"Hanukkah Lamp of Our Rabbi Navon" – Collapsible Hanukkah Lamp of Rabbi Yonah Sa'adiah Navon of Jerusalem – ...

"Hanukkah Lamp of Our Rabbi Navon" – Collapsible Hanukkah Lamp of Rabbi Yonah Sa'adiah Navon of Jerusalem – Jerusalem, 19th Century
Hanukkah lamp of Rabbi Yonah Sa'adiah Navon of Jerusalem. [Jerusalem, 19th century].
Sheet brass, sawed and repoussé.
Large collapsible Hanukkah lamp, intended to be hung on a wall. A number of different decorative elements appear on the back plate: A Star of David enclosing small circles, two large, eye-shaped circles (with pupil-like bosses in the center), and two large upright fish. Repoussé inscriptions (executed with a nail): " For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light" / "Yonah Sa'adiah also known as Our Teacher Navon may the Almighty keep him and preserve him." Attached to the lower part of the back plate, by means of two hinges, is a rectangular shelf out of which eight large circular holes have been pierced, to hold glass oil lamps. The hinges enable the shelf to be collapsed upward.
This particular Hanukkah lamp – named for its owner as the "Hanukkah lamp of Our Rabbi Navon" – was studied by Yitzhak Einhorn. He mentions and lists it (along with a photograph) in the Israel Museum (Hebrew) catalogue titled "Arts and Crafts in 19th Century Palestine, " in his article on sacred and secular objects originating in the Old Yishuv in Jerusalem. In this article, Einhorn deals at length with questions regarding the identity of the lamp's owner; its purpose and manner of usage (as a Hanukkah lamp intended to serve a "Shadar" [rabbinical emissary sent to collect charity funds] in the course of his travels); and the artistic motifs that appear on the back plate (among them the repoussé "eyes, " totaling eighteen in number – including the ones enclosed within the fish-like ornaments) which he interprets as amuletic symbols offering protection against the Evil Eye.
It is worth noting that, notwithstanding Einhorn's opinion that the Hanukkah lamp belonged to a particular rabbinical emissary by the name of Rabbi Yonah Sa'adiah Navon – who had been sent to North Africa by Jerusalem's Kollel associations (i.e. landsmanschaftn – hometown associations) ca. 1802, and then again by the Kollel associations of Hebron in 1811/1812 – it is more plausible that the object was actually the property of Rabbi Yonah Sa'adiah Navon "the Second" who lived in Jerusalem in the years 1839-1909. This latter theory also casts doubt on the specific identification of this particular type of Hanukkah lamp as a "rabbinical emissary's Hanukkah lamp, " meant to serve emissaries during their travels. Also relevant to this subject is Shalom Sabar's (Hebrew) article, "From the miracle of the pitcher of olive oil to the butt of a rifle: the evolution of the Hanukkah lamp in Israel, " in: "Te'udah" 28, 2016-17, p. 421, footnote no. 14.
With reference to the biography of Rabbi Yonah Sa'adiah Navon – also known as Rabbi "Hermon" (an acronym composed of the Hebrew initials of his titles and name, "Hakham Rabbi Our [Great] Teacher Navon") – in his (Hebrew) work entitled "Oriental Jews in the Land of Israel in the Past and Present" (see below), Moses David Gaon writes that the rabbi in question was born in Jerusalem in 1838-39, and was the grandson of the Rishon LeZion (Chief Sephardi Rabbi of the Land of Israel) Rabbi Yonah Moshe Navon, as well as the sole heir of Rabbi Binyamin Mordechai Navon, author of the (Hebrew) book "Bnei Binyamin" and stepfather of Rabbi Ya'akov Shaul Elyashar, also known as the Yisa Berakhah. Rabbi Yonah Sa'adiah Navon served for about thirty consecutive years as clerks of Jerusalem's Kollel associations, charity "gabbai" (administrator), and supervisor in charge of cemetery affairs and the "Hevra Kadisha" (burial society) of the Sephardi community. He also officiated for many years as cantor of the congregation of the "Middle Synagogue" in Jerusalem's Old City. Passed away in May 1909, buried on the Mt. of Olives. His epitaph reads "Yonah Sa'adiah [also] known as Our Teacher Navon, " thus matching the inscription appearing on the present Hanukkah lamp.
Height: 23 cm. Width: 47 cm. Depth: 8 cm. Overall good condition. Warping. Minor blemishes. Old soldering repairs. Servant light missing. Missing chains or folding arms originally connecting oil font shelf to back plate.
References:
1. Yona Fischer (ed.), "Arts and Crafts in 19th Century Palestine, " Israel Museum catalogue, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1979 (Hebrew), pp. 29-33, Fig. 13.
2. Mordechai Narkiss, "The Hanukkah Lamp, " Jerusalem, 1939 (Hebrew with English summary), p. 69; Pl. LVII, Item no. 162.
3. Moses David Gaon, "Oriental Jews in the Land of Israel in the Past and Present, " Vol. II, Jerusalem, 1938 (Hebrew), pp. 453-54.
Provenance:
1. The Yitzhak Einhorn Collection.
2. Private collection.