What is the image on many volumes of Shas called?
What is the image on many volumes of Shas called?
Does anyone know the official name of the 4-poled structure in the middle of the image below (of a cover of a volume of the Talmud)? I'm pretty sure that this 'structure' has a name, but my intense googling yielded no results, so I posted here. Just curious.
@Rafael I made some minor edits to make it flow as one smooth question, and to state what the image is (some users might not be able to see it). Feel free to edit it yourself if you don't like what I've done.
– Alex
Aug 27 at 20:57
(I thought we had this question already.) Wouldn't canopy work?
– Double AA♦
Aug 27 at 21:04
@DoubleAA, While it may be a canopy, I'm looking for a more specific name of a image found in many volumes of Shas.
– Rafael
Aug 27 at 21:08
@Rafael you mean like "Jim"? Why would this image have a proper name?
– Double AA♦
Aug 27 at 21:18
2 Answers
2
I've always heard it called the "Sha'ar Vilna". Sha'ar means "gate" in Hebrew.
Why the deletion vote? Is it because it's so simple or obvious? Apparently it wasn't obvious to the OP, because he doesn't mention it and also doesn't mention that when you search "שער וילנא" into Google it yields what he's looking for...
– ezra
Aug 28 at 14:36
I searched too and it is exactly as you state Ezra. Vilna Gate,
– JJLL
Aug 28 at 18:02
@ezra, I accepted this answer over Kazi Bácsi's because it names the actual image, not just the name of the page. Thanks!
– Rafael
Aug 28 at 19:58
As some searching resulted, the image is called Shaar Blatt (שער בלאט or literally gate page), and it was the cover page of the original Vilna edition of the Babylonian Talmud by Romm.
As Salamon's Temple had two big pillars (Boaz and Yakhin) and the ark of the Great and the Choral Synagogue in Vilna had a different design, it might be an allegory to the 50 gates of understanding described on Rosh haShanah 21b.
"Shaar Blatt" means "title page". It refers to the title page of the book, not to the specific image.
– Menachem
Aug 27 at 21:37
@Menachem שער means gate. It might be an allusion to the 50 gates of understanding.
– Kazi bácsi
Aug 27 at 21:48
yes, I was thinking about putting that, but I thought title page was more of an indication of what it was.
– Menachem
Aug 27 at 22:12
I always thought it was an old school chupah symbolizing how we are married to Hashem through the torah. Gate is nice too, though.
– rosends
Aug 27 at 20:43