ghetto was marked by a sign with a symbol or specific color.

Credits

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Heller / The Jewish Museum, New York.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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