6. Wilhelm Wachtel,
Shabbatcandles, ca. 1935,
Museum of the Borderlands
in Lubaczów, inventory no.
ml/1061a/4. Photo after:
<https://tinyurl.com/
n879x7re>
A see p. 253

the mood of the scene, bordering on mystical rituals and longing for the tradi-
tional, familiar world abandoned by the young man, as evidenced by the closed
window. While looking in through the window, the man becomes a passive ob-
server of his own culture in which he grew up and to which he returns with senti-
ment. The artist himself can be found in this figurę. His biography, as described
earlier, indicates that he had abandoned his own tradition, which he viewed with
sentiment and “settled accounts” with it - among other things, through the series
of lithographs here discussed.
Shabbat candles98
The next image (see: Fig. 6) corresponds thematically with the previous illustra-
tion, bringing the viewer closer to the scene visible in the window featured therein.
It shows a Jewish woman standing in a dark room, in front of a round table cov-
ered with a cloth. On the table, there are two candlesticks with lit candles, a smali
book - clearly a prayer book - and two challahs covered with a shawl. There is
a chair next to the table, and an open shutter on the right completes the scene.
The woman gently bends down towards the flame, with her hands raised in
a gesture of blessing." She is wearing a long, oversized dress covering the whole
body, with decorative embroidery on the ends of the sleeves and the neckline.
On her head she is wearing a scarf decorated with a trim at the linę of her hair.
The womans face is calm, with eyes closed, and a gentle smile.
The artist again tried to reproduce the play of chiaroscuro, marking a shadow
on part of the womans clothes and on the tablecloth. He brought out the scene
of blessing from the darkness, clearly appreciating this weekly ritual, which is an
important part of the celebration of the holiday, symbolizing divine enlighten-
ment and the path towards it. The ritual traditionally takes place 20 minutes
before twilight on Friday and so begins the Shabbat - the most important holiday
in the Jewish religion, celebrated in honour of God and His Covenant.100 The
artist showed traditional elements related to the holiday, while focusing also on
the womans dress, which - being too large - meets the rules of modesty regard-
ing the prohibition from showing the outline of the figurę and hair. Two candles
placed on the table symbolize the remembrance, and the observance of the Shabbat,
as well as the sacred and profane spheres, while the two covered challahs are an
allegory of the double portion of manna that the Jews received while wandering
through the desert, and the scarf an allegory of the dew that covered them. The
window, left ajar, can be understood as a channel for prayer and getting closer to
God. Due to the fact that this illustration is a close-up of a fragment of the scene
depicted in the previous piąte, it can also be interpreted as the abandoned com-
munity offering an opening, and allowing the young man to return to its circle.

98 W. Wachtel, Shabbat candles, ca. i935,lithograph, 59.5 x 43.5 cm, mkl, inventory no. ML/1061A/4,
<http://judaika.polin.pl/dmuseion/docmetadata?id=6564&show_nav=true> (accessed on
25.04.2020).

99 See: footnote 101.

100 The celebration of the Shabbat follows from the fourth of the Ten Commandments: “Remember
the Shabbat day, to keep it holy Six days you shall labour, and do all your work, but the seventh
day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or
your daughter, your małe servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner
who is within your gates”, Exodus 20,8-10. Tora. Pięcioksiąg Mojżesza, translated by I. Cylkow,
Kraków 2010.

280

ARTICLES

Maksymilian Puzio