Judaism is a religion without sacred images. No one carves or paints God, and the place people face when they pray holds no statue and no picture. This page explains why, following Jewish sources themselves, and then shows what stands in the place of honour in a synagogue: the Holy Ark and the Torah scrolls, the curtain, the eternal light, the reading platform, the lampstands. The page also describes how synagogues differ from region to region, and which sacred objects are found in a Jewish home. The library does not write the four-letter Divine Name in any script and does not publish photos whose subject is the Divine Name. The photos show real objects. The only drawing is a text diagram.
IA religion that makes no image of God
Judaism does not carve or paint God, and places no image at all where people face when they pray. The root of this is the Second Commandment of the Ten Commandments. The Book of Exodus says, in the translation on Sefaria, that you shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. The next verse forbids bowing down to such images and serving them.
Source: Sefaria, Exodus 20:4 to 5 (Hebrew text and English translation). My Jewish Learning, Ask the Expert: Graven Images.So a visitor entering a synagogue sees no statues and no devotional pictures. What stands in the place of honour is writing: the Torah scrolls, written by hand on parchment and kept in a cabinet called the Holy Ark. Chabad calls the Torah scrolls the holiest objects in Judaism. The rest of this page is about that cabinet, the dress of the scroll, and the objects around it.
Source: Chabad.org, What Is a Synagogue. Jewish Virtual Library, Ark.How Jewish law reads the Second Commandment
According to an answer on My Jewish Learning, the commandment's main concern is images made to be worshipped. Teachers of the law over many generations have discussed where the line lies. The Talmud, at Avodah Zarah 43a, takes a strict reading: making images of human faces is forbidden, but owning images made by non-Jews is allowed. The 16th century law code Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Deah 141 to 142) is strict about sculpture in the round and relief, while allowing flat paintings and images of the human body as long as the whole body is not shown. The article notes that most traditional authorities today follow this ruling, so a sculpted bust, being an incomplete figure, is acceptable.
Source: My Jewish Learning, Ask the Expert: Graven Images.On animal figures in the synagogue, Rabbi Akiva Males, writing in the magazine Jewish Action, cites Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog's observation that, generally speaking, Sephardi authorities forbade decorating synagogues with animal figures, while Ashkenazi authorities allowed it. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein held that the pair of lions often seen in Ashkenazi synagogues breaks no law. Rabbi Chaim Sofer pointed out that these lions are not free-standing sculptures, since their backs are flat against the wall. On human figures, some Jewish artists today, such as Tobi Kahn, hold that the root of the law is to prevent idolatry, so depicting a full human body is acceptable today. The library records these views and does not take a side.
Source: Jewish Action (Orthodox Union), Rabbi Akiva Males, Chocolate and Eagles and Lions, Oh My. My Jewish Learning, Ask the Expert: Graven Images.Wikipedia sums up the usual practice in Orthodox synagogues this way: no human figures are used, and the decoration is limited to the Star of David, the lion of Judah, and flowers and fruit.
Source: Wikipedia, Synagogue architecture.IIAncient synagogues with paintings and mosaics
According to My Jewish Learning, it was once thought that figurative art in ancient synagogues was confined to floor mosaics. The excavation of the Dura-Europos synagogue in the 1930s profoundly changed that view. Its walls were covered with paintings of biblical stories, full of figures.
Source: My Jewish Learning, Jewish Art in the Ancient World.Dura-Europos, Syria
How to recognize: Wall paintings of biblical stories, with a Torah niche in the middle of the west wallAn Aramaic inscription dates the last phase of construction to about 244. The synagogue was found in 1932. The assembly hall keeps 58 scenes, probably about six tenths of the original number, drawn from the stories of Moses, Ezekiel and many others. The Torah niche is in the west wall, facing Jerusalem. Above the niche are painted a lampstand, a building with columns and an arched doorway, and the binding of Isaac. In several scenes a hand reaches down from above to show divine intervention. No scene depicts God. The paintings are now kept in the National Museum of Damascus, in their original arrangement.
