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Old New Synagogue, Prague
The Old New Synagogue ( cs, Staronová synagoga; german: link=no, Altneu-Synagoge), also called the Altneuschul, situated in Josefov, Prague, is Europe's oldest active synagogue. It is also the oldest surviving medieval synagogue of twin-nave design. Completed in 1270 in gothic style, it was one of Prague's first gothic buildings. A still older Prague synagogue, known as the Old Synagogue, was demolished in 1867 and replaced by the Spanish Synagogue. Etymology The synagogue was originally called the New or Great Synagogue and later, when newer synagogues were built in the 16th century, it became known as the Old-New Synagogue. Another explanation derives the name from the Hebrew עַל תְּנַאי (al tnay), which means "on condition" and sounds identical to the Yiddish "alt-nay," or old-new. According to legend angels have brought stones from the Temple in Jerusalem to build the Synagogue in Prague—"on condition" that they are to be returned, when the Messiah comes, i.e. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate oceanic climate, with relatively warm summers and chilly winters. Prague is a political, cultural, and economic hub of central Europe, with a rich history and Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architectures. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia and residence of several Holy Roman Emperors, most notably Charles IV (r. 1346–1378). It was an important city to the Habsburg monarchy and Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city played major roles in the Bohemian and the Protestant Reformations, the Thirty Years' War and in 20th-century history as the capital of Czechoslovakia between the World Wars and the post-war Communist era. Prague is home to a number of well-known cultural attractions, many of which survived the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chandelier
A chandelier (; also known as girandole, candelabra lamp, or least commonly suspended lights) is a branched ornamental light fixture designed to be mounted on ceilings or walls. Chandeliers are often ornate, and normally use incandescent light bulbs, though some modern designs also use fluorescent lamps and recently LEDs. Classic chandeliers have arrays of hanging crystal prisms to illuminate a room with refracted light, while contemporary chandeliers assume a more minimalist design that does not contain prisms and illuminate a room with direct light from the lamps, sometimes also equipped with translucent glass covering each lamp. Modern chandeliers have a more modernized design that uses LEDs, and combines the elements of both classic and contemporary designs; some are also equipped with refractive crystal prisms or small mirrors. Chandeliers are distinct from pendant lights, as they usually consist of multiple lamps and hang in branched frames, whereas pendant lights h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Golem Of Prague
A golem ( ; he, , gōlem) is an animated, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is entirely created from inanimate matter (usually clay or mud). The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th-century rabbi of Prague. According to '' Moment'' magazine, "the golem is a highly mutable metaphor with seemingly limitless symbolism. It can be a victim or villain, Jew or non-Jew, man or woman—or sometimes both. Over the centuries, it has been used to connote war, community, isolation, hope, and despair."Cooper, MarilynJewish Word , Golem" '' Moment''. 17 July 2017. 24 August 2017. Etymology The word ''golem'' occurs once in the Bible in Psalm 139:16, which uses the word (; my golem), that means "my light form", "raw" material, connoting the unfinished human being before God's eyes. The Mishnah uses the term for an uncultivated person: "Seven characteristics are in an uncultivated person, and seven in a learned one", () (Pirkei Avot 5:7 in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thirty Years War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle, famine, and disease, while some areas of what is now modern Germany experienced population declines of over 50%. Related conflicts include the Eighty Years' War, the War of the Mantuan Succession, the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659), Franco-Spanish War, and the Portuguese Restoration War. Until the 20th century, historians generally viewed it as a continuation of the religious struggle initiated by the 16th-century Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire. The 1555 Peace of Augsburg attempted to resolve this by dividing the Empire into Lutheranism, Lutheran and Catholic Church, Catholic states, but over the next 50 years the expansion of Protestantism beyond these ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Prague (1648)
The Battle of Prague, which occurred between 25 July and 1 November 1648 was the last action of the Thirty Years' War. While the negotiations for the Peace of Westphalia were proceeding, the Swedes took the opportunity to mount one last campaign into Bohemia. The main result, and probably the main aim, was to loot the fabulous art collection assembled in Prague Castle by Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (1552–1612), the pick of which was taken down the Elbe in barges and shipped to Sweden. After occupying the castle and the western bank of the Vltava for some months, the Swedes stopped assaulting the Old and New Town at the eastern bank when news of the signing of the treaty reached them. They still remained a garrison on the western bank until their final withdrawal on 30 September 1649. It was the last major clash of the Thirty Years' War, taking place in the city of Prague, where the war originally began 30 years earlier. Overview General Hans Christoff von Königsmarck, c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand III (Ferdinand Ernest; 13 July 1608, in Graz – 2 April 1657, in Vienna) was from 1621 Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary from 1625, King of Croatia and Bohemia from 1627 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1637 until his death in 1657. Ferdinand ascended the throne at the beginning of the last decade of the Thirty Years' War and introduced lenient policies to depart from old ideas of divine rights under his father, as he had wished to end the war quickly. As the numerous battles had not resulted in sufficient military containment of the Protestant enemies, and confronted with decaying Imperial power, Ferdinand was compelled to abandon the political stances of his Habsburg predecessors in many respects in order to open the long road towards the much delayed peace treaty. Although his authority among the princes was weakened after the war, in Bohemia, Hungary and the Austria, however, Ferdinand's position as sovereign was uncontested. Ferdinand was the first Habsburg mona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shema Yisrael
