I recently had a memory of how many of our neighbors in 615 had a card table tucked away in a closet or behind a couch. Mostly Sharei Hatikvah people, but I am sure some Breuers people were card players as well. The table’s legs would fold under, and often a chessboard was part of the laminated surface. If we had occasion to borrow one of these from a neighbor, we knew we had to return it before a specific night. (Now, I had an aunt from my Polish side who was a big card player, but she just played at the kitchen table; she didn’t have one of these diddys.)

Another, perhaps more polished artifact of the homes we knew, was the Shabbos Lamp. I do not need to inform anyone reading this about this item, only that my father always wished he had one. He would reminisce about the one in his parents’ home, which – it seems was only used on Sukkos for some reason (this sounds extremely dangerous!)

In the early 2000s, I met someone who told me his father brought the family lamp with him on a business trip to China. He had 100 copies made and sold them for $100 each. Don’t worry, he didn’t ruin the market. Because they were not made of fine brass, but heavy metal painted in black or copper. I know, because I had my mother buy one for my father, and it weighs a ton. We revealed to my father the lamp’s inauthenticity, but he was proud of it just the same.

A series of Juden Stern stamps issued in Israel in 1981.

Now, a minute to reflect on the Besomim spice box. I know that all Jewish homes have one, but I also feel like the tower-with-a-flag box has a connection to us. Why? Because the famed Jewish painter, Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, would paint one into each depiction of the Jewish home. That and a Mizrach sign. 

Are the Mizrach signs a particularly Yekkish home adornment? I would be naive to think so. But I suspect they are ubiquitous in our homes and appear only occasionally in others. Excuse my myopia.

But the Parshah signs are DEFINITELY ours, and ours alone. Again, this needs no explanation (see the picture) because they seem to be a staple. What needs explaining is why we have these? I believe it is a way to bring the Synagogue into the home. Something to change before Shabbos, like a Shammas would need to do in his Shul. I like to do it. We all like to do it. And the KAJ newsletter regularly has them for sale at the Shul office.

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