Beit Alpha, Israel
How to recognize: A floor mosaic in three panels, the zodiac in the middleThe mosaic was found in 1929 by members of a kibbutz digging irrigation channels. An Aramaic inscription says the floor was laid in the reign of the emperor Justin, probably Justin I, early in the 6th century. A Greek inscription names the two craftsmen, Marianos and his son Hanina. The first panel shows the binding of Isaac. The middle panel shows the twelve signs of the zodiac with their Hebrew names, with Helios, the Greek sun god, in his sun chariot at the centre and four winged figures for the four seasons in the corners. The third panel shows a gabled Torah ark behind a curtain, flanked by lampstands, a shofar (ram's horn), a lulav (palm branch), an etrog (citron) and two lions.
Rome and Ostia
How to recognize: The seven-branched lampstand and the Torah ark as emblemsJews of the Roman period left their emblems on objects and in stone. The gold glass fragment in the Metropolitan Museum, from 300 to 350, shows an open Torah ark with scrolls inside, together with two lampstands, a shofar and an etrog. The museum calls it a rare object.
Beit Alpha is not the only case. My Jewish Learning notes that the floor mosaic of the synagogue at Hamat Tiberias also has a zodiac with Helios and his chariot at the centre, while at Tzippori the sun itself takes the driver's place. This page does not publish a close-up of that image. The sources consulted do not say how people of the time understood it, so the library records only that it is there.
Source: My Jewish Learning, Jewish Art in the Ancient World.Medieval manuscripts
The Birds' Head Haggadah, written around 1300 in the Upper Rhine region, is the oldest surviving illuminated Ashkenazi Haggadah and is now in the Israel Museum. The Jews in its pictures have birds' heads. One prevalent explanation is that the artist wanted to avoid breaking the Second Commandment. Scholars have also proposed other readings: griffins' heads, eagles' heads, or the influence of anti-Jewish caricature of the time. The question remains open.
Source: Wikipedia, Birds' Head Haggadah. My Jewish Learning, Ask the Expert: Graven Images.
IIIThe Holy Ark, centre of the synagogue
Where many other religions place a statue, the synagogue places a cabinet. Ashkenazi Jews call it the aron kodesh, meaning Holy Ark. Sephardi Jews call it the heikhal. Jewish law regards the ark as the holiest part of the synagogue after the Torah scrolls themselves. The ark may not be sold even to raise money for building a synagogue, and it may not be put to secular use.
Source: Jewish Virtual Library, Ark.The ark stands on the wall facing Jerusalem. In Western countries this is the east wall. In ancient Babylonia it was the west wall. Worshippers face the ark, and so face Jerusalem, where the Temple once stood.
Source: Jewish Virtual Library, Ark. Chabad.org, What Is a Synagogue.The diagram brings together the points on which the sources consulted agree. Every synagogue is different: some have no tablets, some have no curtain.
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On its history, the Jewish Virtual Library says the scrolls were at first kept in a movable chest. At Dura-Europos, a niche in the wall facing Jerusalem was made to receive the scrolls, which were probably placed in a low wooden cabinet. In the Middle Ages the ark became a niche or a taller cabinet, with the scrolls standing upright inside. The Renaissance brought the tall two-tiered cupboard. A baroque ark with ornamental columns became standard in German synagogues in the early 18th century, and the style then spread to Eastern Europe, where Jewish carvers covered the two-tiered ark with lions, birds, dolphins, stags and eagles. When the ark is opened for certain prayers, the whole congregation stands.
Source: Jewish Virtual Library, Ark.The ark curtain (parokhet)
How to recognize: An embroidered cloth hung in front of the ark doorsThe curtain can be of any colour. It is treated as a holy object: when it can no longer be used, it is buried, not thrown away. In early modern Italy, Jewish women often gave textiles to the synagogue to honour a major milestone of a male relative. The curtain in the photo bears the name of the woman who embroidered it and the year 1698 to 1699.
