Julian Ungar-Sargon

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Daf Ditty

A wide-ranging commentary on the daily page of Talmud.

Iron pyrite or "fool's gold"

Yoma 44: The Seven Types of Gold

jyungar May 25, 2021

For the source text click/tap here: Yoma 44

To download, click/tap here: PDF

In the Bible, gold is the most frequently mentioned of all metals but almost no gold objects have been found from the Israeli period of Palestine (1200 to 587 B.C.). Nevertheless, crucibles have been unearthed in Gezer and in Akko so that there is no doubt that the goldsmith's craft was practised by the Hebrews.

Our Mishna states: On every other day, it was of greenish gold but on this day it was of a red gold. Rav Ḥisda said: There are seven types of gold mentioned in the Bible: Gold, and good gold, and gold of Ophir (I Kings 10:11), and glistering gold (I Kings 10:18), and shaḥut gold (I Kings 10:17), and closed gold (I Kings 10:21), and parvayim gold (II Chronicles 3:6).

Some idea of the size of the golden table and the shape of the golden candelabra in the Second Temple is given by Josephus Flavius in `The Jewish War', where he describes the triumphal procession of Titus in Rome (70 A.D.):

`It is impossible to give a satisfactory account of the innumerable spectacles, so magnificent in every way one could think of, whether as works of art or varieties of wealth or rarities of nature; almost all the treasures that have ever come one at a time into the hands of fortune's favorites — the priceless marvels of many different peoples — were brought together on that day ... Masses of silver and gold and ivory in every shape known to the craftsman's art could be seen, not as if carried in procession but like a flowing river . . Most of the spoils were heaped up indiscriminately, but more prominent than all the rest were those captured in the Temple at Jerusalem — a golden table weighing several hundredweight, and a lampstand similarly made of gold but differently constructed from those we normally use.

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Julian Ungar-Sargon

This is Julian Ungar-Sargon's personal website. It contains poems, essays, and podcasts for the spiritual seeker and interdisciplinary aficionado.​