''Shema Yisrael'' (''Shema Israel'' or ''Sh'ma Yisrael''; he , שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ''Šəmaʿ Yīsrāʾēl'', "Hear, O Israel") is a Jewish prayer (known as the Shema) that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer, Jewish prayer services. Its first verse encapsulates the Monotheism , monotheistic essence of Judaism: "Hear, O Israel: YHWH is our God, YHWH is one" (), found in . The first part can be translated as either "The our God" or "The is our God", and the second part as either "the is one" or as "the one " (in the sense of "the alone"), since Biblical Hebrew, Hebrew does not normally use a Copula (linguistics), copula in the present tense, so translators must decide by inference whether one is appropriate in English. The word used for "the " is the tetragrammaton YHWH. Observant Jews consider the ''Shema'' to be the most important part of the prayer service in Judaism, and its twice-daily recitation as a ''mitzvah'' (religious co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jewish Hat
The Jewish hat, also known as the Jewish cap, ''Judenhut'' (German language, German) or Latin language, Latin ''pileus cornutus'' ("horned skullcap"), was a cone-shaped pointed hat, often white or yellow, worn by Jews in Medieval Europe. Initially worn by choice, its wearing was enforced in some places in Europe after the 1215 Fourth Council of the Lateran for adult male Jews to wear while outside a ghetto to distinguish them from others. Like the Phrygian cap that it often resembles, the hat may have originated in pre-Islamic Persia, as a similar hat was worn by Babylonian Jews. Modern distinctive or characteristic Jewish forms of male headgear include the kippah (skullcap), shtreimel, spodik, kolpik, kashkets, and fedora; see also Hasidic Judaism#Appearance, Hasidic clothing. Europe Shape The shape of the hat is variable. Sometimes, especially in the thirteenth century, it is a soft Phrygian cap, but rather more common in the early period is a hat with a round circular brim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Star Of David
The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative and mystical purposes by Muslims and Kabbalah, Kabbalistic Jews, its adoption as a distinctive symbol for the Jews, Jewish people and their religion dates back to 17th-century Prague. In the 19th century, the symbol began to be widely used among the History of the Jews in Europe, Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, ultimately coming to be used to represent Jewish identity or religious beliefs."The Flag and the Emblem" (MFA). It became representative of Zionism after it was Flag of Israel#Origin of the flag, chosen as the central symbol for a Jewish national flag at the First Zionist Congress in 1897. By the end of World War I, it had become an internationally accepted symbol for the Jewish people, being used on the gravestones of fallen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solomon's Temple
Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (, , ), was the Temple in Jerusalem between the 10th century BC and . According to the Hebrew Bible, it was commissioned by Solomon in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited by the Kingdom of Judah in . It stood for around four centuries until it was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, which occurred under the reign of Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. Although most modern scholars agree that the First Temple existed on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem by the time of the Babylonian siege, there is significant debate over the date of its construction and the identity of its builder. The Hebrew Bible, specifically within the Book of Kings, includes a detailed narrative about the construction's ordering by Solomon, the penultimate ruler of amalgamated Israel and Judah. It further credits Solomon as the placer of the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies, a windowles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of support. To facilitate eye contact and improve posture when facing an audience, lecterns may have adjustable height and slant. People reading from a lectern, called lectors, generally do so while standing. In pre-modern usage, the word ''lectern'' was used to refer specifically to the "reading desk or stand ... from which the Scripture lessons ('' lectiones'') ... are chanted or read." One 1905 dictionary states that "the term is properly applied only to the class mentioned hurch book standsas independent of the pulpit." By the 1920s, however, the term was being used in a broader sense; for example, in reference to a memorial service in Carnegie Hall, it was stated that "the lectern from which the speakers talked was enveloped in black." Academi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ark (synagogue)
A Torah ark (also known as the ''Heikhal'', or the ''Aron Kodesh'') refers to an ornamental chamber in the synagogue that houses the Torah scrolls. History The ark, also known as the ''ark of law'', or in Hebrew the ''Aron Kodesh'' or ''aron ha-Kodesh'' ("holy ark") by Ashkenazi communities and as the ''Heikhal'' ("sanctuary") among Sefardi communities. ''Aron Kodesh'' comes from Hebrew אָרוֹן קׄדֶש ''ʼārōn qōdeš'' (i.e. A''ron Kodesh''), ''Holy Ark''. This name is a reference to the ''’ārōn haqqōdeš'', the Hebrew name for the Ark of the Covenant which was stored in the Holy of Holies in the inner sanctuary of both the ancient Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem. Similarly, ''Hekhál'', also written ''hechal'', ''echal'' or ''heichal'' — and sometimes also ''Echal Kodesh'' (mainly among Balkan Sephardim) comes from Hebrew הֵיכָל ''hēkhāl'' (palace), was used in the same time period to refer to the inner sanctuary. The ''hekhal'' contained th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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