The eternal light (ner tamid)
How to recognize: A small lamp always burning above the arkThe lamp takes its name from the Book of Exodus, which speaks of a flame burning continually on the golden lampstand of the Temple. Chabad says the lamp recalls the western lamp that always burned in the Temple. The Kol Bo, a book of the late 15th century, writes that the lamp honours the Divine Presence, which rests wherever ten Jews gather to pray, and also notes that the origin of the custom has been lost. In the past the lamp was a real flame, today many synagogues use an electric light. Chabad says that many Chabad congregations are not particular about having this lamp.
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IVThe Torah scroll and its dress
The Torah scroll is written by hand in Hebrew on parchment and wound on two wooden rollers. The scroll is never left bare. The Encyclopaedia Judaica writes that the mantle is, as it were, the clothing of the Torah scroll. The way a scroll is dressed is the easiest way to tell which tradition a community belongs to.
Source: Chabad.org, What Is a Synagogue. Encyclopaedia Judaica, Torah Ornaments (republished on Encyclopedia.com).
The Torah mantle (me'il)
How to recognize: A cloth cover over the whole scroll, open for the two rollersIn Germany and Central Europe the mantle is narrow, sewn from two rectangular pieces of cloth, with designs following the ark curtain: columns, lions, crowns. Sephardi mantles are made of costly fabric and are often left plain. In Morocco and Algeria they are of velvet, richly embroidered. In Italy the mantle is wide and open at the front.
The Torah case (tik)
How to recognize: A cylindrical case of wood or covered in silver, opening lengthwise in two halvesCommunities around the eastern Mediterranean and in the East keep the Torah scroll in a rigid case instead of a cloth mantle. The case is cylindrical or a prism with eight, ten or twelve faces, and opens lengthwise into two halves. The Encyclopaedia Judaica distinguishes three types: flat-topped (Yemen, Cochin, eastern Iran, Afghanistan), with a round or onion-shaped crown (Iraq, western Iran), and with a coronet (Libya, Tunisia, and the Romaniote communities of Greece). My Jewish Learning adds that the scroll is read without being taken out of the case.
The finials (rimonim)
How to recognize: Two silver finials set on top of the rollers, often with small bellsThe finials began as round knobs at the top of the rollers. Because their shape recalled a fruit, Spanish Jews and the Sephardi communities called them tappuah, apple, and other communities called them rimon, pomegranate. A document of 1159 from the Cairo Genizah shows that silver finials with bells already existed in the 12th century. From the 15th century, tower-shaped finials appeared in Spain, Italy and Germany. The pair in the photo was made in Tiflis, and the Metropolitan Museum describes it as combining Ottoman architectural details with neo-Gothic and Jewish ornament.
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The crown (keter)
How to recognize: A silver crown set over both rollersThe crown expresses the honour due to the Torah. It is first mentioned in the 11th century, in a responsum of Hai Gaon about the festival of Simhat Torah. At that time the crown was put together for the occasion from plants and jewellery. About a hundred years later, permanent silver crowns appear in a Cairo Genizah document. The shape varies by region: onion-shaped in Iraq and Persia, a tapering dome in Cochin and Aden, a floral coronet in the Mediterranean, two or three tiers in Eastern Europe. Morocco and Yemen do not use a crown.
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The breastplate (tas, hoshen)
How to recognize: A silver plate hung on a chain in front of the Torah mantleThis is a custom of the Ashkenazi communities, recalling the breastplate of the high priest in the Book of Exodus, chapter 28. At first the silver plate had a very practical use: a small frame held interchangeable plaques showing which festival the scroll was to be used for. Over time breastplates became more and more ornate, with columns, lampstands, lions and crowns. In Italy, the plate hung in front of the scroll is shaped like a half-coronet.
The pointer (yad)
How to recognize: A small rod of silver or wood ending in a pointing handThe reader does not touch the parchment of the Torah scroll with the hand, so he follows the text with a pointer. In Europe the pointer is called yad, hand, or etzba, finger. Sephardi and Eastern communities call it moreh, pointer, or kulmus, quill. The Eastern communities kept the original form of a plain rod, without a hand.
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Binders and wrappers
How to recognize: A cloth band wound round the scroll under the mantleIn Germany, from the second half of the 16th century, the binder called a wimpel was made from the linen cloth used at a baby boy's circumcision, embroidered with his name, his father's name, his date of birth and the blessing that he may grow into Torah, the wedding canopy and good deeds. Only the Jews of Yemen went on wrapping the Torah scroll in two or three cloths of geometrically patterned cotton print, made in India, until the mid-20th century.
Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica, Torah Ornaments (republished on Encyclopedia.com).VThe reading platform, the lampstands and the Star of David
The reading platform (bimah)
The bimah is the platform with a table on which the Torah scroll is opened for reading. It is also called almemar, from the Arabic al-minbar, and Sephardi Jews call it the tevah. Where the platform stands is the clearest difference between traditions. Maimonides, in the Mishneh Torah, teaches that it should stand in the centre. Joseph Caro held that its place depends on circumstances. When liberal synagogues, after the Reform movement began, moved the platform up to the ark, Moses Sofer and Ezekiel Landau protested fiercely, and one hundred rabbis issued a proclamation insisting that the platform stay in the centre.
Source: Jewish Virtual Library, Bimah. My Jewish Learning, Synagogue Layout..jpg)
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In Orthodox synagogues men and women sit separately. In some the division is a partition called a mechitzah, in others women sit in a gallery. My Jewish Learning notes that microphones are used only in non-Orthodox synagogues, because traditional law does not allow their use on Shabbat and festivals.
Source: My Jewish Learning, Synagogue Layout. Chabad.org, What Is a Synagogue.The seven-branched lampstand and the nine-branched lamp
The seven-branched lampstand (menorah) stood in the Tabernacle in the desert and then in the Temple in Jerusalem. Britannica calls it a powerful symbol of Jewish identity through the ages. The lamp used during the eight days of Hanukkah is a different object: it has nine branches, eight for the eight nights and one for the helper candle called the shammash. It is also called a hanukkiyah.
Source: Britannica, Menorah. Chabad.org, 19 Ritual Items Found in a Jewish Home.The Talmud, at Rosh Hashanah 24a, forbids making a seven-branched lampstand like the one in the Temple, based on the ban on reproducing the holy vessels of the Tabernacle. Rabbi Doniel Neustadt sums up three readings: only an exact copy is forbidden, any lampstand that could have been used in the Tabernacle is forbidden, or any seven-branched lampstand is forbidden. The Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Deah 141:8) follows the middle reading: a lampstand of wood or porcelain, or one made for candles rather than oil, is permitted. Lampstands with six, eight or nine branches raise no problem. So the seven-branched lampstands in synagogues today usually differ from the Temple lampstand in some respect.
Source: Torah.org, Rabbi Doniel Neustadt, Weekly Halacha: the seven-branched menorah.
The Star of David, a late symbol
The six-pointed star (Magen David) now appears on ark curtains, Torah mantles and synagogue doors, but it is not as old a symbol as the lampstand. Britannica says the figure goes back to antiquity, when it was a magical sign or a decoration, used alongside the five-pointed star. According to My Jewish Learning, in the 17th century the star was used to mark the Jewish quarter of Vienna, and around the same time it entered synagogue architecture in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The First Zionist Congress adopted it as its symbol in 1897. In Prague, Emperor Ferdinand III granted the Jewish community its own banner bearing the Star of David, in recognition of its part in defending the city during the Thirty Years' War. The banner now hanging in the Old New Synagogue is a reproduction.
Source: Britannica, Star of David. My Jewish Learning, Star of David. Wikipedia, Old New Synagogue.The two photos above were taken in the Hobart Synagogue, consecrated on 4 July 1845, the oldest synagogue building in Australia.
Source: Wikipedia, Hobart Synagogue.VISynagogues across regions and movements
Britannica gives three Hebrew names for the synagogue, matching three purposes: a house of prayer, a house of assembly and a house of study. There is no required architectural style. Each community builds in the manner of the land where it lives, and keeps a few things constant inside: the Holy Ark, the Torah scrolls, the reading platform.
Source: Britannica, Synagogue. College of Charleston, The Life of the Synagogue: Inside the Synagogue.Ashkenazi: Central and Eastern Europe
The Old New Synagogue in Prague, completed in 1270, is the oldest active synagogue in Europe. The reading platform stands between two great pillars, and the Holy Ark is on the east wall, up five steps. Women sit in an outer room and look in through small windows. In Kraków, the Old Synagogue was rebuilt in 1570 by the Italian architect Mateo Gucci and is the oldest synagogue building still standing in Poland. During the Second World War the Germans devastated its interior and used it as a warehouse. Today it is a museum. The nearby Izaak Synagogue, completed in 1644 with funds from Izaak Jakubowicz, still has prayers painted on its walls.
Wooden synagogues of Poland and Lithuania
From the mid-16th to the mid-17th century, Jewish communities in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth built many synagogues of wood, with multi-tiered roofs and a central reading platform. In many of them the walls and ceilings were painted all over, as at Gwoździec, with plants, animals, the signs of the zodiac and texts. The Holy Ark was of carved wood, several tiers high. The ark of the Wołpa synagogue had columns, menorahs in relief, vases, roofed towers, the two tablets of the Ten Commandments and an eagle. During the Second World War the Germans burned and destroyed nearly all the wooden synagogues still standing, and none remain in Poland today. The Gwoździec synagogue was built around 1650, its ceiling was painted by Israel ben Mordechai around 1652 and repainted in 1729. The POLIN Museum in Warsaw reconstructed its roof and ceiling at about 85 percent scale, installed in 2013.
Sephardi: Spain, Amsterdam, Newport
Toledo keeps two medieval synagogues, both built in the Mudéjar style and both later turned into churches. Santa María la Blanca has 24 octagonal pillars carrying horseshoe arches. Its date is not settled: one theory gives about 1205, an inscription suggests 1180. El Tránsito was built around 1357 by Samuel HaLevi Abulafia, treasurer to King Pedro of Castile. Its walls are covered in carved stucco, with Hebrew inscriptions praising the king and Samuel, Arabic inscriptions, and quotations from the Psalms. After the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, Sephardi Jews rebuilt their lives elsewhere. The Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam was designed by Elias Bouman and built from 1671 to 1675. The Holy Ark is of jacaranda wood from Brazil, the tebah stands at the opposite end, the floor is strewn with sand, and the main hall is still lit by candles, with no electricity. The Touro Synagogue in Newport was dedicated on 2 December 1763, designed by Peter Harrison for a community of Spanish and Portuguese origin.
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Italy
From the 16th century, Italian synagogues placed the Holy Ark and the reading platform at opposite ends, with equal emphasis, and seating along both sides. The Spanish Synagogue in Venice belongs to a congregation founded in 1555. The building was completed in 1580 and restored in 1635. Its exterior gives no sign that it is a house of worship, since at that time synagogues were tolerated only on condition that they stayed hidden.
Mizrahi and Yemenite
In the Eastern communities, the easiest sign to recognize is that the Torah scroll is kept in a tik case and read inside the case. The pointer is usually a plain rod. Yemenite Jews wrap the Torah scroll in cloths of geometrically patterned cotton print and do not use a crown. On animal figures, Sephardi authorities generally did not allow synagogues to be decorated with them.
Cochin, India
The Paradesi Synagogue in Kochi was built in 1568. Its floor is paved with hundreds of hand-painted 18th century Chinese porcelain tiles, each one different. Belgian glass chandeliers hang from the ceiling, and in the middle of the room stands a reading platform with a brass railing. The Torah scrolls here have gold crowns received as gifts. The Cochin tik is of the flat-topped type, and the crown is a tapering dome.
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Kaifeng, China (lost)
A stele records that the Kaifeng synagogue was founded in 1163 under the name Qingzhensi, the name Chinese people also used for mosques. After the Yellow River flood of 1642, the community rebuilt the synagogue and rewrote thirteen scrolls. The synagogue was dismantled sometime between 1850 and 1866. The surviving images are drawings made in 1722 by the priest Jean Domenge. According to the key to the drawing, the middle of the hall held a ceremonial table with a censer, flower vases and candlesticks in the Chinese manner, and a seat called the Chair of Moses, on which the Torah scroll was placed for reading.
Neolog and Reform
In the 19th century, progressive congregations brought into the synagogue things it had not had before. The Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest, built from 1854 to 1859 to a design by Ludwig Förster, has about 3,000 seats and is the largest synagogue in Europe. Its congregation is Neolog. The interior is divided into three aisles like a Christian basilica, and it even has an organ, which is rare in a synagogue. In Reform and Conservative synagogues today, the reading platform is moved to the front, right before the Holy Ark. Britannica gives Temple Emanu-El in New York as an example of a Reform synagogue.
VIISacred objects in a Jewish home
A Jewish home has no altar and no devotional pictures. Religious life at home runs through objects used for particular commandments: fixed to the door, lit on the dining table, worn during prayer.
Source: Chabad.org, 19 Ritual Items Found in a Jewish Home.Mezuzah
How to recognize: A small case fixed at a slant on the right-hand doorpostA mezuzah consists of a small parchment scroll and its case. The parchment is written by hand by a scribe with two passages from Deuteronomy (6:4 to 9 and 11:13 to 21), which include the Shema. The case can be of any material, size or shape. On the back of the parchment is the word Shaddai, one of the names of God. Its three letters are also read as the initials of the phrase Guardian of the doors of Israel. The mezuzah is fixed on the right as one enters, at the lower part of the top third of the doorpost. My Jewish Learning stresses that it is a sign and reminder of the Covenant, not a protective amulet.
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Shabbat candles
How to recognize: Two candlesticks on the Friday evening tableCandles are lit before Shabbat and festivals begin, in honour of the holy day. They are usually placed where the festive meal is eaten. A married woman lights two or more.
The kiddush cup
How to recognize: A cup set aside for the blessing over wineAt the start of the Shabbat and festival meals, kiddush is recited over a cup of wine or grape juice. The cup used for this is called a becher in Yiddish.
The havdalah set
How to recognize: A braided candle with several wicks and a spice boxWhen Shabbat ends, a blessing is recited over fragrant spices called besamim and over the flame of a braided candle with several wicks.
The seder plate
How to recognize: A large round plate holding the symbolic foods of the Passover nightAt the seder meal of Passover, a round tray holds six foods of ritual meaning, together with three pieces of unleavened bread, matzah.
The Hanukkah lamp
How to recognize: A nine-branched lamp, one more light each nightThe lamp has nine places for lights, one of them for the helper light, the shammash. On each of the eight nights of the festival one more light is lit.
Tallit and tefillin
How to recognize: A shawl with fringes at its four corners, two black leather boxes with strapsThe tallit is a fringed prayer shawl, usually of white wool with coloured stripes. Tefillin are two leather boxes holding parchments with four passages of scripture, one worn on the head and one bound to the arm. According to Chabad, an Orthodox site, men wear the tallit during morning prayers and the tefillin during weekday prayers.
The mizrah plaque
How to recognize: A picture or paper-cut marked with the word EastMizrah means east. In Western countries the direction of Jerusalem is east, so the Holy Ark is on the east wall. The mizrah in the photo is a paper-cut by Joseph A. Michael, about 1870: in the middle a heart inscribed East rises from a Hanukkah lamp, two lions stand on flowering trees on either side, and rosettes fill the four corners. It is an example of animal figures in Jewish folk art.
VIIIThe Western Wall: a place of prayer, not an object of worship
The Western Wall (Kotel) in the Old City of Jerusalem is the only remaining part of the retaining wall around the Temple Mount, where the First and Second Temples once stood. The part above ground is about 50 metres long and about 20 metres high, and the wall goes much deeper below ground. The wall survived the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70.
Source: Britannica, Western Wall.Jews come here to pray, to mourn the lost Temple and to pray for it to be rebuilt. There is a custom of writing a prayer on a slip of paper and placing it in a crack between the stones. The name Wailing Wall was given by European travellers who saw Jews lamenting there.
Source: Britannica, Western Wall.No. Chabad says plainly that this is a misunderstanding: Jews do not worship the wall but pray there, directing their prayers to God. The holiness of the place comes from the Temple Mount, which tradition holds God chose as His dwelling place from the time of King David. Jewish tradition also holds that the Divine Presence has never left the Western Wall.
Source: Chabad.org, an answer on why Jews pray at the Western Wall. Britannica, Western Wall..jpg)
IXWhat the library is not sure of
Are you Jewish, a rabbi or a researcher, and have you found something inaccurate, or do you have a photo of your own to contribute? Please send it with its source to thayungkhiem@gmail.com. The library will correct the page and credit the contributor.
XPhotos and licences
Every photo on this page comes from Wikimedia Commons, under Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA licences. Authors and licences are given exactly as on the original file pages, read on 07/10/2026. The photos have only been reduced in size, with no change to their content. Click the name of a photo to go to its original file page. If you are an author and see an incorrect credit, please let the library know so it can be corrected.
XISources
The pages above were read in October 2026. If a page has changed its address, please let the library know so it can be updated.
?Quick Questions
Why synagogues have no statues
The Second Commandment in the Book of Exodus forbids making sculptured images and any likeness to bow down to. Judaism does not carve or paint God. The place of honour in a synagogue is the Holy Ark, where the handwritten Torah scrolls are kept.
Do Jews worship the Torah scroll or the Western Wall
No. The Torah scroll is revered as teaching, it is dressed in a mantle and crowned, and everyone stands when the ark is opened, but prayer is directed to God alone. Chabad says plainly that Jews pray at the Western Wall and do not worship the wall.
How the seven-branched menorah differs from the nine-branched Hanukkah lamp
The seven-branched lampstand is the lampstand of the Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem, and is now a symbol of the Jewish people. The Hanukkah lamp has nine branches: eight for the eight nights of the festival and one for the helper candle. Jewish law also restricts making an exact copy of the Temple lampstand.
Does Judaism forbid all images
Not entirely. The 3rd century Dura-Europos synagogue has wall paintings of biblical stories, and the 6th century Beit Alpha mosaic has a zodiac. The Shulchan Aruch is strict about sculpture in the round and relief, and allows flat paintings under certain conditions. There are several views within the tradition, especially about animal figures in the synagogue.
Does the Star of David go back to biblical times
The sources consulted do not say so. Britannica says the six-pointed star was a magical sign or a decoration in antiquity. According to My Jewish Learning, its link with Jewish communities grew clearer from the 17th century, and the Zionist Congress adopted it as a symbol in 1897.
Why some Torah scrolls wear a cloth mantle and others sit in a case
It is a difference between traditions. Ashkenazi Jews and many Sephardi communities dress the scroll in a cloth mantle. Eastern communities such as those of Iraq, Iran, Yemen and Cochin keep the scroll in a rigid case called a tik and read it inside the case.